secessionist blather
 

Thats how we started!

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Blue

This just in!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Petitions seeking White House approval to ‘secede’
now come from all 57 states and Al Qaeda

RE Post #76 - to a Monarchist, perhaps. ;)

If we 'cry wolf' over every instance of disagreement with our system of government or those we elect to represent us, no matter how petty the argument may be, will there be anyone to listen to our alarms when a wolf actually shows up?

Richard :munchin

Obviously you don't see your fellow socialists as wolves. :munchin

I may be many things, but a "socialist" or an alarmist are not two of them...

Richard :munchin

Lib? :munchin :D ;)

Not according to my voter registration and voting record. :D

The first failure of this modern secession is the asking of permission.

These collective petitions are a passive protest to keep the angry constituents appeased.

Here's an idea, stop accepting federal aid and stop supporting federal programs.

What is your currency going to be and what is your time frame for implementing the new currency?
Infrastructure?
Power/Petroleum?
Food?
Exports?
International travel?
How about those multiple borders?
Insurgency?

Embargo?

PIPE DREAMS.

This would be a more effective discourse if Reaper were to pose this as one of his scenarios.

How would you implement and maintain the secession of Indiana?

The bad guys in the modern age don't come as wolves anymore...
...its more like the old fable of putting a frog in cool water and turning up the heat until you boil him alive.

The American citizenry is slowly morphing into a creature that is just not equipped to realize how hot the water really is.

...just my two cents. I could be wrong.

One lawyers opinion ...
 

Can a state secede from the Union?

The short answer is:

No. We settled that at Appomattox.

My sons asked me about that in connection with a school assignment.

And the fact is: Nowhere in the Constitution will you find a provision for secession.

Our founding fathers provided "the finest document ever struck off at one time by the mind of man."

It provides for the formation of the Union.

It provides for the addition of a state from a territory. (like Arizona, or Hawaii).

It provides for the addition of a state from another republic asking to join. (like Texas).

It even provides for the formation of a state by spliting one state into two states. (like Virginia and West Virginia).

But nowhere in the Constitution are there any provisions for secession.
It is obvious that our founding fathers did not feel that joining the Union was revocable, or they would have provided for it in the Constitution.

Think it through.

If secession were to be allowed, there should be a provision for it in the Constitution, perhaps on the order of:

"Any state seeking to remove itself from the Union may make application to the Congress of the United States, by legislation approved by [majority] [2/3][3/4] of the legislature of said state, and signed by the Governor thereof.; or by a referendum of the voters of said state, when passed by a [majority][2/3][3/4] of the state. Whereupon the Congress of the United States, [House][Senate][both] shall take the yeas and nays, and a vote of [majority][2/3][3/4] shall be sufficient to remove said state from membership in the Union."

The fact that the Constitution is totally silent on the process of secession tells me that the framers of our Constitution considered entry into the Union to be a one way street.

I guess a no fault divorce is out of the question then?

Yeah, but they sure contemplated removing governments that were oppressive, by violent overthrow, if necessary.

TR

I do agree with everything you stated but just who in DC has been reading/applying the Constitution lately? I think that is the source of the frustration.

See post 76

Blue