Product Description

2009 Reprint of the original 1870 edition. Paperback 55pp. Lysander Spooner (January 19, 1808 - May 14, 1887) was an American anarchist, entrepreneur, political philosopher, abolitionist, supporter of the labor movement, and legal theorist of the nineteenth century. He is also known for competing with the U.S. Post Office with his American Letter Mail Company, which was forced out of business by the United States government. He has been identified by some contemporary writers as an anarcho-capitalist, while other writers and activists are convinced by his advocacy of self-employment over working for an employer for wages, that he was an anti-capitalist or a socialist, notwithstanding his support for private ownership of the means of production and a free-market economy. No Treason has it origins in The Union government's actions during the Civil War. In response, Spooner published one of his most famous political tracts, No Treason. In this lengthy essay, Spooner argued that the Constitution was a contract of government which had been irreparably violated during the war and was thus void. Furthermore, since the government now existing under the Constitution pursued coercive policies that were contrary to the Natural Law and to the consent of the governed, it had been demonstrated that document was unable to adequately stop many abuses against liberty or to prevent tyranny from taking hold. Spooner bolstered his argument by noting that the Federal government, as established by a legal contract, could not legally bind all persons living in the nation since none had ever signed their names or given their consent to it - that consent had always been assumed, which fails the most basic burdens of proof for a valid contract in the courtroom. Spooner widely circulated the No Treason pamphlets, which also contained a legal defense against the crime of treason itself intended for former Confederate soldiers (hence the name of the pamphlet, arguing that "no treason" had been committed in the war by the south). These excerpts were published in DeBow's Review and some other well known southern periodicals of the time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #198378 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 54 pages

About the Author
Spooner was an American political philosopher, abolitionist, anarchist and legal theorist. He raised his voice against slavery and was a prominent figure of the Abolitionist Movement.

Customer Reviews

An essay of flaws underlying the basis of this Republic.
It has been said in other places that Spooner raises a rather obscure point regarding the legitimacy of the U.S. Constitution. This point of view now writes him out of the history books. Another writer describes this particular work as the single most subversive piece ever written in the United States -- an opinion shared by those who are narrow-minded about giving up their individual liberty.

If the Constitution has no authority, what does? Is it power, like might making right, that controls and restrains our liberties? Or is it the individual, who must live under the rules of the coercive collective, through ballot counts of a minority of the population, the "voters"?

And if the Constitution does have authority, does that authority include authorizing our government to abuse our rights as citizens and as people?

Spooner notes in his opening, speaking of the original writers of the Constitution, "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." So starts the essay.

Destroying all support for voting by secret ballot, for voluntarily paying taxes, for respecting elected officials (members of a "secret band of robbers and murderers"), for recognizing treaties, for giving oaths to support the Constitution, etc, etc,... the essay makes all common wisdom built upon our accepted, politically correct fallacies collapse under the weight of our own reason.

If you ever read this book, remember... our rights are not granted by government; rather, we institute government to protect our rights.

Critique of the constitution and social contract in America
This is certainly a different way to look at an American citizen's relationship to society, the US Government, and the Constitution of the United States. I find it brilliant, if a bit redundant by the end. Spooner applies all of the various tests to which a lawyer submits a contract, to the relationship between citizen and Constitution. If you buy the precept that this is a pseudo-contractual relationship, then you will find that it is, as Spooner puts it, a "Constitution of no authority."

If you feel that this is not a contract, or that it is some sort of special contract, well then this book will probably just bore and/or annoy you. I am not sure how to understand the Constitution, or my participation in a tacit social contract, and found this book entirely compelling and wonderful. I buy many copies and hand them out to my long-suffering friends.

Best if read several times...
. We would be amiss to state the pamphlet as redundant upon a single reading. It sounded quite repetitive to me the first time I read it. But, when I tried to summarize the theme, I found that the points Spooner makes include several distinct areas of discussion. And, it builds to a climax. He ultimately points out the real rulers of this country, "... these soulless blood-money loan-mongers... And now these lenders of blood-money demand their pay; and the government, so called, becomes their tool, their servile, slavish, villainous tool, to extort it from the labor of both the North and the South."
. Spooner repeats in places for emphasis, but the thread of his argument sweeps on through the various objections that one might raise along his route.
. If you think it repeats, try to outline it. You'll find that each section presents his point in another light.
. As a matter of fact, any attempt to state the theme in a paragraph would lower it to a statement of personal opinion rather than the masterful essay which it is.

Dan Marks
Republic of Texas
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