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'''Lysander Spooner''' (January 19, 1808 – 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]].
'''Lysander Spooner''' (January 19, 1808 – 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" />
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]].
He is known for establishing the [[American Letter Mail Company]], which competed with the [[United States Postal Service]].
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===Legal career===
===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}}
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}}
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}}
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===
===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 |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>
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>
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>
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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 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}}
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}}
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}}
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==Political views==
==Political views==
Spooner was an anti-capitalist individualist.{{sfn|Long|2020|p=30}} This association is wrapped in the definition of capitalism, whether viewed as a system of managerial domination and exploitation, or a simpler definition of free market with private property, since Spooner supported the latter.{{sfn|Long|2020|p=30}} According to [[Peter Marshall (author, born 1946)|Peter Marshall]], "the egalitarian implications of traditional individualist anarchists" such as Spooner and [[Benjamin Tucker]] have been overlooked.{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|pp=564–565}}
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>
 
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==
==Influence==
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* [[Free-market anarchism]]
* [[Free-market anarchism]]
* [[Left-libertarianism]]
* [[Left-libertarianism]]
* [[Left-wing market anarchism]]
* [[List of American philosophers]]
* [[List of American philosophers]]
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[Market anarchism]]
* [[Mutualism (economic theory)]]
* [[Mutualism (economic theory)]]
* [[Natural and legal rights]]
* [[Natural and legal rights]]
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{{refbegin|2}}
{{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=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=978-0-300-16195-3 |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 |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=978-1-315-18525-5 |publisher=Routledge |pages=28–38 }}
* {{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=978-0-00-686245-1|oclc=218212571}}
* {{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=9780879260064|oclc=8827896|pages=167–201}}
* {{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=0-87730-006-2|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=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=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=0-930073-06-1}}
* {{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=978-1-5017-2644-6 }}
* {{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}}
{{refend}}


Latest revision as of 00:22, 5 August 2025

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main other Template:Individualism sidebar Lysander Spooner (January 19, 1808 – May 14, 1887) was an American abolitionist, entrepreneur, lawyer, essayist, natural rights legal theorist, pamphleteer, political philosopher, and writer often associated with the Boston anarchist tradition.

Spooner was a strong advocate of the labor movement and is politically identified with individualist anarchism.[1]Template:Sfn His writings contributed to the development of both left-libertarian and right-libertarian political theory.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn[2]

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 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 Leander and Lysander after Greek mythological and Spartan heroes, respectively.Template:Sfn

Legal career

Spooner's activism began with his career as a lawyer, which itself violated Massachusetts law.Template:Sfn Spooner had studied law under the prominent lawyers, politicians and abolitionists John Davis, later Governor of Massachusetts and Senator; and Charles Allen, state senator and Representative from the Free Soil Party.Template:Sfn However, he never attended college.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

With the encouragement from his legal mentors, Spooner set up his practice in Worcester, Massachusetts after only three years, defying the courts.Template:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn In 1836, the legislature abolished the restriction.Template:Sfn He opposed all licensing requirements for lawyers.Template:Sfn

After a disappointing legal career and a failed career in real estate speculation in Ohio, Spooner returned to his father's farm in 1840.Template:Sfn

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.[3] It had offices in various cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City.[4] 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.[3][5]

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.[6]

Abolitionism

Spooner attained his highest profile as a figure in the abolitionist movement. His book The Unconstitutionality of Slavery, published in 1845, contributed to a controversy among abolitionists over whether the Constitution supported the institution of 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 IV, Section 2.[2]

Spooner challenged the claim that the text of the Constitution permitted slavery.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

From the publication of this book until 1861, when the Civil War overtook society, Spooner actively campaigned against slavery.Template:Sfn Spooner viewed the Northern states as trying to deny the Southerners through military force.Template:Sfn

Later life and death

File:Lysander Spooner Grave.JPG
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".Template:Sfn Spooner defended the Millerites, who stopped working because they believed the world would soon end and were arrested for vagrancy.Template:Sfn

Spooner spent much time in the Boston Athenæum.Template:Sfn He died on May 14, 1887, at the age of 79 in his nearby residence at 109 Myrtle Street, Boston.[7] He never married and had no children.Template:Sfn

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, happiness and property in mutual honesty without ceding responsibility to a central government.[1] 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.Template:Sfn Spooner argued that the national Congress should dissolve and let citizens rule themselves as he held that individuals should make their own fates.[8]

Influence

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Spooner's The Unconstitutionality of Slavery was cited in the 2008 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 bear arms was necessary for those who wanted to take a stand against slavery.[9] It was also cited by Justice Clarence Thomas in his concurring opinion in McDonald v. Chicago, another firearms case, the following year.[10]

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.Template:Sfn

Archival material

There are collections of letters written by Spooner in the Boston Public Library and the New York Historical Society.Template:Sfn

See also

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References

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Bibliography

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Further reading

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External links

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  1. ↑ a b Rosemont, Henry Jr. (2015). Against Individualism: A Confucian Rethinking of the Foundations of Morality, Politics, Family, and Religion. Lanham: Lexington Books. p. 78. Template:ISBN.
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  3. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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  5. ↑ Adie, Douglas (1989). Monopoly Mail: The Privatizing United States Postal Service. p. 27.
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