The Unconstitutional Constitution: Under-standing Post-Civil War Constitutional Disobedience through Lysander Spooner

Abstract

This essay analyzes the post-Civil War constitutional disobedience of the historically neglected nineteenth-century New England radical Lysander Spooner. I explore Spooner’s arguments in No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority written in 1870 when the United States Constitution experienced unparalleled acclamation and became a quasi-canonical text akin in many respects to the Bible. Spooner represents a minority in his attempt to prove the Constitution is paradoxically unconstitutional. By uncovering Spooner’s constitutional qualms, a new window into the complicated world of post-Civil War America is opened by understanding one man’s struggle with constitutional sovereignty.