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God and the government ordain just laws; the citizen who rules his life by them is worthy of acclaim. But he that presumes to set the law at naught is like a stateless person, outlawed, beyond the pale.
There are many pleasant fictions of the law in constant operation, but there is not one so pleasant or practically humorous as that which supposes every man to be of equal value in its impartial eye, and the benefits of all laws to be equally attainable by all men, without the smallest reference to the furniture of their pockets.
- We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
- Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
- And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
- Their perch and not their terror.
Laws aren't ghosts in this country, they walk around with the smell of earth on them.
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