View source for Lysander Spooner

{{Short description|American abolitionist and legal theorist (1808–1887)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- See Template:Infobox writer. -->
| name             = Lysander Spooner
| image            = Lysander Spooner by Hardy.jpg
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1808|01|19|mf=yes}}
| birth_place      = [[Athol, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1887|5|14|1808|1|19|mf=yes}}
| death_place      = [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], U.S.
| occupation       = Entrepreneur, lawyer and writer
| subject          = [[Political philosophy]]
| notableworks     = ''[[The Unconstitutionality of Slavery]]'' (1845)<br />''[[No Treason]]'' (1867)
| module           = {{Infobox philosopher|embed=yes
| region = [[Western philosophy]]
| era = [[19th-century philosophy]]
| school_tradition = [[Iusnaturalism]]
| main_interests = {{hlist|[[Abolitionism in the United States|Abolitionism]]|[[Labor theory of property#Acquisition vs mixing labor|Right to property]]|[[Mutual banking]]|[[Tax resistance in the United States#Taxation as theft|Tax resistance]]|[[Natural law]]}}
}}
}}
{{individualism sidebar|thinkers}}
'''Lysander Spooner''' (January 19, 1808&nbsp;– May 14, 1887) was an American [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], entrepreneur, lawyer, essayist, [[Natural rights and legal rights|natural rights]] [[legal theorist]], [[pamphleteer]], [[political philosopher]], and writer often associated with the [[Individualist anarchism#Boston anarchists|Boston anarchist tradition]].

Spooner was a strong advocate of the [[labor movement]] and is politically identified with [[Individualist anarchism in the United States|individualist anarchism]].<ref name="Rosemont 2015 p. 78">Rosemont, Henry Jr. (2015). ''Against Individualism: A Confucian Rethinking of the Foundations of Morality, Politics, Family, and Religion''. Lanham: Lexington Books. p. 78. {{ISBN|978-0739199817}}.</ref>{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|pp=387–389}} His writings contributed to the development of both [[left-libertarian]] and [[right-libertarian]] political theory.{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|p=389}} Spooner's writings include the abolitionist book ''[[The Unconstitutionality of Slavery]]'' and ''[[No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority]],'' which opposed treason charges against secessionists.{{Sfn|Smith|1992|p=xix}}<ref name="Barnett 2011" />

He is known for establishing the [[American Letter Mail Company]], which competed with the [[United States Postal Service]].

==Biography==
===Early life===
Spooner was born on a farm in [[Athol, Massachusetts]], on January 19, 1808. Spooner's parents were Asa and Dolly Spooner. One of his ancestors, William Spooner, arrived in [[Plymouth Colony|Plymouth]] in 1637. Lysander was the second of nine children. His father was a [[deist]] and it has been speculated that he purposely named his two older sons [[Hero and Leander|Leander]] and [[Lysander]] after Greek mythological and [[Sparta]]n heroes, respectively.{{Sfn|Shone|2010|p=viii}}

===Legal career===
Spooner's activism began with his career as a lawyer, which itself violated [[Law of Massachusetts|Massachusetts law]].{{Sfn|Smith|1992|p=viii}} Spooner had studied law under the prominent lawyers, politicians and abolitionists [[John Davis (Massachusetts governor)|John Davis]], later [[Governor of Massachusetts]] and Senator; and [[Charles Allen (Massachusetts politician)|Charles Allen]], state senator and Representative from the [[Free Soil Party]].{{Sfn|Shone|2010|p=viii}} However, he never attended college.{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66–67}} According to the laws of the state, college graduates were required to study with an attorney for three years, while non-graduates like Lysander would be required to do so for five years.{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66–67}}

With the encouragement from his legal mentors, Spooner set up his practice in [[Worcester, Massachusetts]] after only three years, defying the courts.{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66–67}} He regarded the three-year privilege for college graduates as a state-sponsored discrimination against the poor (who could not afford to go to college), and viewed it as providing a monopoly income to those who met the requirements. He argued that "no one has yet ever dared advocate, in direct terms, so monstrous a principle as that the rich ought to be protected by law from the competition of the poor".{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66–67}} In 1836, the legislature abolished the restriction.{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66–67}} He opposed all [[Admission to practice law|licensing requirements]] for lawyers.{{Sfn|Shively|1971|loc=Chapter 4}}

After a disappointing legal career and a failed career in real estate [[speculation]] in [[Ohio]], Spooner returned to his father's farm in 1840.{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66–67}}

