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The Truth about Secession

By ~Jefferson Paine~

Secession is a Peaceful Act

What is this concept, secession, we’re beginning to hear trumpeted more frequently?  “Secession” means a separation from a community of a part of that community – Black’s Law Dictionary.  Simply put, secession is one party’s voluntary withdrawal, or disassociation from another party – it necessitates no attack, no usurpation, no threats, no takeover, no violence – secession is a peaceful act.

Violence need only enter the picture because of a despotic tyrant, an egomaniacal dictator, a despised king, or an abusive spouse who simply can’t stand the idea of their captive, their subject, or their victim, rightfully choosing for themselves to escape his grasp – to leave his control.  In fact, coercion and, frequently, armed force are the favorite instruments of these perpetrators to halt a secession from their corrupt empire.

Perhaps the most remarkable gift of all, bequeathed to us by our Founders, came about from their careful study of the secular philosophy of the Western Enlightenment, and the 18^th century emergence of the “Age of Reason”, made so vividly accessible to the common man by Thomas Paine, and the realization that each individual person was sovereign – literally, “his own king” – never to be ruled over by another.  And yet, our Founders knew these philosophical advances must be forged harmonious with the Laws of Nature, those given to us by our Creator (not by any man).  Natural Laws, be it those of physics, economics, or our inherent human rights, must not only be discovered and understood by man, in order to harness their maximum usefulness, but at the same time it must be recognized they are timeless and immutable, God-given, and therefore, are “unalienable” – in other words, our natural rights can never be diminished, altered, or abolished by man, because they were never created by him!

Not only did our Founding Fathers recognize these miraculous discoveries, but they infused our founding documents with them, laying down in indelible ink for future generations a new form of government, forged from these natural laws, and of their best ideals – to greatly advance civilization for us, their posterity.  And, to this day, we are the heirs of the greatest civilization yet devised - if we can keep it from self-destruction.  And at the very heart of our founding principles and ideals are the natural rights to “self-determination”, leading to the sacred rights of “life”, “property”, and “free association” among others – generally referred to as one’s Freedom, and Liberty.

Not long after a famous Tea Party took place in Boston harbor, and much other ‘rabble-rousing’, our Founding Father’s campaign of secession, from the grips of British tyranny, began in earnest upon our formal Declaration of Independence from the British Empire in July of 1776.  Our core justification, as stated in the Declaration, was that no government was legitimate but for the permission of its People.  We declared our self-determination to the world:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. -That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States;…”

As one can clearly see, three of the most critical principles justifying our existence as an American civilization, by successfully gaining our independence from European oligarchs are:

• 1) The individual Citizen, of We the People, is sovereign.
• 2) The People will decide, and legitimize, how they will be governed.
• 3) American Self-Determination, the maximization of the individual’s Freedom – via free exercise of their sacred natural rights: among others, of Life, Liberty, and Free Association.

Once gaining our rightful independence, our Founders set about forging a new document, our Supreme Law, which would hopefully strengthen the union among the independent States by prescribing a structure for a new, highly limited federal government, a delineation of separated powers, and the enumeration of some essential Citizen’s rights, highlighted explicitly in the Bill of Rights.  This document, our government’s blueprint was, of course, our new U.S. Constitution.

From a structural standpoint, the most remarkable aspect of this new document was its separation of powers in general, and the concept of “federalism” in particular.  This made it most unique in history, and probably was its greatest contribution to the world regarding political science.  What is it?  Federalism is the concept of multiple, or ‘divided sovereignty’, where some power was defined at the federal level while all the rest was the domain of the individual States.  As it turns out, because the individual, free and independent States granted a small and limited amount of authority to the federal government to provide for certain common needs, as the States’ agent, the remainder and the vast majority of power (sovereignty) remained with each individual State (as it states clearly in Amendment X.)

Alexis de Tocqueville, in his world-renown report on our unique form of government Democracy in America, revealed, “The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; in uniting together they have not forfeited their nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people.  If one of the states chooses to withdraw from the compact, it would be difficult to disapprove its right of doing so, and the Federal Government would have no means of maintaining its claims directly either by force or right.”

Why is federalism so remarkable?  Because the political power was divided amongst State and Federal, and thus “total power” was shared between them, one side provided a check on political hegemony over the other!  This had never been done before in history.  In other words, the true structure of Federalism not only provided a division of power, but one entity could “check” (file suit, protest, ignore, partially comply, etc.) the other if one were becoming abusive.  It also means, via the many independent States and their respective governments, with their own unique laws and local customs, that a person has a choice of where to live which best suits their individual desires.  The People, having this choice of governments is perhaps the greatest check of all - for governments then have a large incentive to behave themselves by being attentive to the wishes of its own Citizens. (You may recognize this principle in economics – this incredible, essential benefit is called “competition”)  When Lincoln brainwashed the public into believing that States’ Rights did not exist, and therefore the only “choice” we really have is a singular leviathan Federal Government – it leads us straight to the exploding federal tyranny we are witnessing today.

