GDG- Re: secession

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Margaret writes:

>>>Relying on an absence of an express prohibition is a  decidedly weak reed 
to rely on.  Yes, there were some who believed  secession was legal but there 
were many who did not.  Even Jefferson  accepted that no nation is obligated 
to commit  suicide.>>>
Not really - especially in Jacksonian America where people basically felt  
that if it wasn't written down saying otherwise it was doable.  I realize  that 
some believed it was legal and some did not and the Federal courts  certainly 
never tackled it so far as I am aware leaving it an  open question.
 
And yet today there's secession in America when towns vote to secede from  
counties as did Sandy Springs, GA a couple years ago leaving behind Fulton  
County and becoming a separate city after years of trying.  The Fulton  County 
sheriffs nor the Georgia National Guard mobilized forces to put down this  
heinous rebellion of citizens who committed treason against Fulton County by the  
actions of their public plebiscite.  It was the will of the people to  become a 
separate city as the public services of the county were not as good as  what a 
city could provide them (long story about their tax dollars being taken  and 
getting next to nothing back for them).  We see/hear of similar  situations 
across the nation.
 
Bottom line to me - if the nation was founded as government of, by and for  
the people and if it was stated in one of the founding documents that the  
government ruled only with the consent of the people that elected it and if that  
consent was withdrawn by the people, all points against secession are  moot.  
Otherwise, this whole experiment has been one giant fraud!   That was what 
motivated the Confederates.
 
No one seems to mind that western Virginia seceded from Virginia - and if  
that was the will of those people then so be it!  If the people of eastern  
Tennessee had done the same, then so be it (they were almost the state of  
Franklin long ago by the way).
 
Greg Biggs
 

 



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