===American Letter Mail Company===
Being an advocate of [[self-employment]] and opponent of government regulation of business, in 1844 Spooner started the [[American Letter Mail Company]], which competed with the [[United States Post Office]], whose rates were very high.<ref name="Cato">{{cite journal |last=Olds |first=Kelly B. |year=1995 |title=The Challenge To The U.S. Postal Monopoly, 1839–1851 |url=https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/1995/5/cj15n1-1.pdf |url-status=live |journal=[[Cato Journal]] |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=1–24 |issn=0273-3072 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250514011457/https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/1995/5/cj15n1-1.pdf |archive-date=2025-05-14}}</ref> It had offices in various cities, including [[Baltimore]], [[Philadelphia]] and New York City.<ref>{{cite book |last=McMaster |first=John Bach |author1-link=John Bach McMaster |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/historyofpeopleo0000john_s1h0/page/116/mode/1up |title=A History of the People of the United States, from the Revolution to the Civil War |date=1910 |publisher=[[D. Appleton and Company]] |isbn= |volume=VII 1841–1850 |location=New York |page=116 |chapter=LXXIII: The East in the Forties |access-date=2025-05-16 |via=[[The Internet Archive]]}}</ref> Stamps could be purchased and then attached to letters, which could be brought to any of its offices. From here, agents were dispatched who traveled on railroads and steamboats and carried the letters in handbags. Letters were transferred to messengers in the cities along the routes, who then delivered the letters to the addressees. This was a challenge to the Post Office's [[legal monopoly]].<ref name="Cato"/><ref>Adie, Douglas (1989). [https://archive.org/details/monopolymailpriv00adie/page/27 <!-- quote="lysander spooner" "post office" monopoly. --> ''Monopoly Mail: The Privatizing United States Postal Service'']. p. 27.</ref>

As he had done when challenging the rules of the [[Massachusetts Bar Association]], Spooner published a [[pamphlet]] titled "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. A law enacted in 1851 that strengthened the federal government's monopoly finally put him out of business. The legacy of Spooner's challenge to the postal service was the reduction in letter postage from 5¢ to 3¢, in response to the competition his company provided.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lysanderspooner.org/STAMP3.htm|title=Spooner vs. U.S. Postal System|first=Lucille J.|last=Goodyear|magazine=[[American Legion Magazine]]|date=January 1981|access-date=October 25, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019155313/http://www.lysanderspooner.org/STAMP3.htm|archive-date=October 19, 2012}}</ref>

===Abolitionism===
Spooner attained his highest profile as a figure in the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist movement]]. His book ''[[The Unconstitutionality of Slavery]]'', published in 1845, contributed to a controversy among abolitionists over whether the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]] supported the institution of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]]. The disunionist faction led by [[William Lloyd Garrison]] and [[Wendell Phillips]] argued that the Constitution legally recognized and enforced the oppression of slaves as in the provisions for the capture of fugitive slaves in [[Article Four of the United States Constitution#Clause 2: Extradition of fugitives|Article IV, Section 2]].<ref name="Barnett 2011">{{cite journal|last=Barnett|first=Randy E.|author-link=Randy Barnett|title=Whence Comes Section One? The Abolitionist Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment|url=https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1475&context=facpub|date=2011|journal=Journal of Legal Analysis|volume=3|issue=1|issn=1946-5319|doi=10.1093/jla/3.1.165|oclc=8092556588|pages=165–263|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Spooner challenged the claim that the text of the Constitution permitted slavery.{{Sfn|Shively|1971|loc=Chapter 5}} He used a complex system of legal and natural law arguments to show that the Constitutional clauses usually interpreted as adopting or at least accepting implicitly the practice of slavery did not in fact support it, despite the open tolerance of human servitude under the original Constitution of 1789; even though those interpretations would only be superseded by the amendments to the Constitution passed after the [[American Civil War]], viz. Amendments XIII–XV, prohibiting the states from enabling or enforcing slavery.{{Sfn|Shively|1971|loc=Chapter 5}}

From the publication of this book until 1861, when the Civil War overtook society, Spooner actively campaigned against slavery.{{Sfn|Shively|1971|loc=Chapter 5}} Spooner viewed the [[Northern United States|Northern states]] as trying to deny the [[Southern United States|Southerners]] through military force.{{Sfn|Smith|1992|p=xvii}}

===Later life and death===
[[File:Lysander Spooner Grave.JPG|thumb|250px|Spooner is interred in the historic [[Forest Hills Cemetery]] in Boston, Massachusetts.]]

