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Lysander Spooner (January 19, 1808 – May 14, 1887) was an American individualist anarchist political philosopher, abolitionist, and legal theorist of the 19th century. He is best known for his role in the abolitionist movement, competing with the U.S. Post Office, and for his contributions to American individualist anarchism. January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1808 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
May 14 is the 134th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (135th in leap years). ...
1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ...
This article is about the abolition of slavery. ...
Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Josiah Warren is the first American anarchist Individualist anarchism, while being advocated among some European philosophers in various forms, has a distinctive flavor in The United States of America. ...
Lysander Spooner File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Lysander Spooner File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Life Overview
Spooner was born on a farm in Athol, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1808, and died "at one o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday, May 14, 1887 in his little room at 109 Myrtle Street, surrounded by trunks and chests bursting with the books, manuscripts, and pamphlets which he had gathered about him in his active pamphleteer's warfare over half a century long." — from Our Nestor Taken From Us, by Benjamin Tucker. Athol is a town located in Worcester County, Massachusetts. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Boston Largest city Boston Area Ranked 44th - Total 10,555 sq. ...
1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ...
Benjamin Tucker (April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was the leading proponent of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century. ...
Later known as an early individualist anarchist, Spooner advocated what he called Natural Law — or the Science of Justice — wherein acts of actual coercion against individuals and their property were considered "illegal" but the so-called criminal acts that violated only man-made legislation were not. Spooner was a lifelong deist. Individualist anarchism is a philosophical tradition that opposes collectivism and has a particularly strong emphasis on the supremacy and autonomy of the individual. ...
It has been suggested that Anarchist law be merged into this article or section. ...
Coercion is the practice of compelling a person to act by employing threat of harm (usually physical force, sometimes other forms of harm). ...
Deism is belief in a God or first cause based on reason, rather than on faith or revelation, and thus a form of theism in opposition to fideism. ...
Early Years & the Postal Monopoly His activism began with his career as a lawyer, which itself violated local Massachusetts law. Spooner had studied law under the prominent lawyers and politicians, John Davis and Charles Allen, but he had never attended college. According to the laws of the state, college graduates were required to study with an attorney for three years, while non-graduates were required to do so for five years.
With the encouragement of his legal mentors, Spooner set up his practice in Worcester after only three years, openly defying the courts. He saw the two-year privilege for college graduates as a state-sponsored discrimination against the poor. He argued that such discrimination was "so monstrous a principle as that the rich ought to be protected by law from the competition of the poor." In 1836, the legislature abolished the restriction. Charles Darwin 1836 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
After a disappointing legal career — for which his radical writing seemed to have kept away potential clients — and a failed career in real estate speculation in Ohio, Spooner returned to his father's farm in 1840. 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Postal rates were notoriously high in the 1840s, and in 1844, Spooner founded the American Letter Mail Company to contest the United States Postal Service's monopoly. As he had done when challenging the rules of the Massachusetts bar, he published a pamphlet entitled, "The Unconstitutionality of the Laws of Congress Prohibiting Private Mails". Although Spooner had finally found commercial success with his mail company, legal challenges by the government eventually exhausted his financial resources. He closed up shop without ever having had the opportunity to fully litigate his constitutional claims. The lasting legacy of Spooner's challenge to the postal service was the 3 cent stamp, adopted in response to the competition his company provided.[1] The action earned him his nickname of the "Father of Affordable Postage."[citation needed] 1844 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
American Letter Mail Company stamps The American Letter Mail Company was started by Lysander Spooner in 1844 order to compete with the United States Postal Service monopoly. ...
A previous USPS logo The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent establishment of the executive branch of the United States government (see ) responsible for providing postal service in the United States; it is generally referred to within the United States as the post office. ...
Abolitionism Spooner attained his greatest fame as a figure in the Abolitionist movement to abolish slavery. His most famous work, a book entitled The Unconstitutionality of Slavery, used a complex system of legal and natural law arguments to challenge the institution of slavery in the United States. The book was published in 1846 to great acclaim among many abolitionists but criticism from others. It helped to precipitate a split in the abolitionist movement over the issue of the Constitution surrounding whether the document was pro-freedom or pro-slavery. Spooner's pro-freedom argument was embraced by Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass, and the Liberty Party, which adopted it as an official text in its 1848 platform. Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison took the opposing view, which held that the Constitution was an immoral pact with slavery. It has been suggested that Chattel slavery be merged into this article or section. ...
