Lysander Spooner

1808 - 1887

About the Author

Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) was a legal theorist, abolitionist, and radical individualist who started his own mail company in order to challenge the monopoly held by the US government. He wrote on the constitutionality of slavery, natural law, trial by jury, intellectual property, paper currency, and banking.

• see the chronological and thematic listing of all 36 works by Spooner in the OLL collection. This provides access to the HTML versions of all of his works
• the entire collection has been assembled into 5 volumes of facsimile PDFs in chronological order under the title of Collected Works (see below or here)

In The Library:

• author: Address of the Free Constitutionalists to the People of the United States (1860)
• author: The Best of the OLL No. 24: Lysander Spooner, “Vices are Not Crimes” (1875) (2013)
• author: The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner (1834-1886), in 5 vols. (2010)
• author: The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner (1834-1886), vol. 1 (1834-1850) (2010)
• author: The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner (1834-1886), vol. 2 (1853-1855) (2010)
• author: The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner (1834-1886), vol. 3 (1858-1862) (2010)
• author: The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner (1834-1886), vol. 4 (1863-1873) (2010)
• author: The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner (1834-1886), vol. 5 (1875-1886) (2010)
• author: A Defence for Fugitive Slaves, against the Acts of Congress of February 12, 1793, and September 18, 1850 (1850)
• author: An Essay on the Trial by Jury (1852)
• author: The Law of Intellectual Property; or An Essay on the Right of Authors and Inventors to a Perpetual Property in their Ideas (1855)
• author: Letter to Charles Sumner (1864)
• author: A Letter to Grover Cleveland, on his false Inaugural Address, the Usurpations and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and the consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude of the People (1886)
• author: A Letter to Thomas Bayard: Challenging his right - and that of all the other so-called Senators and Representatives in Congress - to exercise any Legislative Power whatever over the People of the United States (1882)
• author: Natural Law; or the Science of Justice: A Treatise on Natural Law, Natural Justice, Natural Rights, Natural Liberty, and Natural Society; showing that all Legislation whatsoever is an Absurdity, a Usurpation, and a Crime. Part First. (1882)
• author: No Treason. No. I (1867)
• author: No Treason. No. II. The Constitution (1867)
• author: No Treason. No. VI. The Constitution of No Authority (1870)
• author: A Plan for the Abolition of Slavery, and To the Non-Slaveholders of the South (1858)
• author: The Shorter Works and Pamphlets of Lysander Spooner, 2 vols. (1834-1884) (2010)
• author: The Shorter Works and Pamphlets of Lysander Spooner, Vol. I (1834-1861) (2010)
• author: The Shorter Works and Pamphlets of Lysander Spooner, Vol. 2 (1862-1884) (2010)
• author: The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1860)
• author: The Unconstitutionality of Slavery: Part Second (1860)
• author: The Unconstitutionality of the Laws of Congress, prohibiting Private Mails (1844)

Quotations:

• Lysander Spooner spells out his theory of “mine and thine”, or the science of natural law and justice, which alone can ensure that mankind lives in peace (1882) (6 October, 2008)
• Lysander Spooner argues that according to the traditional English common law, taxation would not be upheld because no explicit consent was given by individuals to be taxed (1852) (18 August, 2009)
• Lysander Spooner on Jury Nullification as the "palladium of liberty" against the tyranny of government (1852) (31 August, 2009)
• Lysander Spooner on the idea that laws against “vice” (victimless crimes) are unjust (1875) (31 March, 2010)
• Spooner states the importance of the 9th Amendment to the American Constitution which protects the natural rights of the people not enumerated in the 1st 8 Amendments (1886) (9 May, 2010)
• Spooner on the difference between a government and a highwayman (1870) (24 January, 2011)
• Spooner on the “knaves,” the “dupes,” and “do-nothings” among government supporters (1870) (3 October, 2011)