Posted on 01/19/2021 4:38:09 PM PST by rfreedom4u
Many people have stated that secession is illegal and not allowed as determined by the American Civil War. But is it really? Throughout the history of the United States our government has supported the independence/secession of states/territories/colonies from various other nations.
Haiti seceded from the French empire through a slave revolt. South Sudan broke from Sudan. Yugoslavia broke into several countries and later Kosovo seceded from Serbia. Czechoslovakia split into two countries. The Soviet split into quite a few countries. The UK left the European Union. And many others….
So why do people say secession is illegal in the United States? There’s nothing in the US Constitution that mentions secession. The Tenth Amendment states “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.” Using my logic this means that since the issue of secession is not given to the federal government it is reserved to the states or the people themselves to determine. I’ve read the constitution of my own state (Texas) and secession is not mentioned at all. This even furthers my belief that is should be determined by the people.
If I were to join a club and did not like what the club became, I would be well within my rights to quit that club. If I go to see a movie and don’t like it, I can walk out. So why would anyone believe that the United States is a “once you’re in you can’t leave” type of deal? When someone doesn’t like the state in which they live they are free to move to another state or even another country.
If secession/independence/splitting up is supported for other people in the world why is it not ok for citizens of the United States? And yes, I know that politicians are garbage and want to maintain their power and control. So please give me your opinion on whether it is legal or not and why you think that way? But please spare me the “if it’s broke, we don’t run away, we fix it” argument. At this point I am fairly certain that it is not repairable.
You are missing the whole point of the “union”. The Declaration and the Constitution establish the framework of not just a union of states but of “one people”. It was a vote of the people in ratifying conventions in each new state that created the union. One joined it takes the consent of the whole for a State to depart. You are simultaneously a citizen of your state and of the nation as a whole. Just as one state may not abrogate or diminish your citizenship rights in another state, a state may not abrogate or diminish your national citizenship though secession. Lincoln laid this all out, many times.
There is no constitutional process for dissolving all or part of this union of states and people. A constitutional amendment would have to be enacted that would lay out the process. Good luck with that. Just trying to figure out who absorbs the national debt or how to keep social security payments flowing or how to divide military assets would never be resolved.
You may not be a citizen of California or Texas or Ohio, but as an American you have as much “right” to to those states as anyone else. Equal protection of the law and other federal rights is what you gained in union, having that also granted to all American citizens. That can’t be taken from you by another citizen or a state in any legal manner.
No one will endure bad optics
All those will be painted as white racist extremists
The media will happily present things this way to the nation
They are doing so already
Nope, Lincoln proved might makes right, and that was only in the end. The south should have sued for peace when they had the upper hand.
By the 10th amendment secession should be legal. The stupid Confederate attack on Fort Sumter and the resulting civil war of 1861-65 has caused the subject of secession to become legally unclear.
Germany, Japan
I believe that during the first week of the first meeting of Congress in 1789, a Congressman from South Carolina threatened secession.
During the War of 1812 there was sentiment for secession in the New England states.
TEXAS can.
I meant certain states in the early years of the nation, they werent colonies anymore
Nope.
But they did try to work within the system for about 3-4 decades and it just kept getting worse and worse for them.
You do see the contradiction there don't you?
Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island would never have ratified the Constitution without assurance that each of them had the right of secession.
That is how it’s implemented NOW, but when the concept was SOLD, they were sovereign nations and that is what the treaties say.
Sometimes if you ask the wrong question you get the wrong answer.
This is a classic example—really dumb and irrelevant question...
If a state secedes, the lawyers will be the least of their worries. :-(
People are citizens of the states they live in
And because they are citizens of hose states they are ciizens of the usa
The founders held this view overwhelmingly, the union was mentioned second, they were virginians, and new yorkers, and pennslyvanians, and also because of that, citizens of the unted stages
Right now there are millions of Americans like myself who are looking for cheap places to retire and not get harassed by the guvmint. These reservations would represent a perfect intersection of cooperative wills. But the Indian Nations have the right to exclude you and me from living there on the basis of how many drops of blood in your veins is injun blood. Sovereign nations. Otherwise, such a thing would be considered extremely racist.
Even if every American secessionist lived in the same state they wouldn't have the power necessary to force a vote on the issue in any state legislature. There is just no popular support for secession in the United states.
If I remember my history correctly that disagreement is settled by bullets.
+1
How do ya figure?
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