THE SOUTHERN STATES HAD EVERY RIGHT TO SECEDE

The right of secession was settled through the costly War of 1861-1865. However, we know that almost every political leader of the time, and earlier in American history, believed that states had the right to secede. It has been written that no state would have ever ratified the Constitution if they thought that once they joined, they could never, ever withdraw from the United States.

Thomas Jefferson in his First Inaugural Address said, "If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left to combat it." Later, after some New England Federalists attempted to secede, Jefferson said, "If any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation - to a continuance in the union - I have no hesitation in saying 'Let us separate.'"

In the Federalist Paper 39, James Madison, the father of the Constitution, made it clear that states were sovereign; the federal government was a creation, an agent, a servant of the states.

On the eve of the War of 1861-1865, even unionist politicians saw secession as a right of states. Maryland Rep. Jacob M. Kunkel said, "Any attempt to preserve the Union between these States of the Confederacy by force would be impractical. and destructive of republican liberty." Just about every major Northern newspaper editorialized in favor of the South's right to secede. The NY Tribune, said, "If tyranny and despotism justified the Revolution of 1776, then we do not see why it would not justify the secession of Five Millions of Southrons from the Federal Union in 1861." The Detroit Free Press said.  "An attempt to subjugate the seceded States, even if successful could produce nothing but evil - evil unmitigated in character and appalling in content." The NY Times said, "There is a growing sentiment throughout the North in favor of letting the Gulf States go." 

Americans celebrate Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, but H. L. Mencken correctly evaluated the speech. "It is poetry, not logic; beauty, no sense." Lincoln said that the soldiers (meaning Union soldiers) sacrificed their lives "to the cause of self-determination- government of the people, by the people, for the people should not perish from the earth." Mencken says: "It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of people to govern themselves."

Madison guaranteed in Federalist Paper 45 "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite." The South seceded - and had every legal right to do so - because of the Washington D. C. Federal Government's encroachment on that vision as stated by James Madison. Before the end of the War of I861-1865, the right to secede was seen as the ultimate protection against the Washington, D.C. big-government tyranny. 

Taken largely from an Article By Walter Williams Return to Interesting Articles