Lysander Spooner

In his conclusion, Spooner targets the shadow‐​governing class of elites who use civic religion to manipulate a public unwilling to govern themselves.

Spooner exposes the great Government Conspiracy and seeks to assign moral responsibility for the actions of a criminal gang shielded by mythological legitimacy.

Spooner disabuses us of the notion that paying taxes or voting is equivalent to offering one’s consent to be governed.

Having dispensed with the idea of consent to government, Spooner pivots to ask–Whose Constitution is it, anyway?

Spooner begins his most important work by attacking the idea that we have consented to be governed by the United States government.

Some abolitionists saw the state as complicit in slavery and tried to fight slavery without its help.

When it comes to checking tyranny, the jury box beats the ballot box.

Spooner argues in this radical essay that the Constitution, which he frames as a legal contract, is not binding.