The only security men can have for their political liberty

Lysander Spooner, fiery abolitionist and relentless critic of authority, once declared with unshakable conviction: “The only security men can have for their political liberty, consists in keeping their money in their own pockets.” In these words he strikes at the heart of freedom, proclaiming that liberty does not rest upon parchment constitutions or the benevolence of rulers, but upon the power of the people to guard their own wealth. For whoever commands a man’s purse commands his life, and without economic independence, political rights become empty shadows.

The origin of this truth lies in Spooner’s lifelong battle against oppression—whether in the chains of slavery or in the creeping power of the state. He saw taxation, when severed from consent, as a form of coercion no less vile than tyranny. To him, the ballot was fragile protection, but control over one’s earnings was tangible, the foundation of real autonomy. If men surrendered their money too easily, they surrendered the means to resist injustice, and liberty itself became hostage to power.

History resounds with examples. In the days of the American Revolution, the cry “No taxation without representation” was not mere rhetoric, but a demand for dignity. The colonists understood that if the Crown could seize their wealth at will, their supposed freedoms were a hollow mockery. They took up arms not only for abstract ideals but to protect the fruits of their own labor. Spooner’s words echo that spirit: political liberty dies when wealth is no longer secure in the hands of its earners.

So too in later ages, nations have risen and fallen on this truth. When oppressive regimes drained the people’s wealth through corruption and forced levies, liberty perished. Yet where citizens kept their resources in their own pockets—free to trade, to build, to speak without financial shackles—society flourished in strength. Spooner, ever the radical, saw this not as mere theory but as the bedrock of freedom itself: without economic independence, democracy becomes illusion.

Therefore, O seekers of justice, remember this law of liberty: political freedom cannot live without economic freedom. To keep one’s money is to keep one’s power, to preserve the means of resistance against tyranny. Constitutions may be twisted, rulers may betray their promises, but as long as the people guard their own wealth, they possess the strength to rise again. For the true treasury of liberty lies not in government coffers, but in the pockets of the free.