by James Langcuster
Auburn , Alabama
Secession. The word pops up every now and then in places like Chechnya, Quebec and Kurdistan.
Whenever secession is mentioned in America, it almost always conjures up images of rebel soldiers, battle flags and hoop skirts. But if you're one of countless Americans who think secession in America has strictly been a Southern phenomenon, think again.
The American war for independence is generally described as a "revolution." But looking back, wasn't it really war of secession?
Since the storming of the Bastille, revolution has generally been defined as the overthrow of an existing social order or political system. But toppling the existing order wasn't what the American colonists had in mind in 1775. They were fighting to secure their rights as British subjects within the Empire. Americans severed their ties with the Mother Country only after coming to the stark realization that their rights were best secured outside the empire. In effect, the shot heard round the world on April 19, 1775, marked the start of a war of secession, not of revolution.
America 's break with King George in 1776 marked the first of several notable dalliances with secession.
The second major event occurred 1787, when many Americans concluded that the national constitution of the time, the Articles of Confederation, was in drastic need of revision.
Nevertheless, by the time the delegates convened in Philadelphia in May, 1787, to revise the document, they realized that simple revision wouldn't be enough: the Articles required a major overhaul. Yet, even a simple revision of the Articles required the unanimous consent of the thirteen states. Most of the delegates knew it would take a miracle to secure unanimous approval for even a simple revision, let alone for a drastic overhaul.
So the delegates settled on a radical solution, one that James Madison was later to describe as the "delicate truth" behind the Federal Constitution of 1787. They added a provision in the new Constitution that required the consent of only nine states for it to become operative. In essence, the delegates were calling for at least nine states to secede from the old Confederation to form a new Union.
Within a year, ten states heeded the call of the delegates, and the rest is history.
One could say that America was twice born of secession: first in 1776, when the colonies bolted from the British Empire, and in 1788, when ten states withdrew from the old Confederation to form a new Union under the Federal Constitution.
But secessionist sentiment didn't end in 1788 with the adoption of the Constitution. In 1814, delegates from several New England states threatened to secede over President James Madison's war policies against England. Thirty years later, in 1844, the Massachusetts Legislature threatened secession when Congress started debating whether to admit Texas into the Union.
By now you're probably wondering, "What does this possibly have to do with the present day?"
More than you might think. From the snowy peaks of Alaska to the dusty plains of Texas, states are asserting their sovereignty once again.
And with this assertion of sovereignty comes the veiled threat of secession.
In May, 1994, the Colorado legislature passed a resolution invoking its rights as a sovereign state under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Similar resolutions have been passed in 9 states and are pending in 22 others.
Two of the nation's governors are taking the issue one step further. Utah Governor Mike Leavitt and Nebraska Governor Ben Nelson are calling for a national "conference of states" in 1995. The conference would present a "states petition" to Congress calling for a series of constitutional amendments that would shift the balance of power back to the states. If Congress refuses to comply with these requests, a national convention of the states would be convened that could conceivably lead to the dissolution of the Union.
None of this shines a candle to Montana, where people are invoking the "s" word outright. In 1996, Montanans may vote on a constitutional amendment that would declare their state a "free, sovereign and independent constitutional republic."
Radical stuff? You bet it is -- at least by today's standards. But throughout most of the Nineteenth Century, the vast majority of Americans viewed the right of secession as the ultimate safeguard against the tyranny of centralized power.
Today, school children are taught that the secession issue was decided in 1865 at Appomatox, Virginia, but was it -- especially in light of recent developments?
Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens once said that "the cause of the South is the cause of all." Today, with state sovereignty movements popping up in virtually every corner of the country, Stephens' words are eerily prophetic -- eerily prophetic indeed