Secession Week Blogging: Tuesday – American Secession & Independence Movements

The United States began as a loose federation of states which seceded from the British Empire, exemplifying the local, competitive government that we still favor. Unfortunately, in the ensuing 233 years, the vast majority of power has moved to the central (ironically termed “federal”) government. With a history of local autonomy and secession which is so strong, yet so ancient, it is no surprise that there are strong undercurrents of independence still bubbling in America today.

The future Unitedness of the States is quite unclear. Europe has shown a trend towards centralization, and the iron grip of the US Federal Government is strong. On the other hand, it is common for declining empires to fracture, and the upcoming financial storms of Social Security, Medicare, underfunded pensions, and rising national debt will increase the divisions between young and old, rich and poor, net tax paying states and net tax recipients. Will the Union crack under the pressure? Renard Sexton at 538 thinks not, but only time will tell.

We certainly hope so – because we believe that a world with many small units of political power is more diverse, innovative, cooperative, and better for almost everyone – except federal bureaucrats.

General Background

We begin with the Stanford Encyclopedia for Philosophy’s entry on secession, covering philosophical issues, theories about the right to secede, and secession within international law. Next, Ilya Somin at the popular law blog the Volokh Conspiracy defends secessionism against those who claim that it is necessarily stupid (for example, Ann Althouse) saying: “In light of this history and the ambiguity of the constitutional text, I don’t think that belief in a right to secession is at all unreasonable, much less a sign of obvious ignorance or stupidity.”

Original Posts For Secession Week

Scott Crawford at the Hawaiian Independence Blog explains why Hawaii seeks a restoration, not a secession, including many references and source materials: “…it is very important to understand that Hawaii cannot secede, because it was never ceded. There was never any lawful cession of Hawaii’s sovereignty or territory to the United States, therefore there cannot be secession.

Those seeking to restore Hawaii’s effective independence are very explicit in avoiding the term “secession.” This is more than just semantics. It goes to the heart of Hawaii’s true history and legal status.“

Carol Moore offers a guest post about “top principles for a successful secessionist movement”.

Just My Biased Opinion contributes an original piece covering some of the controversy and concerns about secession found on the Sean Hannity, as well as a good collection of related links.

Stewart Browne writes about Restoring Our Spiritual Faith, and historical cycles from bondage to liberty and abundance and back to bondage.

US State Secesssion & Independence Movements

There are so many independence movements and websites that we cannot list them all, but we will try to cover the major ones. For a more complete listing, see Wikipedia.

Alaska

The Alaskan Independence Party‘s platform reflects the increase in secessionism which has gone along with the last decade’s increase in federal tyranny: “There is a commonly held belief across Alaska, that the US Constitution has been set aside, and other then ourselves, there are no protections to the liberty and freedoms we are to have as our continued inheritance since the formation of the Union of the “several States”. Our main “goal” is a legal vote and ballot; one that was not given in 1958 and was in violation of International Law and Treaty. Alaskan were robbed of the choices we were to have as a non-self-governing territory, and steam-rolled into the current classification of a State.”

California

Jefferson State seeks to unite Northern California and Southern Oregon. It has an interesting history: it got major media attention when it started in 1941, but was pre-empted by the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s entrance into WWII. Proving, yet again, that war and strong central governments go hand in hand.

Florida

No discussion of US secession movements would be complete without The Conch Republic, whose motto is: “We seceded where others failed.”

Hawaii

Quite appropriately, the strongest state independence movement is in Hawaii, a state annexed quite recently (1890’s), and quite illegally. For those who naively view the fifty states as a harmonious consensual union, it may be shocking to realize that a mere hundred years ago, the United States conquered a nearby sovereign country by force, and has permanently occupied it ever since. See:

For obvious reasons, the prospects for independence for geographically isolated regions such as Hawai’i and Alaska seem strongest.

New Hampshire

With the libertarian autonomy movement The Free State Project making its home in New Hampshire, it should be no surprise that there is a Republic Of New Hampshire site.

New York

Long Island Independence is not a major movement, I just included it for this Jon Stewart segment making fun of them. (If we secessionists can’t laugh at ourselves and each other, it’s going to be a long road!)

Puerto Rico

Like Hawai’i, Puerto Rico was invaded in the 1890s and forcibly transferred from Spain to the US for military reasons. The Puerto Rican Independence Party site has a history of Puerto Rican autonomy.

South

The League of the South seeks independence for the states that lost the Civil War.

South Dakota

The Republic of Lakota made the news in 2007 by declaring themselves independent from the US, as chronicled in their sovereignty timeline. The arguments for Native American sovereignty are somewhat different from conquered states (like Hawai’i), or states that wish to succeed, which is great because the more angles that secessionists try, the more likely it is that one will garner public sympathy and/or prove its legal merit.

Texas

As a large, proud, old, and very independent-minded state, Texas has quite a large secession movement. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, a recent study reported that 18% of Texans are in favor of secession, which is a huge number. The movement has also generated a lot of media coverage and interest around the country, like this segment on the Glenn Beck show last week with Texas Nationalist Movement president David Miller:

Some key resources:

Texas Nationalist Movement – a large, active community site with the motto: “Independence In Our Lifetime” and a presence on all the major social networks. (Hmm, reminds me of the FSP motto: “Liberty In Our Lifetimes”).

Texas Secede





Vermont

VT Commons is a nice journal about Vermont Independence. They state the major reasons for wanting to secede as: “First, the United States suffers from imperial overstretch and has become unsustainable politically, economically, agriculturally, socially, culturally, and environmentally. Second, Vermont finds it increasingly difficult to protect itself from the debilitating effects of big business, big agriculture, big markets, and big government, who want all of us to be the same—just like they are. Third, the U.S. government has lost its moral authority because it is owned, operated, and controlled by multinational corporations. Fourth, U.S. foreign policy, which is based on the doctrine of full-spectrum dominance, is immoral, illegal, unconstitutional, and in violation of the United Nations charter. Fifth, as long as Vermont remains in the United States, its citizens face curtailed civil liberties, the risk of terrorist attack, and the risk of military conscription of its youth.”

The Second Vermont Republic “is a nonviolent citizens’ network and think tank opposed to the tyranny of Corporate America and the U.S. government, and committed to the peaceful return of Vermont to its status as an independent republic and more broadly the dissolution of the Union”. Glenn Beck interviews Thomas Naylor, the founder (author of the Vermont Manifesto book):





Please join us tomorrow, with the theme of Secession vs. Revolution.