Lysander Spooner
American individualist anarchist and legal theorist (1808 to 1887); author of No Treason.
Lysander Spooner did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
What they believe
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So far as the Constitution was a contract, it died with its makers and cannot bind their children
And the Constitution, so far as it was their contract, died with them. They had no natural power or right to make it obligatory upon their children.
gutenberg.orgSaid c. 1867–1870This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 16 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
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So far as the Constitution was a contract, it died with its makers and cannot bind their children
And the Constitution, so far as it was their contract, died with them. They had no natural power or right to make it obligatory upon their children.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
If later generations are bound by the Constitution, they are slaves of their dead grandfathers
If they had intended to bind their posterity to live under it, they should have said that their object was, not "to secure to them the blessings of liberty," but to make slaves of them; for if their "posterity" are bound to live under it, they are nothing less than the slaves of their foolish, tyrannical, and dead grandfathers.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
Voting does not pledge anyone to support the government
Legally speaking, therefore, the act of voting utterly fails to pledge any one to support the government. It utterly fails to prove that the government rests upon the voluntary support of anybody.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
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Support for the Constitution mostly depends on whether it makes one master or slave, which is no consent
In short, men's voluntary support of the Constitution is doubtless, in most cases, wholly contingent upon the question whether, by means of the Constitution, they can make themselves masters, or are to be made slaves. Such contingent consent as that is, in law and reason, no consent at all.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
Like a highwayman, government demands your money or your life, and many taxes are paid under that threat
The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: "Your money, or your life." And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
No government can reasonably be trusted unless it depends wholly on voluntary support
That no government, so called, can reasonably be trusted for a moment, or reasonably be supposed to have honest purposes in view, any longer than it depends wholly upon voluntary support.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
A written instrument binds no one until he has signed it
It is a general principle of law and reason, that a written instrument binds no one until he has signed it.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
Choosing a new master periodically does not stop a people being slaves
A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. Neither are a people any the less slaves because permitted periodically to choose new masters.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
The unsigned Constitution is no more binding than a pact among pirates
It is, to all moral intents and purposes, as destitute of obligation as the compacts which robbers and thieves and pirates enter into with each other, but never sign.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
Secret ballots make a secret government of robbers, worse than open despotism
The secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is a secret band of robbers and murderers. Open despotism is better than this.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
Officials' oaths to support the Constitution carry no validity or obligation
On general principles of law and reason, the oaths which these pretended agents of the people take "to support the Constitution," are of no validity or obligation.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
Even honestly made public debts could bind only those who contracted them
Finally, if these debts had been created for the most innocent and honest purposes, and in the most open and honest manner, by the real parties to the contracts, these parties could thereby have bound nobody but themselves, and no property but their own.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
Those ready to supply money for war are the real rulers
As a necessary consequence, those who stand ready to furnish this money, are the real rulers.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
Every restraint on liberty beyond what justice needs is a degree of slavery
There was no difference of principle—but only of degree—between the slavery they boast they have abolished, and the slavery they were fighting to preserve; for all restraints upon men's natural liberty, not necessary for the simple maintenance of justice, are of the nature of slavery, and differ from each other only in degree.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
The postwar rulers' idea of government by consent is consent or be shot
The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this—that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
The Constitution either authorized this government or could not prevent it, so it is unfit to exist
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.
No Treason, No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority (1870) Said c. 1867–1870
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