by Lance Voorhees
June 9, 2010
Unless you have a Confederate Flag waving from your pickup, you probably think secession a treasonous fantasy reserved for Dixie loving, tobacco chewing, right-wing rednecks. The truth is that a state’s option to withdraw from the Union is a forgotten right that is “as American as apple pie.”
Our nation’s genesis was founded on two secessions. The first occurred when 13 “united Colonies” became “united States” via their Declaration of Independence from Britain. They didn’t solidify as a nation to become the “United States” until ratifying The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union — our first constitution. But this supposedly eternal Union lasted only eight years.
Over Rhode Island’s protest, 12 States seceded from the Confederation and “to form a more perfect Union” drafted our current Constitution. This second United States is what George Washington and Thomas Jefferson referred to as a grand “experiment.”
The Founding Fathers used secession for advancing liberty, considering the right to secede sacred rather than sinful. Even Abraham Lincoln (before he was President), concurred saying people “have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable — a most sacred right.”
This valuable right was one of several unnamed rights the Tenth Amendment was designed to protect:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
Although the right to secede wasn’t prohibited by the Constitution and therefore reserved to the states, several states wanted it spelled-out in case things didn’t work out. Such a guarantee is found in Rhode Island’s ratification document:
“The powers of government may be reassumed by the people (of Rhode Island) whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness.”
This opt-out clause served much like a prenuptial agreement in that it was accepted by the Union before the marriage was consummated, granting the state an exit strategy.
After the Civil War in 1869, the Supreme Court’s Texas v. White ruling declared secession illegal. The decision rendered all ordinances of secession “absolutely null” and void and by extension violated several state ratification documents, making it treasonous for states to even threaten secession as a bargaining tool.
Residents of Nebraska’s Panhandle later used secession as a bargaining chip when they threatened to secede from Nebraska and join Wyoming. Because intrastate secession wasn’t federally forbidden, Nebraska took notice and granted water rights the Panhandlers had insisted on.
A more recent example of secessionist leverage was when President Nicolas Sarcozy threatened to withdraw France from the European Union over a proposed trillion-dollar bailout of Greece that could eventually collapse the euro. Instead of hanging the fist-banging Sarcozy for treasonous threats, the EU opted for a less expensive compromise to keep France from bailing. Impressed with Sarcozy’s stand, I came close to ending my personal boycott of Yoplait yogurt and other French imports.
I don’t advocate that any state yet secede, but rolling over and giving up their best defense against unconstitutional regulations and unfunded federal mandates leaves them somewhat powerless. Washington, like the EU, is a Big Country club that can be brought in line should it risk losing members. Our parent government has willingly stripped states of the right to protect their unborn and is now borrowing billions for bailouts, pushing socialized health care and spending us into bankruptcy. States should stop bending over like children for their federal spankings and stand-up to proclaim, “no more — or else!” But that, my friends, is probably just pie in the sky.
Copyright (c) 2010, Lance Voorhees
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9. June 2010 at 6:06 am
If it is pie in the sky for States to stand up to the Feds, then how in the world will they make the gutsier move to secede?! Plus, it wold then be one or a few against the Feds (if they invaded) OR the Federal government would just ignore said State(s) and go on with a New World Order that the State would then have to contend with.
This is no time for vain imaginations. We MUST begin to vote for principled Constitutionalists in our States, and educate for such, so that we can turn this thing around. Anything else is pie in the sky. We cannot cut off our nose to spite our face. We have legal standing, and we stand before a God who vindicates those who operate in accordance with true Law, in faith.
Edwin Vieira has a good column on taking the states’ rights approach, but not cutting off our nose to spite our face by secession: http://www.newswithviews.com/Vieira/edwin228.htm
10. June 2010 at 8:10 pm
Ironically, the “Pat Henry” of 1775 enlightened the minds of the men at the Continental Congress convention who believed that reconciliation was still possible with Great Britain. Pat Henry rightfully called their attention to the fact that human nature is to indulge in the illusions of hope. As a result of Patrick Henry’s motivation for liberty, the colonies seceded from their political association with Great Britain. The States who want to be free in America must do the same thing today.