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 18th 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.
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