Headline from a recent “World Net Daily” article: “’Think outside the box’: Lawmaker floats idea of state seceding to resist President-elect Trump.” This lawmaker was in New York and suggested persuading “several nearby states” to join in. Frankly, to be perfectly honest, if they want to do that, I would not object. I just hope they’d take California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota with them.
The conversation about a “national divorce” occasionally crops up, though it hasn’t reached tsunami-like proportions since 1860. Vivek Ramaswamy, during the Republican primaries, said some interesting things about it. And he wasn’t the first. Marjorie Taylor Greene mentioned it a couple years ago, and I saw some popular conservative columnists broach the subject (though not advocating it—yet). Because Trump won, Lefties are not mentioning it, but certainly not conservatives. But Democrats brought it up before (after the 2016 election naturally), and apparently, they’re bringing it up again. And they aren’t going to do anything but bring it up. But, if they want to go...
Any mention of “secession”—and let’s be honest, “national divorce” means somebody initiates a split—often brings calls of “treason,” “traitor,” “un-patriotic,” and “Southern hick” among a certain class of people, depending on who is suggesting it and who is listening. I’m sure it’s racist, too, since everything in America is now. Well, that is, if someone on the right proposes it. It obviously isn’t racist from its current source (New York).
“Secession” immediately conjures up vision of America’s horrid “Civil War” of 1861-65, an event which truly was a national calamity and leaves a bad taste in our mouths about “secession.” I wish to clearly state that I am NOT advocating secession in this article. What I wish to do here is simply point out that secession is something that, up until the War Between the States, had a rather imposing history in America. And it wasn’t just Southern rednecks who believed in the concept. The Left has brought it up now, so I feel like, as an historian, I can write about it. Let’s look at it. Just in case...
1. The Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson, of course, argued that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are gifts bestowed upon “all men” by their “Creator” (not by government). Indeed, governments exist to “secure” (protect) those rights, not give them, and that the only source of government authority comes from “the consent of the governed.” Consequently, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” Now, certainly, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.” However, “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” Their “right” and their “duty.” So, the American colonists seceded from the British empire. Just like Texas seceded from Mexico rather than live under a corrupt and tyrannical military dictatorship. The American Revolution was an act of secession. Kinda hard to condemn that one.
2. Jefferson’s inaugural address, 1800. “If any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation...to a continuance in union...I have no hesitation in saying, ‘let us separate...’” It wasn’t just “get out if you want to,” he did offer some olive branches, but the bottom line was, Jefferson believed that secession was certainly better than war or an unnatural union where states were forced to submit to a national government they did not consent to. Obviously, no state did, during Jefferson’s administration, secede, but the fact he mentioned it indicated there was some talk about it. Indeed, some malcontents in California spoke of “secession” when Donald Trump was elected in 2016. Some might wish they had...
3. Abraham Lincoln. In 1848, because of the Mexican War, Lincoln made the following statement to Congress:
“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, 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 – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so much of the territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with, or near about them, who may oppose their movement.”
Now, interestingly, Mr. Lincoln, when he became President and the Southern states actually did what he said in 1848 they could do, argued, “I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is Perpetual,” i.e., secession is illegal. And that has been the view most Americans have advanced ever since. The North won the war and that has generally been accepted as the best outcome, though it isn’t a universally held viewpoint.
This is a small sampling of early American thought on secession. I could, and may in future columns, amplify on the subject. Again, I’m certainly not advocating for such to happen now. But the idea does have a venerable tradition in American history. Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln are not small fry. I think most of us hope it doesn’t occur. But, if New York wants to go, well, Jefferson and Lincoln...
And I will say this: I, personally, would not be willing to fight in a blood-soaked civil war to keep New York and California in our Union.
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