Lysander Spooner Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

The Impact of the Cost Principle (and Archive Upgrades, VII)

November 17, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

It’s been sort of a hard week to stay on task, with constant new developments in the Occupy movement and multiple live streams to follow. I’ve also been approached, out of the blue, to collaborate on a Charles Fourier translation that sounds like enough fun to shuffle some things to make room for it in my workflow. As it happens, more of a focus on Fourier will undoubtedly help with projects like Dejacque’s Humanisphere and Proudhon’s Creation of Order, so I’m grateful for the distraction. And work on the archive is still moving right along. I’m at about 525 COinS-equipped […]

Lysander Spooner in “Liberty”

September 29, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve added a number of Lysander Spooner’s anonymous or pseudonymous contributions (as “O”) to Liberty to the Libertarian Labyrinth archive. Unsigned articles Lysander Spooner, “Distressing Problems,” Liberty 1, no. 7 (October 29, 1881): 3. Lysander Spooner, “Guiteau’s ‘Malice’,” Liberty 1, no. 10 (December 10, 1881): 2. Lysander Spooner, “Guiteau’s ‘Devilish Depravity’,” Liberty 1, no. 11 (December 24, 1881): 2. Lysander Spooner, “Guiteau’s Wit,” Liberty 1, no. 11 (December 24, 1881): 3. Lysander Spooner, “Justice Gray,” Liberty 1, no. 12 (January 7, 1882): 2. Lysander Spooner, “The Guiteau Experts,” Liberty 1, no. 12 (January 7, 1882): 2-3. Lysander Spooner, “Andover Theological […]

Edward Stanwood, Mr. Spooner’s Island Community

August 19, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

Edward Stanwood, “Mr. Spooner’s Island Community,” The Radical Review, 578-581. MR. SPOONER’S ISLAND COMMUNITY. If one could only accept all of Mr. Lysander Spooner’s assumptions as true, his argument would be sound and his conclusions would follow. Unfortunately for him, his most material assumptions have no basis. Letus take his first case: one hundred men on a solitary island; each producing ten bushels of wheat, exactly enough for his own wants; each the possessor of coined money to the amount of what we call five dollars. It is true, wheat would have no price, though it would have a value. […]

Lysander Spooner petitions Congress, 1839

June 26, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

In the late 1830s, a young Lysander Spooner was involved in real estate speculation in the Maumee River basin of Ohio. In 1837, he purchased 80 acres along the Maumee, including the town of Gilead, now know as Grand Rapids. Charles Shively’s biography tells some of the story of Spooner’s adventures. Gilead was not ultimately destined to become the great trading city between Toledo and Fort Wayne. The effects of the Panic of ’37, and plans by the State of Ohio to build a dam above Gilead, doomed Spooner’s plans. But it appears that he continued to fight until at […]

Memorial of Lysander Spooner, to 25th Congress

June 26, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

[United States Congressional Serial Set, 3rd Session, 25th Congress, 1839.] 25th Congress 3d Session. SENATE 115 MEMORIAL OF LYSANDER SPOONER, PRAYING To be allowed to improve the navigation of the Maumee river, of slack water, &c. —– January 21, 1839. Referred to the Committee on Roads and Canals, and ordered to be printed —– To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: The memorial of Lysander Spooner, a citizen of the United States, Respectfully represents: That the Maumee is a navigable river within the States of Ohio and Indiana; that it also has navigable […]