What is Property?fromA Letter to Grover Cleveland Published 1886 Lysander Spooner |
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Lysander Spooner answers...
The right of property is the right of supreme, absolute, and irresponsible dominion over anything that is naturally a subject of property, - that is, of ownership. It is a right against all the world. And this right of property - this right of supreme, absolute, and irresponsible dominion over anything that is naturally a subject of ownership - is subject only to this qualification, viz., that each man must so use his own, as not to injure another.If A uses his own property so as to injure the person or property of B, his own property may rightfully be taken to any extent that is necessary to make reparation for the wrong he has done.
This is the only qualification to which the natural right of property is subject.
When, therefore, a government takes a man's property, for its own support, or for its own uses, without his consent, it practically denies his right of property altogether; for it practically asserts that its right of dominion is superior to his.
No man can be said to have any right of property at all, in any thing - that is, any right of supreme, absolute, and irresponsible dominion over any thing - of which any other men may rightfully deprive him at their pleasure.