Gerrit Smith (March 6, 1797 – December 28, 1874), was a United States reformer, abolitionist, politician, and philanthropist. ...
Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. ...
Liberty Party was a political party in the United States during the mid-19th century. ...
Wendell Phillips Wendell Phillips (29 November 1811 - 2 February 1884), born in Boston, Massachusetts, was an American abolitionist, Native American advocate and orator. ...
William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December 12, 1805, – May 24, 1879) was a prominent United States abolitionist, journalist and social reformer. ...
From the publication of this book until 1861 Spooner actively campaigned against slavery. He published subsequent pamphlets on Jury Nullification and other legal defenses for escaped slaves and offered his legal services, often free of charge, to fugitives. In the late 1850's copies of his book were distributed to members of Congress sparking some debate over their contents. Even Senator Albert Gallatin Brown of Mississippi, a slavery proponent, praised the argument's intellectual rigor and conceded it was the most formidable legal challenge he had seen from the abolitionists to date. In 1858, Spooner circulated a "Plan for the Abolition of Slavery", calling for the use of guerrilla warfare against slaveholders by black slaves and non-slaveholding free Southerners, with aid from Northern abolitionists. Spooner also participated in an aborted plot to free John Brown after his capture after the failed raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Jury nullification is a jurys refusal to render a verdict according to the law, as instructed by the court, regardless of the weight of evidence presented. ...
Albert Gallatin Brown (May 31, 1813–June 12, 1880) was Governor of Mississippi from 1844 to 1848 and a United States Senator from Mississippi from 1854 through 1861. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Jackson Largest city Jackson Area Ranked 32nd - Total 48,434 sq. ...
1858 (MDCCCLVIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...
Guerrilla War redirects here. ...
John Browns Oath Engraving from daguerreotype by Augustus Washington, ca. ...
Harpers Ferry is the name of several places in the United States of America: Harpers Ferry, Iowa Harpers Ferry, West Virginia There was also John Browns raid on the armory at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia as well as a Battle of Harpers Ferry in the American Civil War. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Area Ranked 35th - Total 42,793 sq. ...
In 1860 Spooner was actively courted by William Seward to support the fledgling Republican Party. An admitted sympathizer with the Jeffersonian political philosophy, Spooner adamantly refused the request and soon became an outspoken abolitionist critic of the party. To Spooner, the Republicans were hypocrites for purporting to oppose slavery's expansion but refusing to take a strong, consistent moral stance against slavery itself. Although Spooner had advocated the use of violence to abolish slavery, he denounced the Republicans' use of violence to prevent the southern states from seceding during the American Civil War. He published several letters and pamphlets about the war, arguing that the Republican war aim was not the overthrow of slavery, but rather to maintain the Union by force. He blamed the bloodshed on the Republican political leaders such as Secretary of State William Seward and Senator Charles Sumner, who often spoke out against slavery but would not attack it on a constitutional basis, and who pursued military policies seen as vengeful and abusive.[2] Willam H. Seward William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801–October 10, 1872) was United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. ...
This article is about the modern United States Republican Party. ...
Jeffersonians, so named after Thomas Jefferson, support a federal government with greatly constrained powers, as would follow the strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution that Jefferson followed. ...
Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederate) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties Killed in action: 110,000 Total dead: 360,000 Wounded: 275,200 Killed in action: 93,000 Total dead: 258...
Willam H. Seward William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801–October 10, 1872) was United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. ...
Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811–March 11, 1874) was an American politician and statesman from the U.S. state of Massachusetts. ...
Though denouncing its embrace of slavery, Spooner sided with the Confederate States of America's right to secede on the basis that they were choosing to exercise government by consent - a fundamental constitutional and legal principle to Spooner's philosophy. The north, by contrast, was trying to deny the southerners their inherent right to be governed by their consent. He believed they were attempting to coerce the obedience of the southern states to a union that they did not wish to enter. Motto: Deo Vindice (Latin: With God As Our Vindicator) Anthem: God Save the South (unofficial) Dixie (popular) The Bonnie Blue Flag (popular) Capital Montgomery, Alabama February 4, 1861–May 29, 1861 Richmond, Virginia May 29, 1861–April 9, 1865 Danville, Virginia April 3–April 10, 1865 Largest city New Orleans...
