The Wisdom of Lysander Spooner
A collection of excerpts from various works of the great man.
No Treason - The Constitution of No Authority (1870)
- No Treason I - Audiobook: /media/no-treason-no-1-1870
- No Treason I - Book: /books/no-treason-no-1-1867
- No Treason VI/books/no-treason-vi-the-constitution-of-no-authority-1870
An Essay on Trial by Jury (1853)
Vices are not Crimes (1875)
A Letter to Thomas F Bayard (1882)
A Letter To Grover Cleveland (1886)
Vices are not Crimes (1875)
Natural Law Contrasted With Legislation (2018) by Lysander Spooner
"As long as mankind continue to pay "national debts," so-called—that is, so long as they are such dupes and cowards as to pay for being cheated, plundered, enslaved, and murdered—so long there will be enough to lend the money for those purpose..."
"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain—that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."
-- Lysander Spooner, No Treason VI
"Let me then remind you that justice is an immutable, natural principle; and not
anything that can be made, unmade, or altered by any human power. It is also a subject of science, and is to be learned, like mathematics, or any other science."
"The science of justice is as open to be learned by all other men, as by themselves; and it is, in general, so simple and easy to be learned, that there is no need of, and no place for, any man, or body of men, to teach it, declare it, or command it, on their own authority."
'I can assure you, sir, that a very large portion of the people of this country do
not believe that the government is doing "equal and exact justice to all men." that, on the contrary, it is knowingly, deliberately, and wilfully doing an incalculable amount of injustice...'
"[Government] is a mere tool in the hands of a few ambitious, rapacious, and unprincipled men; that its purpose, in doing all this injustice, is to keep—so far as they can without driving the people to rebellion — all wealth, and all political power, in as few hands as possible;"
"these natural, inherent, inalienable, individual rights are sacred things. They are the only human rights. They are the only rights by which any man can protect his own property, liberty, or life against any one who may be disposed to take it away."
"Therefore all pretences of so-called lawmakers, that they are protecting "public rights," by violating private rights, are sheer and utter contradictions and frauds. They are just as false \& absurd as it would be to say that they are protecting the public healthy by arbitrarily_
poisoning \& destroying health of single individuals. The pretence of the lawmakers, that they are promoting the "public good," by violating individual "rights" is just as false \& absurd as is the pretence that they are protecting "public rights" by violating "private rights."
"If taxation without consent is robbery, the United States government has never had, has not now, and is never likely to have, a single honest dollar in its treasury."
"If taxation without consent is not robbery, then any band of robbers have only
to declare themselves a government, and all their robberies are legalized."
'It is a natural impossibility for any man to make a binding contract, by which
he shall surrender to others a single one of what are commonly called his "natural, inherent, inalienable rights."'
"It is a natural impossibility for any man to make a binding contract, that shall
invest others with any right whatever of arbitrary, irresponsible dominion over him.""It all rests upon the false, ridiculous, and utterly groundless assumption, that
millions of people not only could voluntarily surrender, but actually have
voluntarily surrendered, all their natural rights, as human beings, into the custody of men, called lawmakers, judges, etc"
"...because there can be no such thing as a man's being protected in his rights, any longer than he is allowed to retain them in his own possession. The only possible way any man can be protected in his rights, is to protect him in his own actual possession and exercise of them."
'If by putting a bayonet to a man's breast, and giving him his choice, to die, or
be "protected in his rights," it secures his consent to the latter alternative, it then proclaims itself a free government, — a government resting on consent!'
"The best that it can do for all, and the only honest thing it can do for any, is simply to secure to each and every one his own rights,—the rights that nature gave him,—his rights of person, and his rights of property; leaving him, then, to pursue his own interests...
...and secure his own welfare, by the free and full exercise of his own powers of body and mind; so long as he trespasses upon the equal rights of no other person."
"Substantially all their lawmaking proceeds upon this theory; for there is no
other theory, on which they can find any justification whatever for any lawmaking at all."
'"the halls of national legislation" are to be mere arenas, into which the government actually invites the advocates and representatives of all the selfish schemes of avarice and ambition that unprincipled men can devise;'
"You cannot claim to be ignorant of what crimes such a gov will commit. You have had abundant opportunity to know-and if you have kept your eyes open, you do know-what these schemes of robbery have been in the past; \& from these you can judge what they will be in the future."
"This monopoly of money has also given, to the holders of it, a control, so nearly absolute, of all industry-agricultural as well as mechanical-and all traffic, as has enabled them to plunder all the producing classes in the prices of their labor, or the products of their labor."
men's "rights" are always harmonious. That is to say, each man's "rights" are always consistent and harmonious with each and every other man's "rights."
But their "interests," as you estimate them, constantly clash;
What are "political parties" but standing armies of robbers, each trying to rob the other, prevent being itself robbed by the other? Gov has no cause \& no occasion to enlist all fighting men in two hostile ranks; keep them always in battle, burning with hatred towards each other.
'what is the use of such a deluge of unmeaning words, unless it be to gloss over, and, if possible, hide, the true character of the acts of the government?
Such 'generalities" as these do not even "glitter."'
"You thus assume that these fifty millions of people are so debased, mentally and morally, that they look upon you and your associate lawmakers as their earthly gods, holding their destinies in your hands..."
"Do they not know how to grow their own food, make their own clothing, build their own houses, print their own books, acquire all the knowledge, and create all the wealth, they desire, without being domineered over, and thwarted in all their efforts, by ... lawmakers?"
'And why are the lawmakers dangerous to "our liberty"? Because it is a natural impossibility that they can make any law-that is, any law of their own invention-that does not violate "our liberty."'