Federalism Means States' Rights

Federalism does NOT mean (as most believe today, thanks to Lincoln) that the federal government’s power is somehow supreme, and that its hegemonic, centralized, ever-growing power is just natural, and thus, it should naturally be the Master over the individual States and their Peoples.  Thomas Jefferson stated, “the support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican [despotic] tendencies.”

Under the system our Founders crafted for us, the precedence of power is exactly the other way around.  The individual States reserve ALL residual power – that which is not explicitly authorized by them for the federal government to perform as prescribed within the Constitution.  Political primacy actually belongs to the free and independent States, because it is the States themselves who formed the federal government – not the other way around, as Lincoln sycophants continue to deceive – to act only as the States’ limited agent.  As such, the Founders recognized two natural State’s rights which no one at the founding disputed – the right of “Nullification” (a State’s right to ignore a federal edict if it over-steps its constitutional authority), and the right of Secession – the Natural Right to voluntarily leave the union by virtue of its independence, which it never gave away when it voluntarily joined the union; and by virtue of our quintessential right of “Freedom of Association” and of the greater ideal of Self-Determination of any sovereign body of people!

The federal government was formed, and consequently, the U.S. Constitution only applies whilst those States who voluntarily ratified it also, therefore, continue to VOLUNTARILY agree to be bound to it.  In other words, the U.S. Constitution, and hence the federal government, only exists and applies to those States who voluntarily agree to uphold and be bound to this compact among them.  Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution does it prohibit a State from leaving the compact – for, if it did, it would require a State to cease to be “Free and Independent”, as all our founding documents resoundingly declare them to be.  Also, even if the political, constitutional compact were some binding contract, in the legal sense, no party would be perpetually bound to honor the originally written and agreed upon terms when the other party, the federal government itself, continues daily to violate, abuse, and dictate to the States via powers it was never granted by those States.

As magnificent a document as the Constitution turned out to be, its very ratification by the several States was far from certain – as it barely passed overall!  If the right of secession did not really exist, as some will try to assert, then the notion that many of the states would have knowingly ratified an inviolable, perpetual death-pact is certainly absurd.  Three States, Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island, whose ratification votes were quite close, declared in their ordinances of ratification, that being sovereign States, they reserved their natural right to secede from the union.  Virginia’s ratification convention delegates affirmed, “that the powers granted under the Constitution being derived from the People of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to injury or oppression.”

John Quincy Adams, in an 1839 speech celebrating the Constitution, stated: “The indissoluble link of union between the people of the several states of this confederated nation is, after all, not in the right but in the heart.  If the day should ever come (may Heaven avert it!) when the affections of the people of these States shall be alienated from each other; when the fraternal spirit shall give way to cold indifference, or collision of interests shall fester into hatred, the bands of political associations will not long hold together parties no longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated interests and kindly sympathies; to part in friendship from each other, than to be held together by constraint.  Then will be the time for reverting to the precedents which occurred at the formation and adoption of the Constitution, to form again a more perfect Union by dissolving that which could no longer bind, and to leave the separated parts to be reunited by the law of political gravitation to the center.”

Alexander Hamilton, the Founder who was widely known as the greatest proponent of centralized federal power (a “Federalist”), stated in Federalist Paper #81, “It is inherent in the nature of sovereignty not to be amenable to the suit of any individual without its consent.  This is the general sense and the general practice of mankind; and the exemption, as one of the attributes of sovereignty, is now enjoyed by the government of every State in the Union..  The contracts between a nation and individuals are only binding on the conscience of the sovereign, and have no pretentions to a compulsive force.  They confer no right of action, independent of the sovereign will.  To.. authorize suits against States for the debts they owe.. could not be done without waging war against the contracting State.., a power which would involve such a consequence, would be altogether forced and unwarranted.”

At the constitutional convention, Hamilton further stated, “To coerce the States is one of the maddest projects that was ever devised..  What picture does this idea present to our view?  A complying State at war with a non-complying State:  Congress marching the troops of one State into the bosom of another?  Here is a nation at war with itself.  Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself – a government that can exist only by the sword?”  Tragically, Hamilton’s warning describes exactly what Lincoln later perpetrated against the southern States.

For those who may continue to doubt a State’s natural right of secession, let me ask you this:  Could our Founding Fathers have ever forbade the right of secession, or ever dreamed of secession as illegitimate, when it was precisely their own righteous secession, the escape from British abuse which literally forged the steely bonds of their cause – those which actually bound our Founding Patriots together when they mutually pledged to each other “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”?!

Please, give me your feedback; leave a comment on this vital subject.   -JP

Tags: Constitution, Constitutional Crisis, Federal Tyranny, Federalism, Fight for Your Liberty!, Freedom is Not Free!, Natural Rights, Patriots vs Marxist Subversives, Secession, State's Rights, Usurped States of America