Lysander Spooner

Property

Spooner believed that every person has absolute dominion over the products of their labor, regardless of if in their possession. He also rejected limits on the amount of property acquirable by taking unowned natural resources, the only exception being if violence were committed against others or their property.

Spooner believed that just as those who labor own the material product, so do scientists and inventors own their discoveries and inventions, and have right over them in all countries and without any expiration date, and when the owner dies the natural right to their property falls to their descendants. He advocated giving intellectual rights to all past inventions and discoveries to their inventors and discoverers, or their descendants.

Wage labor

Spooner was opposed to wage labor on grounds of right of every laborer to own fruits of their labor, and desired that "as a general rule... each man should be his own employer, or work directly for himself". Spooner saw wage laborers as servants "coerce[d] by the alternative of starvation", and the wage system an extension of slavery.

Vices vs. Crimes

Spooner defined vices as "acts by which a man harms himself or his property" and crimes as "those acts by which one man harms the person or property of another". To him, vices are simply errors and don't intend malice, and punishing people for them is an absurdity. Not only would it prevent people from learning what is good or bad, but also impossible, because no person has universal knowledge on what is a virtue and what is a vice. To him, each person has an ability and right to be his own judge of what is a virtue and what is a vice.

Banking

Spooner was a supporter of free banking and proposed his new form of banking system with the value of money attached to specie and real estate, which he believed would prevent inflation.

Militancy

Unlike Benjamin Tucker, Spooner was not opposed to violent uprisings against unjust systems. In 1880 Spooner advocated for the Irish to rise up and kill their British landlords, since he believed the landlords were denying them their natural rights.

Earlier in his book No Treason he hinted at supporting violent revolt against the ruling class of United States.Who compose the real governing power in the country?... How shall we find these men? How shall we know them from others?... Who, of our neighbours, are members of this secret band of robbers and murderers? How can we know which are their houses, that we may burn or demolish them? Which their property, that we may destroy it? Which their persons, that we may kill them, and rid the world and ourselves of such tyrants and monsters?Prominient anarcho-syndicalist Rudolf Rocker described him as "a most militant champion of individualistic anarchism in the United States".

In A Plan for the Abolition of Slavery, and To the Non-Slaveholders of the South, Spooner argued that slaves have a natural right to liberty, compensation, and use of force against their oppressors, and it is the duty of all to help them in their fight. He advocated for forming "Vigilance Committees, or Leagues of Freedom, in every neighborhood or township, whose duty it shall be to stand in the stead of the government, and do that justice for the slaves,... especially to arrest, try, and chastise (with their own whips) all Slaveholders who shall beat their slaves, or restrain them of their liberty; and compel them to give deeds of emancipation, and conveyances of their property, to their slaves." and to "teach the negroes to treat, all active abettors of the Slaveholders, as you and they treat the Slaveholders themselves, both in person and property."Our plan then is—

1. To make war (openly or secretly as circumstances may dictate) upon the property of the Slaveholders and their abettors—not for its destruction, if that can easily be avoided, but to convert it to the use of the Slaves. If it cannot be thus converted, then we advise its destruction. Teach the Slaves to burn their masters’ buildings, to kill their cattle and horses, to conceal or destroy farming utensils, to abandon labor in seed time and harvest, and let crops perish. Make Slavery unprofitable, in this way, if it can be done in no other.

2. To make Slaveholders objects of derision and contempt, by flogging them, whenever they shall be guilty of flogging their slaves.

3. To risk no general insurrection, until we of the North go to your assistance, or you are sure of success without our aid.

4. To cultivate the friendship and confidence of the Slaves; to consult with them as to their rights and interests, and the means of promoting them; to show your interest in their welfare, and your readiness to assist them. Let them know that they have your sympathy, and it will give them courage, self-respect, and ambition, and make men of them; infinitely better men to live by, as neighbors and friends, than the indolent, arrogant, selfish, heartless, domineering robbers and tyrants, who now keep both yourselves and the Slaves in subjection, and look with contempt upon all who live by honest labor.

5. To change your political institutions soon as possible. And in the meantime give never a vote to a Slaveholder; pay no taxes to their government, if you can either resist or evade them; as witnesses and jurors, give no testimony, and no verdicts, in support of any Slaveholding claims; perform no military, patrol, or police service; mob Slaveholding courts, gaols, and sheriffs; do nothing, in short, for sustaining Slavery, but every thing you safely and rightfully can, publicly and privately, for its overthrow.Spooner supported prominent abolitionist militant John Brown and his raid on Harpers Ferry. Spooner even went as far as to propose a plan for abolitionists to kidnap the governor of Virginia, in order to facilitate a prisoner exchange for Brown.