ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Some thoughts about secession

Updated on October 13, 2020
Nick Burchett profile image

Nick is a US Army veteran, husband and father of three, and has a BA in history. He is a Civil War aficionado and also enjoys genealogy.

Charleston Mercury’s December 20th 1860, “The Union is Dissolved” issue.
Charleston Mercury’s December 20th 1860, “The Union is Dissolved” issue. | Source

Do you think secession is legal under the U.S. Constitution?

See results

The talk of states seceding from the United States goes all the way back to even before the United States were the United States. Lately, with the re-election of President Obama, many disgruntled people are signing petitions at a breakneck pace to have their respective states secede from the Union. As of the writing of this hub, every state has a petition submitted (remember these are by private citizens and not the state governments themselves) and at least seven have enough to warrant a response from the White House per their statement on the "We The People" petition site.

Lets just start by saying that there is never going to be a clear answer on this. Ever. New York, Rhode Island and Virginia made it a stipulation to signing the Constitution in ratification documents that they have the right to back out. Virginia's reads,

“The People of Virginia declare and make known 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 their injury or oppression and that every power not granted thereby remains with them and at their will.”

New York and Rhode Islands are almost identical. Pennsylvania and New England early in the 19th century attempted to seceed and when John C. Calhoun spoke of secession in South Carolina, President Andrew Jackson threatened to send Federal troops down there and put a quick end to that sort of talk.

Then the Civil War happened and for four years the United States was indeed divided. In 1869, Texas brought a case to the Supreme Court that challenged the secession right and lost. In 1870 the last state that formed the Confederate States of America was readmitted to the Union (Georgia, July 15, 1870). It seemed that the notion of secession had been settled.

Over the years since the Civil War, many citizens have pushed again for secession when their political ideologies were not fulfilled, when they felt they were not being heard by the government, or when they were just plain mad that their candidate lost.

Now, with renewed talks of secession other things need to be looked at. The polarization in America is divisive as it was during the Civil War. The double-talk of politicians, the want/opposition of government intrusion into almost every portion of Americans lives, the blaming of both parties on the current financial cliff the country is teetering on, the threat of terrorism and of course, war. Many Americans quite honestly are fed up and feel helpless and want the government to listen to them, not tell them what to do.

So, lets look at secession, the pros, the cons and the in's and out's of it and what it means.

Will Texas be the first seceed?
Will Texas be the first seceed? | Source

The first question that is going to be asked is "Is secession legal?" As I said before, I don't believe this question is black and white and contains many shades of gray and will never be ultimately defined. The Constitution says, in no clear-cut words, anything about the legality of secession. It does talk about admitting new states, but not leaving. So the argument is that under the Tenth Amendment, silence in a matter means there is no Federal power. However, in Texas vs White, the Supreme Court made it clear that secession was illegal, and that the inference that there is a provision for admitting states and not for leaving, seems to prove that you can join, but you cannot leave. It seems that the wording of the Constitution was created in such a way that it leaves a backdoor for both viewpoints, ergo, I don't believe this question will ever truly be answered. It seems that secession is legal and illegal - depending on individual interpretation.

The Supreme Court has always made it clear that when they rule it is law. John Marshall even went as far to imply that it is so because the Supreme Court says so. However, there are a number of times where there seems to be emotional, political and ulterior motives at work in some of their decisions. Look at the current Health Care Reform Act. The President says "it is not a tax", the Supreme Court says it is. If the Supreme Court is right, then fundamentally Obamacare is illegal. Secession falls into the same category. There appear to be more instances of secession being permissible than not in regards to the Constitution.

Secondly, what is secession? Merriam-Webster defines it as "withdrawal into privacy or solitude. formal withdrawal from an organization." Oxford Dictionary defines it as "the action of withdrawing formally from membership of a federation or body, especially a political state." Is that what the original 13 British colonies did? They "seceded" from the organized, political body known as the British Empire. So one has to wonder - why was that called a "revolution" and it's perpetrators considered patriots and the Confederate states considered traitors? Were they not both withdrawing from a pact they felt did not serve their purposes? The parallels are the same. One group of people, using the foundations of the previous government, creating a new nation that represented it's people in a manner better suited to their needs.

Now, while I do not condone secession, I also do not think that pushing it under the carpet and saying "that can and won't ever happen" or that it was solved after the Civil War is wise or prudent. The matters that bring about the idea of secessions - the underlying problems, obstacles and issues - HAVE to be addressed in the context of secession. If one group simply states it is illegal and we will not allow that to happen without dialogue with the other party is inviting a replay of America in the mid-nineteenth century.

Both sides of the debate will list ones pros as the others con. I do not think there is a pro to secession in the long term. States as of today are in no way prepared to carry the burden of sole ownership of their state. They have too much invested in the Union. National Guard units that are raised for state needs are done so by the authority of the Federal government. This means the states have zero rights to their state guard units. The highway systems that connects America is a Federal project, that would be a huge problem. What about airlines? Would you need a passport to travel into individual state-countries? How about Federal grants? Subsidies? Banks? Law enforcement? Foreign relations? Labor? Taxes? It has become such a more complex situation as opposed to when the country was still in it's infancy. Splitting now would prove disastrous for everyone involved.

And don't think that the other countries, especially those who would absolutely love to see America fall apart, are not watching. America and it's former comrades all would be ripe for all sorts of anarchy.

In the end change in this country is way beyond overdue. Secession is not the answer. Instead of running away, the people of the nation need to become more involved at a personal level and be the architects of change. Americans need to educate themselves in not only domestic issues put foreign policy and be part of the change that allows the country to once again cause the world to understand why Americans are a different breed of people who became a world power in such a short time by our fortitude. Our youth need to understand responsibility, self sacrifice and our history to be prepared to lead in the future. We need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and right a ship that is perilously close to sinking. Jumping overboard will just cause those jumping to drown and the ship to sink.


Would you join your state in secession or choose to remain in the Union?

See results
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)