Liberty on the Rocks™ Denver

BOSTON, MA – Lysander Spooner, born in 1808 in central Mass. was a freedom fighter in its truest sense. His writings and actions continue to inspire many, including myself and the others aboard MARV. A noted abolitionist that relied on natural law, he opposed tyranny in every form, including that which stems from government and its very existence.

Less than 100 years after the U.S. Constitution had been ratified he wrote that like any contract, it had no authority over him nor anyone else that did not sign it. This, and many other writings helped set the foundations for the freedom movement today. Yet he was not just an armchair philosopher but stood up for his beliefs. He directly challenged the U.S. Postal monopoly by founding a company that directly competed with it that was both more-efficient and less-expensive, until he was forced to close it after being relentlessly sued by the government (he was using his own money to defend himself while the government relied on taxpayer money, which they had stolen from others). He also challenged occupational licensing laws, seeing no reason that he could not act as a lawyer should others choose to employ him as such despite the fact that he did not jump through the requirements set by bureaucrats.

That’s why yesterday, we made sure we stopped by his gravesite to pay our respects and to let him know that we and many others are continuing to advance the ideas he advocated.

For more on Spooner, check out LysanderSpooner.org, a website maintained by law professor Randy Barnett, where you can find much of his professional and personal writings and an overview of his actions

Tags: Syndication

This entry was posted by pete on Saturday, July 11th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Syndication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.