No Treason, Vol. VI.: The Constitution of No Authority

by Lysander Spooner

"No Treason, Vol. VI.: The Constitution of No Authority" by Lysander Spooner is an essay written in 1867. This radical pamphlet challenges the legitimacy of the U.S. Constitution itself, arguing it violates natural law and operates without true consent of the governed. Spooner, an individualist anarchist and abolitionist, contends that the Constitution's tolerance of slavery and the Civil War's aftermath prove the document has no binding authority over citizens who never personally agreed to it.