NATURAL LAW CONTRASTED WITH LEGISLATION

An excerpt from Natural Law, or the Science of Justice

I.

Natural law, natural justice, being a principle that is naturally applicable and adequate to the rightful settlement of every possible controversy that can arise among men; being, too, the only standard by which any controversy whatever, between man and man, can be rightfully settled; being a principle whose protection every man demands for himself, whether he is willing to accord it to others, or not; being also an immutable principle, one that is always self-evidently necessary in all times and places; being so entirely impartial and equitable towards all; so indispensable to the peace of every human being; being, too, so easily learned, so generally known, and so easily maintained by such voluntary associations as all men can readily and rightfully form for that purpose—being such a principle as this, these questions arise, viz.: Why is it that it does not universally, or well nigh universally, prevail? Why is it that it has not, ages ago, been established throughout the world as the one only law that any man, or all men, could rightfully be compelled to obey? Why is it that any human being ever conceived that anything so self-evidently superfluous, false, absurd, and atrocious as all legislation necessarily must be, could be of any use to mankind, or have any place in human affairs?

П

The answer is, that through all historic times, wherever any people have advanced beyond the savage state, and have learned to increase their means of subsistence by the cultivation of the soil, a greater or less number of them have associated and organized themselves as robbers, to plunder and enslave all others, who had either accumulated any property that could be seized, or had shown, by their labor, that they could be made to contribute to the support or pleasure of those who should enslave them.

These bands of robbers, small in number at first, have increased their power by uniting with each other, inventing warlike weapons, disciplining themselves, and perfecting their organizations as military forces, and dividing their plunder (including their captives) among themselves, either in such proportions as have been previously agreed on, or in such as their leaders (always desirous to increase the number of their followers) should prescribe.

The success of these bands of robbers was an easy thing, for the reason that those whom they plundered and enslaved were comparatively defenseless, being scattered thinly over the country; engaged wholly in trying by rude implements and heavy labor, to extort a subsistence from the soil; having no weapons of war, other than sticks and stones; having no military discipline or organization, and no means of concentrating their forces or acting in concert, when suddenly attacked. Under these circumstances, the only alternative left them for saving even their lives, or the lives of their families, was to yield up not only the crops they had gathered, and the lands they had cultivated, but themselves and their families also as slaves.

Thenceforth their fate was, as slaves, to cultivate for others the

lands they had before cultivated for themselves. Being driven constantly to their labor, wealth slowly increased; but all went into the hands of their tyrants.

These tyrants, living solely on plunder, and on the labor of thei slaves, and applying all their energies to the seizure of still mor plunder, and the enslavement of still other defenseless persons increasing, too, their numbers, perfecting their organizations, and multiplying their weapons of war, they extend their conquest until, in order to hold what they have already got, it become necessary for them to act systematically, and cooperate with each other in holding their slaves in subjection.

But all this they can do only by establishing what they call government, and making what they call laws.

All the great governments of the world—those now existing, a well as those that have passed away—have been of this character. They have been mere bands of robbers, who have associated fo purposes of plunder, conquest, and the enslavement of their fellow men. And their laws, as they have called them, have been onl such agreements as they have found it necessary to enter into, in order, to maintain their organizations, and act together in plundering and enslaving others, and in securing to each his agreed share of the spoils.

All these laws have had no more real obligation than have the agreements which brigands, bandits, and pirates find it necessary to enter into with each other, for the more successful accomplishment of their crimes, and the more peaceable division of their spoils.

Thus substantially all the legislation of the world has had its origin in the desires of one class of persons to plunder and enslave others, and hold them as property.

Ш.

In process of time, the robber, or slave-holding class—who had seized all the lands, and held all the means of creating wealth—began to discover that the easiest mode of managing their slaves, and making them profitable, was not for each slaveholder to hold his specified number of slaves, as he had done before, and as he would hold so many cattle, but to give them so much liberty as would throw upon themselves (the slaves) the responsibility of their own subsistence, and yet compel them to sel their labor to the land-holding class—their former owners—fo just what the latter might choose to give them.

Of course, these liberated slaves, as some have erroneously called them, having no lands, or other property, and no means o obtaining an independent subsistence, had no alternative—to save themselves from starvation—but to sell their labor to the landholders, in exchange only for the coarsest necessaries of life not always for so much even as that.

These liberated slaves, as they were called, were now scarcely less slaves than they were before. Their means of subsistence were perhaps even more precarious than when each had his own owner, who had an interest to preserve his life. They were liable, at the caprice or interest of the land-holders, to be thrown out of home, employment, and the opportunity of even earning a subsistence by their labor. They were therefore, in large numbers, driven to the

"No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session."

-Quoted by Judge Gideon J. Tucker, c. 186

necessity of begging, stealing, or starving; and became, of course, dangerous to the property and quiet of their late masters.