Spooner argued that "almost all fortunes are made out of the capital and labour of other men than those who realize them. Indeed, except by his sponging capital and labour from others".{{Sfn|Martin|1970|p=173}} Spooner defended the [[Millerism|Millerites]], who stopped working because they believed the world would soon end and were arrested for [[vagrancy]].{{Sfn|Shone|2010|p=viii}}

Spooner spent much time in the [[Boston Athenæum]].{{Sfn|Shone|2010|p=xv}} He died on May 14, 1887, at the age of 79 in his nearby residence at 109 Myrtle Street, Boston.<ref>{{cite news |last=O'Reilly |first=John Boyle |author-link=John Boyle O'Reilly |date=May 15, 1887 |title=Lysander Spooner, One of the Old Guard of Abolition Heroes, Dies in his Eightieth Year After a Fortnight's Illness. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77666634/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250514011458/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe/77666634/ |archive-date=2025-05-14 |access-date=May 13, 2021 |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |page=8 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> He never married and had no children.{{Sfn|Shively|1971|loc=Chapter 9}}

==Political views==
As an [[individualist anarchist]], Spooner advocated for pre-industrial living in communities of small property holders so that they could pursue [[Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness|life, liberty, happiness and property]] in mutual honesty without ceding responsibility to a central government.<ref name="Rosemont 2015 p. 78" /> In addition to his extra-governmental post service and views on abolitionism, Spooner wrote ''[[No Treason]]'' in which he contends that the Constitution is based on voluntary consent and that citizens are not bound by involuntary allegiance.{{Sfn|Martin|1970|pp=191–192}} Spooner argued that the national Congress should dissolve and let citizens rule themselves as he held that individuals should make their own fates.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gay|first1=Kathlyn|last2=Gay|first2=Martin|title=Encyclopedia of Political Anarchy|chapter=Spooner, Lysander|date=1999|isbn=978-0874369823|publisher=ABC-CLIO|pages=193–195}}</ref>

