No Treason:
The Constitution of No Authority

by Lysander Spooner

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

Reviews:

courtesy wikipedia.org

In this lengthy essay, Spooner argues that the United States Constitution is a contract of government (see: social contract theory) which was irreparably violated during the American Civil War, and is thus void. Furthermore, since the government now existing under the Constitution pursued coercive policies that were contrary to the Natural Law and to the consent of the governed, it was demonstrated that the document was unable to adequately stop many abuses against liberty or to prevent tyranny from taking hold. Spooner supports his argument by noting that the Federal government, as established by a legal contract, could not legally bind all persons living in the nation, since none had ever signed their names or given their consent to it - this consent had always been assumed, but it fails the most basic burdens of proof for a valid contract in the courtroom.

Spooner widely circulated the No Treason pamphlets, which also contained a legal defense against the crime of treason itself intended for former Confederate soldiers (hence the name of the pamphlet, arguing that "no treason" had been committed in the war by the south). These excerpts were published in DeBow's Review and some other well known southern periodicals of the time, and Spooner's writings went on to contribute to the development of libertarian political theory in the United States, and were often reprinted in early libertarian journals such as the Rampart Journal.

The libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard, founder of anarcho-capitalism, called No Treason "the greatest case for anarchist political philosophy ever written."