Libertas

“Notwithstanding all the proclamations we have made to mankind, within the last ninety years, that our government rests on consent, and that that was the rightful basis on which any government could rest, the late war has practically demonstrated that our government rests upon force – as much so as any government that ever existed.” ~Lysander Spooner

This is an amazing essay. Now I understand why I never heard of Lysander Spooner in school or in any of my conservative readings.

The Destruction of Richmond, Virginia 3 April 1865

Lysander Spooner begins his essay rejecting the idea that the recent war between the states was fought over ending slavery, but was fought instead to compel free citizens to submit to an unwanted government. If this principle is not found in the Constitution, he says, we should know about it, but if it is established by the Constitution, we should  overthrow it.

Despite the claims since the founding that our government rests on consent, the war proved it rests upon force. Either the North’s lust for fame, power, and money blinded it to its gross hypocrisy, or the North never understood what government based on consent meant.

What does government resting on consent imply? Consent of the strongest party? Every government, including the most despotic, is controlled by the strongest party. The most numerous faction? First. Two men have no more right to aggress against one than one man has the right to aggress against two. It does not matters whether one or millions aggress against an individual; it is always a crime. Second. If the majority ruled, it would be the strongest party. If not, the stronger minority would not submit to the weaker majority. Besides, it’s the norm for a minority to rule based on “their superior wealth, intelligence, and ability to act in concert.” Third. The Constitution does not claim that the majority established it, but the people, the minority included. Fourth. The Founders themselves were a minority against those who ruled over them. Fifth. Majorities and minorities equally fail in deciding matters of justice. Sixth. The majorities over time tend to support governments, even those established by force and fraud, because of their ignorance, superstition, timidity, dependence, servility and corruption. The “power, intelligence, wealth, and arrogance” of the rulers awes them, deceives them, and corrupts them. Seventh. Majority rule is nothing more than a contest between two groups over who will be masters and slaves. As long as some refuse to submit, there will always be conflict.

Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) "And the so-called sovereigns, in these different governments, are simply the heads, or chiefs, of different bands of robbers and murderers.

So how do millions of free individuals over a territory become a nation? How does each one, born with natural, God-given rights, lose them and become consolidated into a collective? How is it that now each one is commanded or forbidden against his or her will by threats of “confiscation, imprisonment, and death?” Obviously by “force, fraud, or both.” So, by what right did this nation come into existence? By what right does it remain a nation? And by what right do the strongest or the most numerous claim to rule, seize property, compel others to risk their lives and kill all for their maintenance of power? By what right does a such a nation exist? By what right are so many atrocities committed for its preservation? The answer is by no right! Therefore, a nation or government can only exist rightfully by consent.

What, then, does it mean by consent? Each person alone must consent to support, either by taxation or service, the government. Either each citizen must give consent to support the government or no one’s consent is necessary. Individual consent relates to the idea of treason as well. If one has never agreed to support the government, he or she has never broken faith with it by refusing to support it. Even by going to war against the government, that person is instead an open enemy and not a traitor or betrayer. The Declaration of Independence implies all this or nothing. The people themselves acted as separate individuals and not as a government body when they declared their dissent to support the British Crown. The colonial governments had no authority to declare independence, only the individual members, because the governments were charted by the Crown and owed allegiance to the Crown. As individuals, however, they declared their independence. As individuals they exercised their natural rights and constitutional powers. As individuals they declared their consent to the creation and support of a new government. The Revolution, therefore, established and asserted the right, the universal right, of all to release themselves from supporting the government under which they lived at any time and under any circumstance.

George III (4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) "A traitor is everyone who does not agree with me."

Though King George III called them traitors, they were not. They betrayed nobody, broke faith with nobody. As equals they owed no more allegiance, obedience or duty to him as they owed to anyone else. They exercised their natural right to dissolve their political ties with him and the English people. Then, as now, governments try to stigmatize revolutionaries as traitors, but they are not. They are merely exercising their natural right of dissolving their ties to the government just as there is not betrayal in leaving a church or any other voluntary association. “The principle was true in 1776. It is true now.” The only true principle on which a government can rest, on which the Constitution claims to rest, is the principle of individual consent. If not, it has no right to exist and is the duty of each person to overthrow it. If the Founders had put into the Constitution the absurd ideas of allegiance and treason, which they rejected and fought against, and by which enslaves the world, they deserve at best our disdain, our disgust, and our contempt.

Recommended:

“No Treason, Number 1″ by Lysander Spooner

“No Treason, Number 6: The Constitution Of No Authority” by Lysander Spooner