GDG- Re: secession

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Margaret writes:

>>>>I've always regarded this as a false distinction. The  rebels were out to 
overthrow the United States government in a considerable  portion of the land 
over which it had  sovereignty. >>>>
 
I completely disagree. The people owned the land, not the Federal  
government, which only rules by the consent of the people.  Thus, the  secessionists 
were out to re-establish their own rule over this land and their  own private 
property by denying that land to control by a Federal  government of which they 
felt had abused its powers.  The  secessionists took some of their stance from 
the Declaration of  Independence where it was quite clear that government 
ruled only with such  consent of its people - thus the people are supreme and not 
the  government!  Even the preamble to the Constitution clearly states "we the 
 people, " not we the government.  While not having the legal clout of the  
Constitution, the Declaration, cannot really be separated from the latter  
document in terms of its intent - rule of the people loaning their consent to a  
government, which implies that such consent can be, and should be, withdrawn if 
 that government abuses its powers.  Lastly, there was no law or portion of  
the Constitution that stated that secession of the states was not legal.
 
Additionally, if you had to become a state by voting to do so in people's  
plebiscites then you could, ipso facto, also vote to leave it by the same  
method, which is why the early Southern states used people's secession  conventions 
rather than their respective state legislatures.  These  statehood votes were 
done because of the supremacy of the people - it was their  choice if a 
territory became a state and if that went down to defeat then the  territory would 
not.  Flipping that around, therefore, it was perfectly  legal and well within 
the established principles of the time for people to vote  to leave the Union.
 
Greg Biggs

 



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.