Quotes from Lysander Spooner
Quotes that appear on this page are taken from the works of Lysander Spooner, a 19th century lawyer and legal theorist as well as an ardent abolitionist.
Works quoted include (click on a name to jump to their section):
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Essay on the Trial by Jury Quotes
These quotes are taken from Spooner's celebrated work on trial by jury that most extensively argues for jurors' right to judge law as well as fact in cases before them. It follows roughly two years after publication of Illegality of the Trial of John W. Webster, a shorter work which also argues for jury independence.
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"They [the jurors] must judge of the existence of the law; of the true exposition of the law; of the justice of the law; and of the admissibility and weight of all the evidence offered; otherwise the government will have everything its own way..."
—Lysander Spooner, An Essay on the Trial by Jury, 1852
"For more than six hundred years — that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215 — there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge of the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such laws."
—Lysander Spooner, An Essay on the Trial by Jury, 1852
"But for their right to judge the law, and the justice of the law, juries would be no protection to an accused person, even as to matters of fact; for, if the government can dictate to a jury any law whatever, in a criminal case, it can certainly dictate to them the laws of evidence."
—Lysander Spooner, An Essay on the Trial by Jury, 1852
"But all this "trial by the country" would be no trial at all "by the country," but only a trial by the government, if the government could either declare who may, and who may not, be jurors, or could dictate to the jury anything whatever either of law or evidence that is of the essence of the trial."
—Lysander Spooner, An Essay on the Trial by Jury, 1852
"If the government may decide who may and who may not be jurors, it will of course select only its partisans and those friendly to its measures."
—Lysander Spooner, An Essay on the Trial by Jury, 1852
"Any government, that is its own judge of, and determines authoritatively for the people, what are its own powers over the people, is an absolute government of course. It has all the powers that it chooses to exercise. There is no other (or at least no accurate) definition of a despotism than this."
—Lysander Spooner, An Essay on the Trial by Jury, 1852
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Vices Are Not Crimes Quotes
This quote is taken from the account written up after the famous 1670 trial of William Penn and William Mead, who were being prosecuted for supposedly causing a tumult by preaching the Quaker religion in Gracechurch Street in London.
Text versions for copy and paste:
"Crimes are those acts by which one man harms the person or property of another.
Vices are simply the errors which a man makes in his search after his own happiness. Unlike crimes, they imply no malice toward others, and no interference with their persons or property."
—Lysander Spooner, Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty, 1875
"If government is to take cognizance of any of these vices, and punish them as crimes, then, to be consistent, it must take cognizance of all, and punish all impartially. The consequence would be that everybody would be in prison for his or her vices. There would be no one left outside to lock the doors upon those within."
—Lysander Spooner, Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty, 1875
"It is only those persons who have either little capacity, or little disposition, to enlighten, encourage, or aid mankind, that are possessed of this violent passion for governing, commanding, and punishing them."
—Lysander Spooner, Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty, 1875
"For a government to declare a vice to be a crime, and to punish it as such, is an attempt to falsify the very nature of things. It is as absurd as it would be to declare truth to be falsehood, or falsehood truth."
—Lysander Spooner, Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty, 1875
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Illegality of the Trial of John W. Webster Quotes
These quotes are taken from Spooner's post-execution argument in defense of John W. Webster. Webster was convicted by a jury from whom three people were excluded for their views in opposition to the death penalty. This essay precedes Spooner's Essay on the Trial by Jury by roughly two years. Spooner argues that the jury's right to judge the law as well as the facts in a case before them includes the right to consider the consequences of a guilty verdict as part of their work.
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"The law does not require a man to cease to be a man, and act without regard to consequences, when he becomes a juror."
—Lysander Spooner, Illegality of the Trial of John W. Webster, 1850
"It is supposed that if any portion of "the country," (as represented in the jury), dissent from the conviction or punishment, that dissent gives sufficient reason at least to doubt the propriety or justice of such conviction or punishment."
—Lysander Spooner, Illegality of the Trial of John W. Webster, 1850
"The trial by jury was intended to be—what it has so often been denominated—"the palladium of liberty;" the great bulwark for the protection of individuals against the oppression of the government. But it would be but a partial and imperfect protection against that oppression, if the "judgment" of the jury, as to the degree of punishment to be inflicted, could not be interposed between the convict and the government. The government could punish the slightest offences in the most cruel and unreasonable manner."
—Lysander Spooner, Illegality of the Trial of John W. Webster, 1850
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