The consequence was, that these late owners found it necessary, for their own safety and the safety of their property, to organize themselves more perfectly as a government, and make laws for exceping these dangerous people in subjection; that is, laws fixing the prices at which they should be compelled to labor, and also prescribing fearful punishments, even death itself, for such thefts and trespasses as they were driven to commit, as their only means of saving themselves from starvation.

These laws have continued in force for hundreds, and in som countries, for thousands of years; and are in force today, is greater or less severity, in nearly all the countries on the globe.

The purpose and effect of these laws have been to maintain, in the hands of the robber, or slave-holding class, a monopoly of all lands, and, as far as possible, of all other means of creating wealth; and thus to keep the great body of laborers in such a state of poverty and dependence, as would compel them to sell their labor to their tyrants for the lowest prices at which life could be sustained.

The result of all this is, that the little wealth there is in the world is all in the hands of a few—that is, in the hands of the law-making, slave-holding class; who are now as mucl slave-holders in spirit as they ever were, but who accomplish thei purposes by means of the laws they make for keeping the laborer in subjection and dependence, instead of each one's owning hi individual slaves as so many chattels.

Thus the whole business of legislation, which has now grown to such gigantic proportions, had its origin in the conspiracies, which have always existed among the few, for the purpose of holding the many in subjection, and extorting from them their labor, and all the profits of their labor.

And the real motives and spirit which lie at the foundation of al legislation—notwithstanding all the pretenses and disguises by which they attempt to hide themselves—are the same today at they always have been. The whole purpose of this legislation is simply to keep one class of men in subordination and servitude to another.

IV.

What, then, is legislation? It is an assumption by one man, or body of men, of absolute, irresponsible dominion over all other men whom they can subject to their power. It is the assumption by one man, or body of men, of a right to subject all other men to heir will and their service. It is the assumption by one man, or body of men, of a right to abolish outright all the natural rights, all the natural liberty of all other men; to make all other men their dlaves; to arbitrarily dictate to all other men what they may, and may not, do; what they may, and may not, have; what they may, and may not, be. It is, in short, the assumption of a right to banish he principle of human rights, the principle of justice itself, from off the earth, and set up their own personal will, pleasure, and neterest in its place. All this, and nothing less, is involved in the tery idea that there can be any such thing as human legislation hat is obligatory upon those upon whom it is imposed.

Works Of Lysander Spooner

NO TREASON: The Constitution of No Authority (#6)

Spooner's influential classic. Carefully reasoned legalistic argument against the validity of the Constitution as a legitimate contract on the grounds that those who are forced to abide by it have not agreed to it since they have not signed it. Argues, therefore, that the U.S. Government does not rest on the consent of the governed. (pb., 72p.)

THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE LAWS OF CONGRESS PROHIBITING PRIVATE MAILS

Scathing but carefully reasoned logical attack on the law which made private first class postal services (including Spooner's) illegal. (booklet, 19. p.)

NATURAL LAW or The Science of Justice .10
Analysis of the natural law of liberty arguing that "all legis-

ESSAY ON THE TRIAL BY JURY (temporarily unavailable Heavily documented study of this institution. The mai thesis is that any legislation either in England or the U.S which conflicts with the common law is invalid. (hd. 224 pp.)

POVERTY: ITS ILLEGAL CAUSES AND LEGAL CURES 8.9
Sets forth his beliefs about the relation between individual and the production of wealth. Sees the lack of harmony i these relations as stemming from political interference wit free processes and judiclary derelicition of duty for not er forcing the laws of contract and the natural law. (1846 (hd. 108 pp.)

THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF SLAVERY 14

Early book giving interpretations of law, justice and government which became the basis for his attack on the nature and function of the institution of majority rule, (hd. 289 pp.)

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Lysander Spooner

Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) was a constitutional lawye and an influential individualist anarchist who published many contributions to legal, economic and political theory. His uncompromising stand on individual rights is vividly demon strated in his popular classic, "No Treason, #6" (see below). He also operated a private postal service, the American Letter Mai Company, which was one of many such enterprises tha successfully competed with the federal government's pos office until they were made illegal by an act of Congress in 1845. Spooner has been repeatedly described as "the father o cheap postage in America."

INDIVIDUALIST ANARCHIST PAMPHLETS

7.00

A compilation which includes "No Treason #1 & #2" b Spooner. "Henry Bool's Apology for His Jeffersonial Anarchism" by Bool, and "Communism and Conscience" b Edwin Walker (hd. 77 pp.)

LET'S ABOLISH GOVERNMENT

18.00

A compilation of "Essay On the Trial By Jury," "No Treason #6," "Letter to Thomas Bayard," "Letter to Grover Cleveland." (hd. 418 pp.)

COLLECTED WORKS OF LYSANDER SPOONER
(hd 6 Vol. set)

140.00

This pamphlet is available from Laissez Faire Books as is in any quantity for 1€ each. It is also available with your copy printed

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NATURAL LAW CONTRASTED WITH LEGISLATION

by Lysander Spooner

Lysander Spooner

lan 19 1808-May 14 1887