Lysander Spooner
Lysander Spooner
(January 19, 1808 – May 14, 1887)
Lysander Spooner was a political philosopher who founded the American Letter Mail Company to compete with the U.S. Post Office. This challenge to the post office monopoly is said to have had a lasting influence of significantly reducing postal rates, but the company was eventually forced out of business by the United States government.
Spooner advocated what he called Natural Law or the “Science of Justice.” He regarded acts of initiatory coercion against individuals and their property as unjust, whether it be a citizen or representative of the state to commit it. So-called criminal acts that violated only man-made legislation, were not necessarily so. As outlined in his Constitution of No Authority, justice rest not upon paper where rules are written.
Spooner is known as a radical Abolitionist american individualist anarchist; he was a lawyer, entrepreneur, and legal theorist besides. His writings contributed to the development of libertarian political theory in the United States, and were often reprinted in early libertarian journals such as the Rampart Journal. His writings were also a major influence on Austrian School economist Murray Rothbard.
See Lysander Spooner’s Wikipedia page or get more biographical information.
LysanderSpooner.org also offers letters and correspondence to read online.
The Online Library of Liberty returns excellent results on Spooner.
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