Lysander Spooner (January 19, 1808 – May 14, 1887) was an American

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

, entrepreneur, lawyer, essayist,

natural rights Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights. * Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are ''universal'', ''fundamental rights ...

legal theorist,

pamphleteer A pamphleteer is a historical term used to describe someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (therefore inexpensive) booklets intended for wide circulation. Context Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions: to articu ...

political philosopher Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from de ...

, 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 Individualist anarchism or anarcho-individualism is a collection of anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hi ...

.Rosemont, Henry Jr. (2015). ''Against Individualism: A Confucian Rethinking of the Foundations of Morality, Politics, Family, and Religion''. Lanham: Lexington Books. p. 78. . His writings contributed to the development of both left-libertarian and

right-libertarian Right-libertarianism,Rothbard, Murray (1 March 1971)"The Left and Right Within Libertarianism". ''WIN: Peace and Freedom Through Nonviolent Action''. 7 (4): 6–10. Retrieved 14 January 2020.Goodway, David (2006). '' Anarchist Seeds Beneath the ...

political theory. 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. He is known for establishing the

American Letter Mail Company The American Letter Mail Company was an American mail company started by Lysander Spooner in 1844 to compete against the legal monopoly of the United States Post Office (now the United States Postal Service). It was defunct in 1851 when it was o ...

, which competed with the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

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 Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

in 1637. Lysander was the second of nine children. His father was a

deist Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin term '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...

and it has been speculated that he purposely named his two older sons Leander and

Lysander Lysander (; ; 454 BC – 395 BC) was a Spartan military and political leader. He destroyed the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, forcing Athens to capitulate and bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end. He then played ...

after Greek mythological and

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

n heroes, respectively.

Legal career

Spooner's activism began with his career as a lawyer, which itself violated Massachusetts law. Spooner had studied law under the prominent lawyers, politicians and abolitionists John Davis, later

Governor of Massachusetts The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The governor is the chief executive, head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonw ...

and Senator; and Charles Allen, state senator and Representative from the

Free Soil Party The Free Soil Party, also called the Free Democratic Party or the Free Democracy, was a political party in the United States from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. The party was focused o ...

. However, he never attended college. 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. With the encouragement from his legal mentors, Spooner set up his practice in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

after only three years, defying the courts. 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". In 1836, the legislature abolished the restriction. He opposed all licensing requirements for lawyers. After a disappointing legal career and a failed career in real estate

speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, good (economics), goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable in a brief amount of time. It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hope ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, Spooner returned to his father's farm in 1840.

American Letter Mail Company

Being an advocate of

self-employment Self-employment is the state of working for oneself rather than an employer. Tax authorities will generally view a person as self-employed if the person chooses to be recognised as such or if the person is generating income for which a tax return ...

and opponent of government regulation of business, in 1844 Spooner started the

, which competed with the

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

, whose rates were very high. It had offices in various cities, including

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and New York City. 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. As he had done when challenging the rules of the Massachusetts Bar Association, Spooner published a

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...

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.

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 A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

supported the institution of

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. The disunionist faction led by

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was an Abolitionism in the United States, American abolitionist, journalist, and reformism (historical), social reformer. He is best known for his widely read anti-slavery newspaper ''The ...

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. Spooner challenged the claim that the text of the Constitution permitted slavery. 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 The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, viz. Amendments XIII-XV, prohibiting the states from enabling or enforcing slavery. From the publication of this book until 1861, when the Civil War overtook society, Spooner actively campaigned against slavery. Spooner viewed the Northern states as trying to deny the Southerners through military force.

Later life and death

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". Spooner defended the

Millerites The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller, who in 1831 first shared publicly his belief that the Second Advent of Jesus Christ would occur in roughly the year 1843–1844. Coming during the Second Great Awakening, ...

, who stopped working because they believed the world would soon end and were arrested for

vagrancy Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, waste picker, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western ...

