The Secessionist States of America by Douglas MacKinnon

Author:Douglas MacKinnon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

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After reading this powerful essay from William Rawle, two certainties become abundantly clear:

The first—all things being equal, his overriding hope was that as long as the Union stayed true to the guiding principles of our Constitution and the beliefs of our Founding Fathers, it should remain whole.

The second—any state at any time, has the right to secede from the Union, especially if her people no longer believe the United States is adhering to the guiding principles of our Constitution or the vision of our Founding Fathers.

In such a case, to quote Mr. Rawle, “nothing is more certain than that the act should be deliberate, clear, and unequivocal.”

While the subject terrifies some, the absolute constitutional reality is that states do have the right to secede from the Union. Period.

To accomplish the task, an individual state legislature need only to vote in favor of secession and sign a declaration—much like the Declaration of Independence—proclaiming such. Once this is complete, that particular state would be an independent country.

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Staying on topic with the question of the legality of secessionism we have the following excerpts from an exceptional essay by Dr. Brion McClanahan, who is not only a highly respected and trusted historian, but also a bestselling author.

Said Mr. McClanahan in part:

from “Is Secession Legal?” TheAmericanConservative.com, December 2012

With all fifty states offering petitions to the central government to leave the Union, the legality of secession is now front page news in the United States. Can a state legally secede from the Union? Many, including Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, suggest no. In a 2006 letter, Scalia argued that a the question was not in the realm of legal possibility because 1) the United States would not be party to a lawsuit on the issue 2) the “constitutional” basis of secession had been “resolved by the Civil War,” and 3) there is no right to secede, as the Pledge of Allegiance clearly illustrates through the line “one nation, indivisible.”

. . . These arguments seem like a fairly strong case against secession. Three Supreme Court justices, one famous president, a bloody war, and the language of a modern pledge of allegiance offer conclusive proof that secession, while an entertaining philosophical exercise, has no legal basis. Their various opinions and conclusions, however, all have gaping holes.

Scalia’s positions are the most vapid. Secession, as accomplished by the Southern states in 1860 and 1861 and as discussed by the North at the Hartford Convention in 1815, is an independent act by the people of the states, and accomplished in the same fashion as the several conventions that occurred throughout early American history. The United States would never be a party to a lawsuit on the issue because secession, both de facto and de jure, is an extra-legal act of self-determination, and once the States have seceded from the Union, the Constitution is no longer in force in regard to the seceded political body. This same rule applies to the Article I, Section 10 argument against secession.

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