No Treason No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority
Also known as The Constitution of No Authority, No Treason No. 6
Lysander Spooner's essay arguing the US Constitution binds no one who did not consent to it.
At a glance
Key ideas
A contract among the dead, Voting is not consent, Few ever could consent …
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- Spooner treats the Constitution as having no authority except as a contract, and says it binds only the people alive when it was written.
- It cites posterity but claims no power to bind it.
- Voting is not consent, since a voter either rules others or is ruled by those who vote.
- Taxes are not consent because they are compulsory; he compares government to a band of robbers.
Why it matters
- Written in 1867 as the North reconquered the Confederacy, it argues that no one alive had consented to the Constitution.
Key facts
- Author
- Lysander Spooner1
- Written
- 18671
- Series
- One of three No Treason essays (No. 1, No. 2 and No. 6); no essays between No. 2 and No. 6 were published1
Key ideas
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A contract among the dead1
The Constitution could bind only those who made it, not their descendants.
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Voting is not consent1
The choice is to vote and become a master of others, or abstain and be a slave to those who vote.
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Few ever could consent1
Only about one-sixth of Americans had been allowed to vote.
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Taxes are not consent1
Compulsory payment proves nothing; an honest robber at least does not claim to protect you.
Connections
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