'In fact, the whole, sole, and only real purpose of any lawmaking government whatever is to take from some one or more persons their "liberty." Consequently the only way in which all men can preserve their " liberty," is not to have any lawmaking government at all.'
"...these lawmakers, being a very superior race of beings -wise beyond the rest of their species-\& entirely free from all those selfish passions which tempt common mortals to do wrong-must be intrusted with absolute \& irresponsible dominion over the less favored of their kind..."
"...every lawmaking government will, in practice, take from every man all his natural rights. It will do as it pleases about it. It will take some, leaving him to enjoy others, just as its own pleasure or discretion shall dictate at the time."
gov is not one voluntarily established \& sustained by the people, for protection of natural, inherent, individual rights; it is a gov of usurpers, robbers, \& tyrants, who claim people as slaves, the right to dispose of them \& their property, at their (the usurpers') pleasure...
Gov not only denies man's right, as a moral being, to have will, judgment, or conscience, as to if he will be killed in battle; it equally denies his right to any will, judgment, or conscience, as a moral being, as to whether he shall be used as a weapon for killing other men.
"The government denies the natural right of human beings to live on this
planet. This it does by denying their natural right to those things that are indispensable to the maintenance of life. It says that, for every thing necessary to the maintenance of life..."
... they must have a special permit from the government; and that the government cannot be required to grant them any other means of living than it chooses to grant them."
"...the government plainly denies the natural right of men to live on this planet, by denying their natural right to the means that are indispensable to their procuring the food that is necessary for supporting life."
"In asserting its right of arbitrary dominion over that natural wealth that is in-
dispensable to the support of human life, it asserts its right to withhold that wealth from those whose lives are dependent upon it.""In this way it denies the natural right of human beings to live on the planet. It asserts that government owns the planet, and that men have no right to live on it, except by first getting a permit from the government."
In fact, bandits and pirates are highly respectable and honorable villains, compared with the judges of these courts of injustice. Bandits and pirates do not-like these judges-attempt to cheat us out of our common sense, in order to cheat us out of our property, liberty, or life.
An excerpt from Natural Law, or the Science of Justice
📙⚖️NATURAL LAW OR THE SCIENCE OF JUSTICE (1882) by Lysander Spooner
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.
The ancient maxim makes the sum of a man's legal duty to his fellow men to be simply this: "To live honestly, to hurt no-one, to give to every one his due."
"Children learn the fundamental principles of natural law at a very early age... in most cases, if not in all, mankind at large, young and old, learn this natural law long before they have learned the meanings of the words by which we describe it."
"If there be any such principle as justice, it is, of necessity, a natural principle; and, as such, it is a matter of science, to be learned and applied like any other science. And to talk of either adding to, or taking from, it, by legislation, is just as false, absurd..."
"On the other hand, if there be no such natural principle as justice, there can be no such thing as injustice."
"...this law is the paramount law, and the same law, over all the world, at all times, and for all peoples; and will be the same paramount and only law, at all times, and for all peoples, so long as man shall live upon the earth."
"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."
"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 much slave-holders in spirit as they ever were..."
📢🇺🇸 An Essay on Trial by Jury (1853)
"This volume, it is presumed by the author, gives what will generally be
considered satisfactory evidence,-- though not all the evidence,- of what the
Common Law trial by jury really is."
Contents
"since Magna Carta, 1215 - there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused;"
"The government can enforce none of its laws, (by punishing offenders, through the verdicts of juries,) except such as sub-stantially the whole people wish to have enforced."
"And the standard, this dictated by the government, becomes the measure of the people's liberties. If the government dictate the standard of trial, it of course dictates the results of the trial."
"The question, then, between trial by jury, as thus described, and trial by the government, is simply a question between liberty and despotism."
"And it is of no consequence to inquire how a government came by this power to punish, whether by prescription, by inheritance, by usurpation, or by delegation from the people? If it have now but got it, the government is absolute."
"The right of suffrage, and even a change of legislators, guarantees no change of legislation-certainly no change for the better. Even if a change for the better actually comes, it comes too late, because it comes only after more or less injustice has been irreparably done."
"...everything a government pleases to do will, of course, be determined to be constitutional, if the government itself be permitted to determine the question of the constitutionality of its own acts."
"The conclusion, therefore, is, that any government, that can, for a day, enforce its own laws, without appealing to the people, ... for their consent, is, in theory, an absolute government, irresponsible to the people, and can perpetuate its power at pleasure."
"It is manifest that the only security against the tyranny of the government lies in forcible resistance to the execution of the injustice; because the injustice will certainly be executed, unless in be forcibly resisted."
"The only tribunal known to our laws, for this purpose, is a jury. If a jury have not the right to judge between the government and those who disobey its laws, and resist its oppressions, the government is absolute, and the people, legally speaking, are slaves."
"And it is a sufficient and legal defence for a person accused of using arms against the government, if he can show, to the satisfaction of a jury, or even any one of a jury, that the law he resisted was an unjust one."
"Constitutions are utterly worthless to restrain the tyranny of governments, unless it he understood that the people will, by force, compel the government to keep within the constitutional limits."
"...the king was, constitutionally, the entire government; the sole legislative, judicial, and executive power of the nation. The executive and judicial officers were merely his servants, appointed by him, and removable at his pleasure."
'The king was, therefore, constitutionally the government; and the only legal limitation upon his power seems to have been simply the Common Law, usually called "the law of the land," which he was bound by oath to maintain.'
"Was it to obtain such a charter as that, that the whole nation had united, as it were, like one man, against their king? Was it on such a charter that they intended to rely, for all future time, for the security of their liberties? No."
"the people of England have always had a traditionary idea that it was of some value as a guaranty against oppression. Yet that idea has been an entire delusion, unless the jury have had the right to judge of the justice of the laws they were called on to enforce."
