Lysander Spooner

Lysander Spooner was born in 1808 on a farm in Athol, Massachusetts. He studied law in the offices of local lawyers, but Massachusetts required non-college graduates to study for five years before practicing, while college graduates needed only three. Spooner opened a practice anyway and wrote a successful protest, and the legislature dropped the rule in 1836. In 1844 he started the American Letter Mail Company to compete with the United States Post Office, charging lower rates; the government forced it out of business with lawsuits. An opponent of slavery, he wrote The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1845), arguing that the Constitution did not legally permit slavery. After the Civil War he wrote No Treason (1867–1870), a series of essays arguing that the Constitution has no authority over people who never agreed to it, and opposing treason charges against the defeated secessionists. His writings later influenced libertarian and anarchist thinkers. He died in Boston in 1887.

Lysander Spooner is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Son of a deist father; his own beliefs are not well documented. Source: Wikipedia