==Influence==
{{libertarianism sidebar|people}}

Spooner's ''The Unconstitutionality of Slavery'' was cited in the 2008 [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] case ''[[District of Columbia v. Heller]]'' which struck down the federal district's ban on handguns. Justice [[Antonin Scalia]], writing for the court, quotes Spooner as saying the [[Right to keep and bear arms|right to bear arms]] was necessary for those who wanted to take a stand against slavery.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://supreme.justia.com/us/554/07-290/opinion.html|title=District of Columbia v. Heller 554 U. S. ____ – US Supreme Court Cases from Justia & Oyez|last=Scalia|first=Antonin|author-link=Antonin Scalia|publisher=Supreme.justia.com|access-date=June 24, 2012|archive-date=August 2, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080802142631/http://supreme.justia.com/us/554/07-290/opinion.html|url-status=live}}</ref> It was also cited by Justice [[Clarence Thomas]] in his concurring opinion in ''[[McDonald v. Chicago]]'', another firearms case, the following year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-1521.ZC1.html|title=Mv. Chicago|last=Thomas|first=Clarence|author-link=Clarence Thomas|publisher=Law.cornell.edu|access-date=June 24, 2012|archive-date=July 1, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100701164905/https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-1521.ZC1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Publications==
Virtually everything written by Spooner is contained in the six-volume compilation ''The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner'' (1971). The most notable exception is ''Vices Are Not Crimes'', not widely known until its republication in 1977.{{Sfn|Shone|2010|p=xv}}
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a52521e4b08dcc060bdbcf/1436886305889/Deist%27s+Immortality.pdf "The Deist's Immortality, and An Essay on Man's Accountability for His Belief"] (1834)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a9120ce4b092dbd50b94e4/1437143564085/deistsreply.pdf "The Deist's Reply to the Alleged Supernatural Evidences of Christianity"] (1836)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a51d66e4b0f4ab09d0c76b/1436884326392/Credit%2C+Currency%2C+and+Banking.pdf "Constitutional Law, Relative to Credit, Currency, and Banking"] (1843)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a51dfbe4b0a9a25a5c376f/1436884475858/Unconstitutionality+of+the+Laws+of+Congress.pdf "The Unconstitutionality of the Laws of Congress, Prohibiting Private Mails"] (1844)
* [https://oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/oll3/store/titles/2206/Spooner_1487_Bk.pdf ''The Unconstitutionality of Slavery''] (1845)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a51faee4b0994cd90672a9/1436884910079/POVERTY.pdf "Poverty: Its Illegal Causes, and Legal Cure"] (1846)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a5258ce4b0bf42f2b03399/1436886412260/Illegality+of+the+Trial+of+John+W.+Webster.pdf "Illegality of the Trial of John W. Webster"] (1850)
* [https://oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/oll3/store/titles/2181/Spooner1474_Bk.pdf "An Essay on Trial by Jury"] (1852)
* [https://oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/oll3/store/titles/2243/Spooner_1518_Bk.pdf"The Law of Intellectual Property"] (1855)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a525cce4b08dcc060be064/1436886476392/Plan+for+the+Abolition+of+Slavery.pdf "A Plan for the Abolition of Slavery, and To the Non-Slaveholders of the South"] (1858)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a5260ce4b09a8bb0481dd5/1436886540509/Address+of+the+Free+Constitutionalists.pdf "Address of the Free Constitutionalists to the People of the United States"] (1860)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a520b7e4b06382a024b64a/1436885175093/New+System+of+Paper+Currency.pdf "A New System of Paper Currency"] (1861)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a5263fe4b0c83122fb55c4/1436886591736/Letter+to+Charles+Sumner.pdf "A Letter to Charles Sumner"] (1864)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a5215fe4b0994cd9067c7b/1436885343863/Considerations+for+Bankers.pdf "Considerations for Bankers, and Holders of United States Bonds"] (1864)
* [http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/bright/Spooner/Spooner_1483_Bk.pdf No Treason No. I] (1870)
* [https://oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/oll3/store/titles/2213/Spooner_1484_Bk.pdf No Treason No. II: The Constitution] (1870)
* [http://files.libertyfund.org/files/2194/Spooner_1485_Bk.pdf ''No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority''] (1870)
* [http://praxeology.net/LS-FC.htm "Forced Consent"] (1873)
* [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lysander-spooner-vices-are-not-crimes-a-vindication-of-moral-liberty.pdf "Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty"] (1875)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a521bfe4b01f72a1cce608/1436885439442/OUR+FINANCIERS.pdf "Our Financiers: Their Ignorance, Usurpations and Frauds"] (1877)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a521fde4b0aaa1cade2d0e/1436885501856/Gold+and+Silver+as+Standards+of+Value.pdf "Gold and Silver as Standards of Value: The Flagrant Cheat in Regard to Them"] (1878)
* [https://cdn.mises.org/Left%20and%20Right_3_1_7.pdf?token=sIltQy8R "Natural Law, or the Science of Justice"] (1882)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a52475e4b0bf42f2b02cd7/1436886133244/A+LETTER+TO+THOMAS+Bayard.pdf "A Letter to Thomas F. Bayard"] (1882)
* [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a3c833e4b07c31913e6eae/t/55a523cce4b0635b1072b31d/1436885964874/Letter+to+Scientists+and+Inventors.pdf "A Letter to Scientists and Inventors, on the Science of Justice"] (1884)
* [https://oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/oll3/store/titles/2224/Spooner_1481_Bk.pdf "A Letter to Grover Cleveland, on His False Inaugural Address, the Usurpations and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and the Consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude of the People"] (1886)
* [https://www.aier.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Spooner-Two_Treatises.pdf "Two Treatises on Competitive Currency and Banking"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222152033/https://www.aier.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Spooner-Two_Treatises.pdf |date=February 22, 2019 }} (2018)

===Archival material===
There are collections of letters written by Spooner in the [[Boston Public Library]] and the [[New York Historical Society]].{{Sfn|Shone|2010|pp=viii–ix}}

