Posted 9:47 pm Friday, January 25, 2013
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Still A Right, January 25
An article in your Jan. 16 edition reported the White House’s negative response to a Texan who had submitted a petition to secede from the Union. That’s the wrong approach to the question of whether a state has the right to secede.
Lincoln, in his first inaugural speech in March of 1861, did indeed argue that a state does not have the right to leave the Union which was created by the sovereign “nation-states” that seceded from the “Mother Country” in 1776.
When did a president’s unilateral declaration, however, become the force of law? Never!
In the ancient Judeo-Christian tradition, the Creator tells the creatures how they should live their lives, primarily through the “Ten Commandments.” Common sense tells one that same rule applies to the creation of the union of American states. Our ancestors, who ratified the Constitution, were the creators of the government (the creature); and we, their descendants — not the feds, are to be the final arbiters of that document according to Thomas Jefferson and others. That is, if we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Since, however, we are now so enmeshed in and dependent upon the federal union, it is unlikely that a convention of the people of the state of Texas could receive the support of a majority of the people. That’s the requirement to legally secede, a convention that duplicates the one which voted to join the union in 1845.
David E. Pierson
Tyler
Lincoln, in his first inaugural speech in March of 1861, did indeed argue that a state does not have the right to leave the Union which was created by the sovereign “nation-states” that seceded from the “Mother Country” in 1776.
When did a president’s unilateral declaration, however, become the force of law? Never!
In the ancient Judeo-Christian tradition, the Creator tells the creatures how they should live their lives, primarily through the “Ten Commandments.” Common sense tells one that same rule applies to the creation of the union of American states. Our ancestors, who ratified the Constitution, were the creators of the government (the creature); and we, their descendants — not the feds, are to be the final arbiters of that document according to Thomas Jefferson and others. That is, if we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Since, however, we are now so enmeshed in and dependent upon the federal union, it is unlikely that a convention of the people of the state of Texas could receive the support of a majority of the people. That’s the requirement to legally secede, a convention that duplicates the one which voted to join the union in 1845.
David E. Pierson
Tyler
