The power of III

Summum ius summa iniuria--More law, less justice
--Cicero.

26 November 2010

Is Secession a right? (Sic Semper Tyrannis!!)

"WE the Delegates of the people of Virginia, duly elected in pursuance of a recommendation from the General Assembly, and now met in Convention, having fully and freely investigated and discussed the proceedings of the Federal Convention, and being prepared as well as the most mature deliberation hath enabled us, to decide thereon, DO in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known that the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every power not granted thereby remains with them and at their will: that therefore no right of any denomination, can be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified, by the Congress, by the Senate or House of Representatives acting in any capacity, by the President or any department or officer of the United States, except in those instances in which power is given by the Constitution for those purposes: and that among other essential rights, the liberty of conscience and of the press cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified by any authority of the United States."




"
That there be a Declaration or Bill of Rights asserting and securing from encroachment the essential and unalienable rights of the people in some such manner as the following:


1st. That there are certain natural rights of which men when they form a social compact cannot deprive or divest their posterity, among which are the enjoyment of life, and liberty, with the means of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
2d. That all power is naturally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates therefore are their trustees, and agents, and at all times amenable to them.
3d. That the Government ought to be instituted for the common benefit, protection and security of the people; and that the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive to the good and happiness of mankind."


(emphasis added)


--from the State of Virginia's ratification of the US Constitution, June 26, 1788


Does it sound like the delegates from Virginia (New York's language was nearly identical) thought about the Union was insoluable in perpetuity?


Does it sound like the Virginia delegates understood and assumed that the Federal government is  supreme, creating one nation, and each state is only a subservient cog in a larger machine?


Secession is an absolute right, otherwise, the "freedom" of which we Americans have been speaking for 230 years is just hogwash.


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Look how modern "historians,"  great great grandchildren of the victors of the War Between the states discuss the Constitutionality of Secession in one of the mouthpieces of the State, the Washington Post.


Truth conveniently forgotten.


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"Most of the top military commanders in the war (on both sides) were educated at West Point, where the one course on the U.S. Constitution was taught by the Philadelphia abolitionist William Rawle, who taught from his own book, A View of the Constitution. What Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and others were taught about secession at West Point was that to deny a state the right of secession 'would be inconsistent with the principle on which all our political systems are founded, which is, that the people have in all cases, a right to determine how they will be governed.' "            
(emphasis added)  
--Thomas DiLorenzo, Secession and Liberty, Lew Rockwell archives



1 comment:

  1. Lee, and others were taught about secession at West Point
    ========
    Yes, http://tinyurl.com/289n988

    ReplyDelete