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Lysander Spooner

Works Published inMises Daily Article

Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) is the American individualist anarchist and legal theorist known mainly for setting up a commercial post office in competition with the government and thereby being shut down. But he was also the author of some of the most radical political and economic writings of the 19th century, and continues to have a huge influence on libertarian thinkers today. He was a dedicated opponent of slavery in all its forms — even advocating guerrilla war to stop it — but also a dedicated opponent of the federal invasion of the South and its postwar reconstruction. See Let's Abolish Government, a collection selected personally by Murray Rothbard as Spooner's best work.

All Works

Vices Are NOT Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty

Legal System

12/19/2022Mises Media
For a government to declare a vice to be a crime, and to punish it as such, is an attempt to falsify the very nature of things.
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Spooner: We Didn't Consent to the Constitution

U.S. History

Blog09/08/2022

"Even those who actually voted for the adoption of the Constitution, did not pledge their faith for any specific time; since no specific time was named during which the association should continue."

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Vices are NOT Crimes

Big GovernmentLegal SystemInterventionism

07/06/2020Books
"The object aimed at in the punishment of vices is to deprive every man of his natural right and liberty to pursue his own happiness under the guidance of his own judgment and by the use of his own property."
Formats
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On Voting

11/07/2018Mises Media
Since each person votes for different reasons, we can't morally say that the outcome of an election binds people to any specific law or policy.
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On Voting

U.S. History

Blog11/06/2018

Since each person votes for different reasons, we can't morally say that the outcome of an election binds people to any specific law or policy.

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