It is self-evident that no number of men, by conspiring, and

"It is self-evident that no number of men, by conspiring, and calling themselves a government, can acquire any rights whatever over other men, or other men's property, which they had not before, as individuals." – Lysander Spooner

In this thunderous declaration, Lysander Spooner, the fierce libertarian thinker of the 19th century, lays bare a principle as eternal as reason itself: that no government, however large or lawful it may appear, can claim any moral power that its individual members do not already possess. His words pierce through the illusions of authority, calling men to remember that might does not create right, and that collective power—no matter how democratic or divine it is proclaimed—cannot sanctify injustice. Here, Spooner wields logic as a blade, cutting down the ancient superstition that the state is a moral being greater than the sum of its citizens.

The origin of this quote lies in Spooner’s lifelong battle against tyranny disguised as legality. He was born in 1808 in Massachusetts, a time when the American Republic was still young and proud of its freedom. Yet Spooner saw that even in this land of liberty, governments had already begun to claim powers they never rightfully possessed—taxation without true consent, the regulation of commerce, and worst of all, the defense of slavery. To him, such acts were not the actions of a free people but of a conspiracy cloaked in law. His writings, particularly No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority, challenged the very foundations of political obedience, asserting that no parchment signed by others could bind a free soul without its voluntary consent.

The meaning of his words is both simple and revolutionary. Spooner insists that the morality which binds the individual must also bind the state. If it is wrong for a single man to steal from another, it cannot become right when a group of men form a government and call that theft “taxation.” If it is immoral for one person to enslave another, it remains immoral when written into the codes of law. Thus, the legitimacy of government does not come from its power to coerce, but from the consent of the governed—a consent freely given, not presumed. In essence, he calls all men to remember that justice is not a creation of law, but its measure.

To understand the fire that forged Spooner’s conviction, one must recall his defiance of authority in practice, not just in theory. When the U.S. government claimed a monopoly on mail delivery, Spooner founded the American Letter Mail Company in 1844 to prove that private citizens could serve one another more efficiently and cheaply than the state. His enterprise succeeded—until Congress shut it down by force. Yet even in defeat, Spooner’s message resounded: freedom is the natural state of man, and coercion its perpetual enemy. His rebellion was not lawless; it was lawful in the higher sense—the law of reason, of justice, of individual sovereignty.

Through this lens, his quote becomes not merely political, but profoundly moral. He warns that the moment men begin to believe that collective agreement can sanctify injustice, they open the door to every form of tyranny. Kings once justified their power by divine right; democracies now justify theirs by majority rule. But in both, the principle is the same: the subordination of the individual to the will of others. Spooner rejects this utterly, declaring that no title, no vote, no office can make oppression virtuous. Government, if it is to exist at all, must serve the same moral boundaries that bind every man—to do no harm, to take nothing by force, and to respect the liberty of all.

History itself confirms his warning. Consider the fate of the Weimar Republic, which through legal means gave birth to the Nazi regime. Ordinary citizens, acting within the framework of law, granted their government powers that would annihilate millions. Here was Spooner’s prophecy fulfilled: men conspiring, calling themselves a government, and claiming rights—over life, over property, over conscience—that no individual could ever rightly claim. The state, when unrestrained by moral principle, becomes a beast wearing the mask of civilization.

The lesson of Spooner’s wisdom is one every generation must relearn: that freedom dies not when armies invade, but when individuals surrender their sovereignty to collective authority. Governments, institutions, and systems have no soul apart from the men and women who compose them. Therefore, the duty of every free person is to measure all laws by conscience, to refuse blind obedience, and to remember that justice begins within the self.

Let each citizen, then, live by Spooner’s creed: that power does not create right, that no signature can annul moral truth, and that no multitude can justify what is wrong. The truest form of government is self-government, and the highest law is liberty itself. For when individuals walk in justice, no tyranny can rise against them—and when they forget this truth, even the fairest republic becomes but another conspiracy against the soul of mankind.