Was seccession legal?

Secession was technically legal in 1861, but now it is not. The irony was that Southerners (Madison, Jefferson, Pinckney etc…) contributed the most to the creation of the Constitutuion. Southerners had such a tremendous amount of influence over the fashioning of our early republic that it seems almost hypocritical of them to turn their backs on it when it began to threaten their interests. Some have argued that if Lincoln had allowed the Southern states to secede, they would have eventually negotiated to return to the union. As a matter of fact, some have argued that Lincoln pushed the South into secession by not dispelling their fears of his political views. At any rate, the Civil War was avoidable, but it had been brewing since the 1840’s. Only the Mexican War and the efforts of Henry Clay postponed a civil war from happening much earlier. Some might not realize that John Calhoun’s Nullification Theory was actually first introduced at the Constitutional Convention when Massachusetts threatened to secede because it feared Virginia was going to dominate the new nation. America was a nation founded on compromises and when those compromises ceased to satisfy the interests of all sections, the republic’s delicate structure collapsed. The dark memories of our Civil War, and the increasing complexity of our economy, and the changing world around us has reconstituted our political thinking into a more unified national structure, but underneath this more stable structure lies deep rooted fractures that threaten to tear it apart again if neglected.

If secession was legal up to 1861, but became illegal thereafter, it brings up a new question – should secession be legal today?

It seems like secession should be legal even today so that the United States reflects states that are united in spirit, not only in letter. By preventing a state from seceding with the force of law, the federal government has assumed a lot of power - moreso than I believe it was supposed to get when the country was founded. Of course, it is unlikely that a state would secede, but the option should be available as a last resort.

On a related note - Donnie, I have read only a bit of your thesis rough draft so far, but I was wondering if you thought the same spirit of the Great Awakening in South Carolina influenced it when it seceded from the Union. As it was the first state to secede, it was made of bold, probably fiery people. The South Carolina secession document is an interesting read.

That’s a good question, I don’t think the founding fathers had subdivision in mind when the layed the groundwork for this country, but they did leave the power in the hands of the states and the people with provisions to overthrow an oppressive gov’t. Legal or not, if things go sideways in this country it could happen again

In my opinion, that in all reality, the constitution was never intended to support a large central government with the powers it has today. I believe it was merely intended as a central support structure for independant states to protect their interests in freedom/rights, trade and mutual protection. There origionally wasn’t to be any real hard legal power over the states like there is today. In essence all they were questing for was a central form of rights that could be had by all people of all the states, that the states would adhere to and provide eachother with protection from outside agressors. The current government has outgrown the origional intent, and in some ways this is good and in others it is bad. I don’t think any of the states back then would have signed on to our current form of government today. They would have ran away from it screaming and flailing their arms.

Oh and I just took another look through the constitution and I didn't see anything in there barring seccession.

Sounds like a good editorial for the NJQ Online Journal. Anybody want to tackle it? I would submit the thesis that America today resembles the vision Alexander Hamilton had and he would be standing today stroking his chin with satisfaction at the power grabs exhibited by the Federal government. He felt a strong central government would serve an urbanized culture better than the agrarian society Jefferson longed for. Jefferson and Andrew Jackson would probably be mortified by our present government. Tough topic this is. 😀

I guess secession from a state is not the same as secession from the union.  Semantics is all it is.

The Grimke Sisters were abolitionists who crusaded alongside Lloyd Garrison and Lyman Beecher.  They were very vocal activists from South Carolina.  You can read about them from this link:  http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2000/grimke4.html