Walter William’s essay on secession shows voters and states how to force congress to obey the Constitution. The plan called the Free State Project basically suggests the following scenario. “Twenty or 30,000 Americans who love liberty would move to one state, possibly New Hampshire, peaceably take over the legislature, negotiate with Congress to obey their oath of office to uphold the Constitution and, if necessary, secede from the Union.”
In a related secession poll by World Net Daily, 80% of those responding favored peaceful, democratic, constitutional state by state secession from the central government. Secession certainly isn’t a new political philosophy for Americans, as we achieved our independence through secession from the British Empire.Our founding fathers considered the right of secession as the ultimate defense against a leviathan. It was even taught at West Point. And it worked from the founding of the American republic until Lincoln’s War, to limit the power and scope of the federal government. Three times states from Connecticut to South Carolina threatened secession before Lincoln, and until then it worked.
After Lincoln’s victory at Appomattox, the American and Confederate republics vanished to be replaced by a consolidated government that has continued to grow in tyranny without the check provided by the right of secession. While our politicians would like us to believe their propaganda that the right of secession was permanently abolished by force of arms, this poll, as well as the writings of men like Professor Williams, clearly shows that's not true.
And thank goodness, since no other institutional arrangement can restrain the federal tide of socialism, militarism, and police-statism.
Although New Hampshire is a small, very independence-minded state with the motto “Live Free or Die,” perhaps we should also consider South Carolina. After all, they have done it before, it is home to the largest League of the South state organization working for an independent SC. Also, the state will soon have the first permanent ballot access for a secession party in the South since 1860 with the Southern Party, now only 400 registered voters shy of the 10,000 required.
But frankly, which state goes out first doesn’t really matter, and I’m already counting my extra spending money without the 50% of my income that now goes to fund the federal government and its Social Security system.
August 10, 2002
