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	• No Treason (Libertarian Broadsides Series : No 5) Lysander Spooner AKPress, 1973 - 80 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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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.

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An Essay That Causes Readers to Think about the U.S. Constitution, the Common Law, and Natural Law

Lysander Spooner's trenchent essay titled NO TREASON: THE CONSTITUTION OF NO AUTHORITY is reason to think about constitutional rights, authority, the legal system vs. natural law, etc. Spooner who was a learned jurist, abolitionist, business man, and "gadfly" to the powers that be before and after this and other essays were written. His comments on the relationship between poltical leaders and the hidden actual "powers behind the throne" are serious comments that thoughtful Americans should carefully consider.

Spooner thought that the Constitution had no binding authority based on the laws of contract, association, and due process. Spooner stated that those who ratified the Constitution had no authority to bind posterity to the document since these men could not get suceeding generations to sign or agree to a contract. Spooner argued that these men expressed a hope and a sentiment rather than any iron-clad contract. Spooner stated that in a legal case of contract, a plantiff could not enforce a judgement against a civil defendant if the defendant's name was not signed to a contract. The U.S. Constitution which was ratified in 1787 could not possibly be contractually binding on future generations. Spooner also used the example of a corporations whose members signed contracts to create these institutions. However, once the original individuals died, the corporation died with them them unless successors agreed to continue the corportation by SIGNED written contract.

Spooner also makes a good case of any political document actually representing the "people." Estimates are that during the first three-quaters of the 19th. century, between one-tenth and one-twentieth of the U.S. population were elgible to vote, and yet even fewer of elgible voters actually voted. Spooner was clear that this is not representing "the people." Spooner was aware that voting was supposed to select the best men for government posts. Yet, voting was too often a self defense motive against those who may vote against one's interests.

Spooner further stated that Article I Paragraph 6 protected U.S. Representatives and Senators from arrest except except for treason, felony,etc. Yet, U.S. Senators and Representatives could meet in secret sessions, "behind closed doors," and in seclusion to make poltical deals that could make any ordinary citizen subject to arrest and trial for criminal conspiracy. Yet, the privledged members of the U.S. Congress were made immune to such legal sanctions. The same could be said for members of state legislatures. Who is the judge of unjust legislation and congressional action? Spooner is clear that appointed federal judges are the final arbiters who rarely overturn such unjust laws. Members of the U.S. Congress are seldom held accountable, and the impeachment and removal from office procedures are so awkward and slow as to be of little or no avial.

Spooner also makes the connection between wealthy interests and the government (any government). Governments borrow huge sums from these interests at extremly high interest rates and use armed force to pay for these loans via taxes. Yet, the lenders sometimes bet on a losing cause. One footnote reminds readers that the French banking house of Erlanger loaned huge sums to the Confederacy who lost the U.S. Civil War. Another example mentioned were the loans made by the Rothchilds to the Hapsburgs in 1866, and the Hapsburgs lost a war with the Prussians so quickly that the war is known as The Seven Weeks War.

There is an interesting comment in this collection of essays that Spooner started a private mail company called the Amercian Letter Mail Company in 1845 which competed successfully with the U.S. Postal Service until The American Mail Letter Company was voted out of existence. There is an interesting comment that Spooner's short-lived business was successful. Stamp collectors do not consider the stamps very valuable because so many are available which implies a good business volume.

Spooner's legal and political thinking are not outdated when one considers the concentrations of power in the U.S. Spooner made the remark that those who swear to uphold the U.S. Constituion have not read it. Whatever Spooner's criticisms of the U.S. Constitution were, they pale into insignificance given the arbitrary use of political power since Post Civil War history. Yet, Spooner's essay and the footnotes to this collection are a reminder of what thoughtful men considered. This reviewer was told that these essays have been used in law schools which may be help some jurists and attorneys put the brakes on arbitrary political actions. This reviewer is reminded of the phony publicity given to some poltical hacks who extolled their Contract with American. When asked about whether if this applied to this reviewer, the answer was "No,where did I sign it and who authorized anyone to speak on my behalf?"

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An essay of flaws underlying the basis of this Republic.

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.

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Dan Marks
Republic of Texas
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The fiery polemic against the State, and the Constitution, from the individualist anarchist, together with an introduction, annotations and new afterword by James J Martin.

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