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Lysander Spooner

1808–1887

Nationality: American

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 Liberty Matters online discussion on The Significance of Lysander Spooner

Spooner featured as the January 2021 OLL Birthday. Read it here

For additional information about Lysander Spooner see the following:

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

Quotes from Lysander Spooner:

Lysander Spooner on why government monopolies are inherently inefficient
Lysander Spooner on natural right to labor
Lysander Spooner on the “knaves,” the “dupes,” and “do-nothings”
Lysander Spooner on the difference between a government and a highwayman
Lysander Spooner states the importance of the 9th Amendment to the American Constitution
Lysander Spooner on the idea that laws against “vice” (victimless crimes) are unjust
Lysander Spooner on Jury Nullification as the “palladium of liberty” against the tyranny of government
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

Titles from Lysander Spooner:

Associated with:

In The Reading Room:

The Best of the OLL No. 71: Lysander Spooner, "Natural Law; or the Science of Justice" (1882) (Jan 15, 2016)
The Best of the OLL No. 24: Lysander Spooner, “Vices are Not Crimes” (1875) (Mar 27, 2013)