Lysander Spooner

Biography

Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) was an American political philosopher, abolitionist, entrepreneur, and legal theorist who became one of the most radical individualist thinkers in American history. Born on a farm in Athol, Massachusetts, Spooner studied law and was admitted to the bar despite lacking the required university training—a fact that fueled his lifelong skepticism of credentialing and government regulation. In 1844 he founded the American Letter Mail Company to compete with the U.S. Post Office, arguing that the government mail monopoly was unconstitutional. Though legally forced to close, his competition temporarily forced the Post Office to reduce its rates. Spooner is best known for his political and legal writings, particularly The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1845), which argued on strictly constitutional grounds that slavery was illegal—a position embraced by some abolitionists and rejected by others. His later work, No Treason (1867–1870), made a radical argument that the U.S. Constitution has no binding authority because no living person has consented to it. Spooner influenced both left-wing and right-wing libertarian traditions and remains a central figure in anarchist and voluntaryist thought.