I saw this earlier on youtube and I thought certain people on this website would be interested in seeing the thoughts of Professor Walter Williams.
Ping to the people who regularly discuss the civil war.
Thank you for posting this.
Before the South seceded, it was generally understood that the states had a right to secede. The first ones to want to do that were the New England states way back before.
The deep state at the time wanted no dimunition of their power. Lincoln even said so in his first inaugeration speech.
I would not say I agree with Walter, but I always appreciated that Walter was not a part of the Liberals/Lefists intellectual plantation, and even though Walter is “black” and slavery is the backdrop of the Civil War, Walter has the intellectual homesty to come to his own conclusions. He represents highly why the founders thought “freedom of speech” (intellectual freedom) was so important, so essential.
he appears to take the treaty with Britain in 1783 as our founding document instead of the Declaration of Independence.
He states that “these states came together as principals in 1787 and they created the federal government as their agent”
This ignores our first constitution, The Articles of Confederation which was ratified by 1781.
He seems to be selecting facts and events in a limited way to get to the conclusion he wants to get to, rather than taking in the historical events as they actually occurred.
Darn, I didn’t even know WW had passed. RIP.
I have always thought this, and I had a very liberal friend years ago who thought so too. Think states still have that right.
Any power not reserved for the federal government is the right of the state. The Founding Fathers did not want a state trapped in the country, if the federal government turned against the state. The right to secession was a final check on the Federal government if it turned against a state.
There may be an arguement that states seceded over slavery, but the federal government did not wage war over slavery. It waged war to bring those states back into the union so they can continue to supply the textile barons with bottom-priced cotton.
Dang! My 8th grade history teacher must have been a Walter Williams fan!
This is exactly what my school in the Chicago suburbs taught me. It was the War of Northern Aggression and increasing centralized federal power.
My favorite show to watch that year Firing Line with William F. Buckley. Watched it on our 19” round black and white Rayovac TV in the basement.
My Dad came down one night and said “What the heck are you watching??” Sat down with me and became a major fan.
Miss Mr. Williams.
When New York was still debating whether to ratify the Constitution, some of them thought they could ratify it conditionally (depending on whether a Bill of Rights was added)--James Madison wrote a letter to a New Yorker saying that once you ratify, you can't secede. I think the first time South Carolina threatened to secede was about a week after Congress met for the first time in 1789.
They did. They picked a morally poor reason. But they did.
I also think the other states had a right to say nope. If the south would have won they would have secured their right. But they didn’t.
Put it this way. The colonies had moral right on their side for the revolution, for many reasons. The south had no such moral reasons. They all insisted they’d never give up slavery, so thats what it boiled down to.
When did Walter William pass?
Since there is no provision in the U.S. Constitution for secession, there is nothing preventing it from occurring either. Once the southern states took up arms against the U.S, however, reconquest became a legitimate response.
He believed the transcendent law of nature demanding the right of self-preservation declared the safety and happiness of society must dominate political institutions and require their sacrifice. Any use of force against a state would be invasion.
Ping.
5.56mm
I agree that they had the right to secede.
And they had the right to establish that right by the laws and usages of war.
What they don’t have the right to is to appeal the verdict of the laws of war. Its judgement is final.
Walter Williams was someone I looked up to for his words of wisdom and non nonsense academic rigor. He is of course completely correct here.
Walter Williams was a great man.
The question is more interesting when you strip out the whole slavery issue. Beyond that, I await eagerly to read the documentary support for the right to secede at will. So far no one has made that case, just lots of bloviating.