Reconstruction Spooner harshly condemned the Civil War and the Reconstruction period that followed. Though he approved of the fact that Black slavery was abolished, he criticized the North for failing to make this the purpose of their cause. Instead of fighting to abolish slavery, they fought to "preserve the union" and, according to Spooner, to bolster business interests behind that union. Spooner believed a war of this type was hypocritical and dishonest, especially on the part of Radical Republicans like Sumner who were by then claiming to be abolitionist heroes for ending slavery. Spooner also argued that the war came at a great cost to liberty and proved that the rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence no longer held true - the people could not "dissolve the political bands" that tie them to a government that "becomes destructive" of the consent of the governed because if they did so, as Spooner believed the south had attempted to do, they would be met by the bayonet to enforce their obedience to the former government. Reconstruction-era military districts in the South For other uses, see Reconstruction (disambiguation). ...
U.S. Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence is the document in which the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so. ...
Reacting to the war, Spooner published one of his most famous political tracts, No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority. In this lengthy essay, Spooner argued that the Constitution was a contract of government (see social contract theory) which had been irreparably violated during the war and was thus void. Furthermore, since the government now existing under the Constitution pursued coercive policies that were contrary to the Natural Law and to the consent of the governed, it had been demonstrated that document was unable to adequately stop many abuses against liberty or to prevent tyranny from taking hold. Spooner bolstered his argument by noting that the Federal government, as established by a legal contract, could not legally bind all persons living in the nation since none had ever signed their names or given their consent to it - that consent had always been assumed, which fails the most basic burdens of proof for a valid contract in the courtroom. Social contract theory (or contractarianism) is a concept used in philosophy, political science and sociology to denote an implicit agreement within a state regarding the rights and responsibilities of the state and its citizens, or more generally a similar concord between a group and its members, or between individuals. ...
Spooner widely circulated the No Treason pamphlets, which also contained a legal defense against the crime of treason itself intended for former Confederate soldiers (hence the name of the pamphlet, arguing that "no treason" had been committed in the war by the south). These excerpts were published in DeBow's Review and some other well known southern periodicals of the time. In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation or state. ...
DeBows Review was a highly influential and widely circulated magazine of agricultural, commercial, and industrial progress and resource in the American South during the middle of the 19th century. ...
Later life Spooner continued to write and publish extensively in the decades following Reconstruction, producing works such as "Natural Law or The Science of Justice" and "Trial By Jury." In "Trial By Jury" he defended the doctrine of "Jury Nullification," which holds that in a free society a trial jury not only has the authority to rule on the facts of the case, but also on the legitimacy of the law under which the case is tried, and which would allow juries to refuse to convict if they regard the law they are asked to convict under as illegitimate. He became closely associated with Benjamin Tucker's anarchist journal Liberty, which published all of his later works in serial format, and for which he wrote several editorial columns on current events [3]. Jury nullification is a jurys refusal to render a verdict according to the law, as instructed by the court, regardless of the weight of evidence presented. ...
Benjamin Tucker (April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was the leading proponent of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century. ...
This article is becoming very long. ...
Liberty was a 19th century peroidical published in the United States by American individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker. ...
Spooner died on May 14, 1887, at the age of 79. Benjamin Tucker arranged his funeral service and wrote an obituary, entitled "Our Nestor Taken From Us," which appeared in Liberty on May 28. Benjamin Tucker (April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was the leading proponent of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century. ...
Influence Spooner's influence extends to the wide range of topics he addressed during his lifetime. He is remembered today primarily for his abolitionist activities and for his challenge to the post office monopoly, which had a lasting influence of significantly reducing postal rates. Spooner's writings contributed to the development of libertarian political theory in the United States. His writings were also a major influence on Austrian School economist Murray Rothbard and libertarian law professor and legal theorist Randy Barnett. See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ...
The Austrian School is a school of economic thought that rejects economists overreliance on methods used in natural science for the study of human action, and instead bases its formalism on a logic of action known as praxeology. ...
Murray Newton Rothbard Murray Newton Rothbard (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist, historian and natural law theorist belonging to the Austrian School of Economics who helped define modern libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism. ...
Randy E. Barnett is a lawyer, law professor at Boston University, and legal theorist in the United States, noted for his libertarian theory of law and his work on contract theory and constitutional law and theory. ...
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