Lysander Spooner

1808–1887

Nationality: American

Historical Period: The 19th Century

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:

• Author: Address of the Free Constitutionalists to the People of the United States (1860)
• Author: BOLL 24: Spooner, “Vices are Not Crimes”
• Author: BOLL 71: Lysander Spooner, “Natural Law; or the Science of Justice” (1882)
• Author: A Defence for Fugitive Slaves (1850)
• Author: An Essay on the Trial by Jury (1852)
• Author: The Law of Intellectual Property (1855)
• Author: Letter to Charles Sumner (1864)
• Author: A Letter to Grover Cleveland (1886)
• Author: A Letter to Thomas Bayard (1882)
• Author: Natural Law; or the Science of Justice (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)
• 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)
• Author: The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner (1834-1886), in 5 vols.