No Treason The Constitution Of No Authority (Paperback)

~ Lysander Spooner (Author) "The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation..." (more)
Key Phrases: authentic contract, pretended agents, future robberies, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

What is the motive to the secret ballot? This, and only this: Like other confederates in crime, those who use it are not friends, but enemies; and they are afraid to be known, and to have their individual doings known, even to each other. They can contrive to bring about a sufficient understanding to enable them to act in concert against other persons; but beyond this they have no confidence, and no friendship, among themselves.

About the Author

Spooner was an American political philosopher, abolitionist, anarchist and legal theorist. He raised his voice against slavery and was a prominent figure of the Abolitionist Movement. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing (June 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419137190
• ISBN-13: 978-1419137198
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.1 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,099,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essay of flaws underlying the basis of this Republic., July 9, 1999

By	Dan Marks ([e-mail]) (Houston, Republic of Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Treason (Libertarian Broadsides Series : No 5) (Paperback)

It has been said in other places that Spooner raises a rather obscure point regarding the legitimacy of the U.S. Constitution. This point of view now writes him out of the history books. Another writer describes this particular work as the single most subversive piece ever written in the United States -- an opinion shared by those who are narrow-minded about giving up their individual liberty.

If the Constitution has no authority, what does? Is it power, like might making right, that controls and restrains our liberties? Or is it the individual, who must live under the rules of the coercive collective, through ballot counts of a minority of the population, the "voters"?

And if the Constitution does have authority, does that authority include authorizing our government to abuse our rights as citizens and as people?

Spooner notes in his opening, speaking of the original writers of the Constitution, "If they had intended to bind their posterity to live under it, they should have said that their object was, not 'to secure to them the blessings of liberty,' but to make slaves of them; for if their 'posterity' are bound to live under it, they are nothing less than the slaves of their foolish, tyrannical, and dead grandfathers." So starts the essay.

Destroying all support for voting by secret ballot, for voluntarily paying taxes, for respecting elected officials (members of a "secret band of robbers and murderers"), for recognizing treaties, for giving oaths to support the Constitution, etc, etc,... the essay makes all common wisdom built upon our accepted, politically correct fallacies collapse under the weight of our own reason.

If you ever read this book, remember... our rights are not granted by government; rather, we institute government to protect our rights.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Critique of the constitution and social contract in America, May 13, 1998

By	Richard G. Bunker Jr. (Jenkintown, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: No Treason (Libertarian Broadsides Series : No 5) (Paperback)

This is certainly a different way to look at an American citizen's relationship to society, the US Government, and the Constitution of the United States. I find it brilliant, if a bit redundant by the end. Spooner applies all of the various tests to which a lawyer submits a contract, to the relationship between citizen and Constitution. If you buy the precept that this is a pseudo-contractual relationship, then you will find that it is, as Spooner puts it, a "Constitution of no authority."

If you feel that this is not a contract, or that it is some sort of special contract, well then this book will probably just bore and/or annoy you. I am not sure how to understand the Constitution, or my participation in a tacit social contract, and found this book entirely compelling and wonderful. I buy many copies and hand them out to my long-suffering friends.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best if read several times..., April 21, 2002

By	Daniel B Marks (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Treason (Libertarian Broadsides Series : No 5) (Paperback)

. We would be amiss to state the pamphlet as redundant upon a single reading. It sounded quite repetitive to me the first time I read it. But, when I tried to summarize the theme, I found that the points Spooner makes include several distinct areas of discussion. And, it builds to a climax. He ultimately points out the real rulers of this country, "... these soulless blood-money loan-mongers... And now these lenders of blood-money demand their pay; and the government, so called, becomes their tool, their servile, slavish, villainous tool, to extort it from the labor of both the North and the South."
. Spooner repeats in places for emphasis, but the thread of his argument sweeps on through the various objections that one might raise along his route.
. If you think it repeats, try to outline it. You'll find that each section presents his point in another light.
. As a matter of fact, any attempt to state the theme in a paragraph would lower it to a statement of personal opinion rather than the masterful essay which it is.

Dan Marks
Republic of Texas
.