Working on his father's farm until he was twenty-five, Spooner was almost entirely self-educated. He worked at various jobs in Worcester, Massachusetts, spending a year in the Registrar of Deeds. It was here he acquired an interest in the law and in 1833 began formal studies at the offices of John Davis (later governor and US Senator). Spooner studied under Charles Allen, who would later become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. On his own, Spooner also studied theology and philosophy and in 1834 published The Deist's Immortality, an attack on Christianity and a defense of his own religious skepticism. Although not possessing a degree in law, Spooner successfully petitioned the Massachusetts legislature in 1835 for a relaxation of the statute which until that time had required a degree for such practice and which naturally favored those who could afford a college education. In 1836, he worked for the National Bank of New York City until he saved the necessary funds to travel West. He suffered financial failure in real estate speculation in Ohio and returned to Althol in 1840. He started a company to compete with the US Postal Service monopoly, but this too eventually failed and he turned his attention to the Abolition movement. In 1846, he published The Unconstitutionality of Slavery, subsequently adopted as an official text of the Liberal Party in their 1848 platform. He continued to work vigorously for abolition until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Following the war in 1867, he published No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority which argued that the Constitution had been invalidated by the events leading to the war. Spooner was a prolific writer whose other major works included Essay on the Trial by Jury (1850), New System of Paper Currency (1861) and New Banking System. |
