Sir, these natural, inherent, inalienable, _individual_ rights are sacred things. _They are the only human rights._ They are the only rights by which any man can protect his own property, liberty, or life against any one who may be disposed to take it away. Consequently they are not things that any set of either blockheads or villains, calling themselves a government, can rightfully take into their own hands, and dispose of at their pleasure, as they have been accustomed to do in this, and in nearly or quite all other countries. SECTION V. Sir, I repeat that individual rights are the only human rights. _Legally speaking_, there are no such things as "_public rights_," as distinguished from individual rights. _Legally speaking_, there is no such creature or thing as "_the public_." The term "the public" is an utterly vague and indefinite one, applied arbitrarily and at random to a greater or less number of individuals, each and every one of whom have their own separate, individual rights, _and none others_. And the protection of these separate, _individual_ rights is the one only legitimate purpose, for which anything in the nature of a governing, or coercive, power has a right to exist. And these separate, individual rights all rest upon, and can be ascertained only by, the one science of justice. _Legally speaking_, the term "public _rights_" is as vague and indefinite as are the terms "public _health_," "public _good_," "public _welfare_," and the like. It has no legal meaning, except when used to describe the separate, private, _individual_ rights of a greater or less number of individuals. In so far as the separate, private, natural rights of _individuals_ are secured, in just so far, and no farther, are the "public rights" secured. In so far as the separate, private, natural rights of _individuals_ are disregarded or violated, in just so far are "public rights" disregarded or violated. Therefore all the pretences of so-called lawmakers, that they are protecting "public rights," by violating private rights, are sheer and utter contradictions and frauds. They are just as false and absurd as it would be to say that they are protecting the public _health_, by arbitrarily poisoning and destroying the health of single individuals.