Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) was undoubtedly the world's greatest iconoclast; arguably the world's best lawyer, and his works the sine qua non of Natural Rights theory.

He was one of the greatest abolitionists of his time and understood, like Lord Acton, that the U.S. War of Northern Aggression would succeed only in replacing chattel slavery with political slavery.

Spooner understood that for man to live in peace individuals must live honestly. His life was founded on the ancient maxim, "To live honestly, to hurt no one, to give to every one his due".

Spooner gave no quarter on any matter of honesty and common sense. Majority rule is but another form of the doctrine that might makes right. Voting with your feet, your money, or as a shareholder within the context of property rights is honest and necessary. Voting politically is forcing others to do what you want them to do and is a usurpation and a crime. If a so-called "representative" or other political stooge can scribble something and force you to obey--then you are a slave. Reflecting on that truth, all legislation is mere wind and an arrogation of power. There is only one Law--Justice, and Justice is, "the science of what is mine and what is thine." There is only one reason that coercion exist in society, and that is to compel Justice. Spooner's view of what constitutes Legitimate Government treats individuals with the sanctity that they deserve as self-governing human beings. The "Consent of the Governed" must be explicit, as this makes it impossible for Legitimate Government to make the unconscionable mistake of stealing a fair share of a person's income or property that the individual did not consent to be taken, thus becoming the very gang of thieves and imposters that government is established to protect individuals against. The rights to own, use, and dispose of property of all kinds is implicit in human life itself, as is the right to contract between other human beings in making your own way, in your own fashion, unfettered in your rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Spooner saw the destruction of the American potential to live honestly and in peace. He saw the Jeffersonian ideal destroyed and replaced with a mercantilist corporatism that was the antithesis of Legitimate Government. He saw it, and he exposed the various frauds and criminal devices such as political voting that subverted individual sovereignty and Liberty.

As the Nation/State enters its death throes, there is one writing that, more than any other, helped inflict a mortal wound: Spooner's "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". Damning and unrelenting in its attack, it utterly demolishes the idea and practice of Political Government, and excoriates John Marshall, "Chief Justice" of the "Supreme Court" for thirty four years (1801-1835). It is well that Marshall was long dead by the time Spooner got to denounce his tyrannies in the Cleveland letter of 1886. What escaped unscathed in "No Treason--The Constitution of No Authority" was vaporized in 1886 by Spooner's incandescent pen.

To place Spooner's achievements in proper historical perspective, the Spooner Society requests you read the short booklet by Albert Jay Nock, "Our Enemy--The State". For a sweeping and in-depth treatment of the Nation/State, try Martin van Creveld's, "The Rise and Decline of the State". And for a glimpse of what is in store for the U.S.A., now turned upside down and inside out by 230 years of Statism, Hoppe's, "Democracy--The God That Failed" is unsurpassed.

The Spooner Society has an anchor activity that it invites others to emulate. Rifle, pistol, shotgun afficionados, their friends in competitive shooting events across the country and hunters everywhere comprise a significant number of responsible and independent people. We invite them and all responsible, intelligent adults to read Spooner and join with others in social settings to rekindle the spirit of freedom that will come as political government with its "citizens" and forceful expropriations gives way to Legitimate Government with its patrons, customers, and voluntary transactions.

We ask only that you read and reflect; then set out to live honestly, hurt no one, and give to every one his due.

End.