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

Political views

Spooner was an anti-capitalist individualist. 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. According to Peter Marshall, "the egalitarian implications of traditional individualist anarchists" such as Spooner and

Benjamin Tucker Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (; April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was an American individualist anarchist and self-identified socialist. Tucker was the editor and publisher of the American individualist anarchist periodical ''Liberty'' (1881–19 ...

have been overlooked. As an

individualist anarchist Individualist anarchism or anarcho-individualism is a collection of anarchist currents that generally emphasize the individual and their will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. Individuali ...

, 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. 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. Spooner argued that the national Congress should dissolve and let citizens rule themselves as he held that individuals should make their own fates.

Influence

Spooner's ''The Unconstitutionality of Slavery'' was cited in the 2008

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

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 The right to keep and bear arms (often referred to as the right to bear arms) is a legal right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, as well as ...

was necessary for those who wanted to take a stand against slavery. It was also cited by Justice

Clarence Thomas Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served since 1991 as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. President George H. W. Bush nominated him to succeed Thurgood Marshall. Afte ...

in his concurring opinion in ''

McDonald v. Chicago ''McDonald v. City of Chicago'', 561 U.S. 742 (2010), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that found that the right of an individual to "keep and bear arms", as protected under the Second Amendment, is incorporate ...

'', another firearms case, the following year.

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.
"The Deist's Immortality, and An Essay on Man's Accountability for His Belief"
(1834)
"The Deist's Reply to the Alleged Supernatural Evidences of Christianity"
(1836)
"Constitutional Law, Relative to Credit, Currency, and Banking"
(1843)
"The Unconstitutionality of the Laws of Congress, Prohibiting Private Mails"
(1844)
''The Unconstitutionality of Slavery''
(1845)
"Poverty: Its Illegal Causes, and Legal Cure"
(1846)
"Illegality of the Trial of John W. Webster"
(1850)
"An Essay on Trial by Jury"
(1852)
Law of Intellectual Property"
(1855)
"A Plan for the Abolition of Slavery, and To the Non-Slaveholders of the South"
(1858)
"Address of the Free Constitutionalists to the People of the United States"
(1860)
"A New System of Paper Currency"
(1861)
"A Letter to Charles Sumner"
(1864)
"Considerations for Bankers, and Holders of United States Bonds"
(1864)
No Treason No. I
(1870)
No Treason No. II: The Constitution
(1870)
''No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority''
(1870)

(1873)
"Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty"
(1875)
"Our Financiers: Their Ignorance, Usurpations and Frauds"
(1877)
"Gold and Silver as Standards of Value: The Flagrant Cheat in Regard to Them"
(1878)
"Natural Law, or the Science of Justice"
(1882)
"A Letter to Thomas F. Bayard"
(1882)
"A Letter to Scientists and Inventors, on the Science of Justice"
(1884)
"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)
"Two Treatises on Competitive Currency and Banking"
(2018)

Archival material

There are collections of letters written by Spooner in the

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...

and the New York Historical Society.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

* * * *
LysanderSpooner.org
dedicated website *
Reason Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spooner, Lysander 1808 births 1887 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American essayists 19th-century American journalists 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers Abolitionists from Boston American anarchist writers American anti-capitalists American anti-war activists American deists American gun rights activists American lawyers American legal writers American libertarians American male essayists American male journalists American male non-fiction writers American opinion journalists American pamphleteers American philosophy writers American political journalists American political philosophers American political writers American socialists Anarchist theorists Burials at Forest Hills Cemetery (Boston) Deist philosophers Far-left politics in the United States Individualist anarchists Intellectual property law scholars John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Jury nullification Left-libertarians Libertarian socialists Libertarian theorists Massachusetts lawyers Massachusetts socialists Mutualists Natural law ethicists People from Athol, Massachusetts People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War Philosophers from Massachusetts Right-libertarianism Social anarchists Writers from Massachusetts