==See also==
{{cols|colwidth=21em}}
* [[Abolitionism in the United States]]
* [[American philosophy]]
* [[Individualist anarchism]]
* [[Free-market anarchism]]
* [[Left-libertarianism]]
* [[List of American philosophers]]
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[Market anarchism]]
* [[Mutualism (economic theory)]]
* [[Natural and legal rights]]
* [[Natural law]]
{{colend}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|2}}
* {{cite book |last=Barnett |first=Randy E. |author-link=Randy Barnett |chapter=Was Slavery Unconstitutional Before the Thirteenth Amendment?: Lysander Spooner's Theory of Interpretation |editor-last=McKivigan |editor-first=John |year=1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OeoaqhaZ-iMC |title=Abolitionism and American Law |pages=65–102 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=0815331096 |access-date=December 11, 2015 |archive-date=August 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240809150935/https://books.google.com/books?id=OeoaqhaZ-iMC |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Cover |first=Robert M. |chapter=Formal Assumptions of the Antislavery Forces |year=1975 |title=Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QovkZrJ2bK0C |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |pages=149–158 |jstor=j.ctt32bmbr.13 |isbn=978-0300161953 |access-date=July 23, 2024 |archive-date=August 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240809151002/https://books.google.com/books?id=QovkZrJ2bK0C |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite book |last1=Long |first1=Roderick T. |editor-last1=Chartier |editor-first1=Gary |editor-link1=Gary Chartier |editor-last2=Van Schoelandt |editor-first2=Chad |chapter=The Anarchist Landscape |title=The Routledge Handbook of Anarchy and Anarchist Thought |date=2020 |isbn=978-1315185255 |publisher=Routledge |pages=28–38 }}
* {{cite book|first=Peter H.|last = Marshall|author-link=Peter Marshall (author, born 1946)|chapter=American Individualists and Communists|title=[[Demanding the Impossible|Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism]]|year=2008|orig-year=1992|location=[[London]]|publisher=[[Harper Perennial]]|pages=384–395<!--387–389-->|isbn=978-0006862451|oclc=218212571}}
* {{cite book|last=Martin|first=James J.|year=1970|orig-year=1953|chapter=Lysander Spooner, Dissident Among Dissidents|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/menagainststatee00martrich/page/166/mode/2up|title=Men Against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827–1908|location=[[Colorado Springs, Colorado|Colorado Springs]]|publisher=Ralph Myles Publisher|isbn=978-0879260064|oclc=8827896|pages=167–201}}
* {{cite book|last=Shively|first=Charles|year=1971|chapter=Biography|chapter-url=http://www.lysanderspooner.org/biopgraphy/|editor-last=Shively|editor-first=Charles|title=The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner|publisher=M&S Press|isbn=0877300062|oclc=151618|access-date=December 2, 2018|archive-date=March 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324212559/http://www.lysanderspooner.org/biopgraphy|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Shone|first=Steve J.|year=2010|title=Lysander Spooner, American Anarchist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9MM_cpF9IM8C|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0739144503|oclc=1253438526|access-date=July 23, 2024|archive-date=July 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240723133524/https://books.google.com/books?id=9MM_cpF9IM8C|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Smith|first=George H.|author-link=George H. Smith|year=1992|chapter=Introduction|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=George H.|url=https://archive.org/details/lysanderspoonerr0000spoo/|title=The Lysander Spooner Reader|publisher=[[Laissez Faire Books#Fox & Wilkes Books|Fox and Wilkes]]|pages=vii–xx|isbn=0930073061}}
* {{cite book|last=Wiecek|first=William M.|year=1977|chapter=Radical Constitutional Antislavery: The Imagined Past, the Remembered Future|title=The Sources of Anti-Slavery Constitutionalism in America, 1760–1848|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|pages=249–275|jstor=10.7591/j.ctt207g6m0.16|isbn=978-1501726446 }}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite encyclopedia|last=Barnett|first=Randy|author-link=Randy Barnett|editor-first=Ronald|editor-last=Hamowy|editor-link=Ronald Hamowy|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism|chapter=Spooner, Lysander (1808–1887)|chapter-url=https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/libertarianism/n297.xml|year=2008|publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]]|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n297|isbn=978-1412965804|oclc=750831024|lccn=2008009151|pages=488–490}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/lysander-spooner}}
* {{Gutenberg author|id=552|name=Lysander Spooner}}
* {{Internet Archive author|sname=Lysander Spooner}}
* {{Librivox author|id=3134}}
* [http://www.lysanderspooner.org/ LysanderSpooner.org], dedicated website
* {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030412103901/http://www.memoryhole.com/people/spooner/bibliography.html|date=April 12, 2003|title=Lysander Spooner's Bibliography}}
* [https://reason.com/2019/10/31/its-that-old-looney-tuner-lysander-spooner/ Reason Magazine]

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[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American opinion journalists]]
[[Category:American pamphleteers]]
[[Category:American philosophy writers]]
[[Category:American political journalists]]
[[Category:American political philosophers]]
[[Category:American political writers]]
[[Category:American socialists]]
[[Category:Anarchist theorists]]
[[Category:Burials at Forest Hills Cemetery (Boston)]]
[[Category:Deist philosophers]]
[[Category:Far-left politics in the United States]]
[[Category:Individualist anarchists]]
[[Category:Intellectual property law scholars]]
[[Category:John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry]]
[[Category:Jury nullification]]
[[Category:Left-libertarians]]
[[Category:Libertarian socialists]]
[[Category:Libertarian theorists]]
[[Category:Massachusetts lawyers]]
[[Category:Massachusetts socialists]]
[[Category:Mutualists]]
[[Category:Natural law ethicists]]
[[Category:People from Athol, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Philosophers from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Right-libertarianism]]
[[Category:Social anarchists]]
[[Category:Writers from Massachusetts]]