The only right, which any individual is supposed to retain, or possess, under the government, _is a purely fictitious one,--one that nature never gave him,_--to wit, his right (so-called), as one of some ten millions of male adults, to give away, by his vote, not only all his own natural, inherent, inalienable, human rights, but also all the natural, inherent, inalienable, human rights of forty millions of other human beings--that is, women and children. To suppose that any one of all these ten millions of male adults would voluntarily surrender a single one of all his natural, inherent, inalienable, human rights into the hands of irresponsible men, is an absurdity; because, first, he has no power to do so, any contract he may make for that purpose being absurd, and necessarily void; and, secondly, because he can have no rational motive for doing so. To suppose him to do so, is to suppose him to be an idiot, incapable of making any rational and obligatory contract. It is to suppose he would voluntarily give away everything in life that was of value to himself, and get nothing in return. To suppose that he would attempt to give away all the natural rights _of other persons_--that is, the women and children--as well as his own, is to suppose him to attempt to do something that he has no right, or power, to do. It is to suppose him to be both a villain and a fool. And yet this government now rests wholly upon the assumption that some ten millions of male adults--men supposed to be _compos mentis_--have not only attempted to do, but have actually succeeded in doing, these absurd and impossible things. It cannot be said that men put all their rights into the hands of the government, in order to have them protected; because there can be no such thing as a man's being protected in his rights, _any longer than he is allowed to retain them in his own possession_. The only possible way, in which any man can be protected in his rights, _is to protect him in his own actual possession and exercise of them_. And yet our government is absurd enough to assume that a man can be protected in his rights, after he has surrendered them altogether into other hands than his own. This is just as absurd as it would be to assume that a man had given himself away as a slave, in order to be protected in the enjoyment of his liberty. A man wants his rights protected, solely that he himself may possess and use them, and have the full benefit of them. But if he is compelled to give them up to somebody else,--to a government, so-called, or to any body else,--he ceases to have any rights of his own to be protected.