Secession Quotes - Page 2

• Up until the late unpleasantness of the Civil war, then, the right of secession was more or less taken for granted in many quarters, and there has never been any amendment or even a Supreme Court decision saying it's improper. - Samual Francis, Secession May Be Legal But Not Expedient, Conservative Chronicles
  If there be any among us who wish to dissolve the Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed, as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  War, Taken, Errors

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• The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

  Joseph Story

  Government, People, United States

  Joseph Story (1851). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.296

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• It is a revolution; a revolution of the most intense character; in which belief in the justice, prudence, and wisdom of secession is blended with the keenest sense of wrong and outrage, and it can no more be checked by human effort for the time than a prairie fire by a gardener's watering pot.

  Judah P. Benjamin

  Character, Fire, Justice

  "The Emergence of Lincoln". Book by Allan Nevins, p. 387, 1950.

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• Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books.

  Walt Whitman

  Memorial Day, Real, War

  Walt Whitman (2012). “Specimen Days & Collect”, p.80, Courier Corporation

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• The dictionary definition of a Christian is one who follows Christ; kind, kindly, Christ-like. Anarchism is voluntary cooperation for good, with the right of secession. A Christian anarchist is therefore one who turns the other cheek, overturns the tables of the moneychangers, and does not need a cop to tell him how to behave. A Christian anarchist does not depend upon bullets or ballots to achieve his ideal; he achieves that ideal daily by the One-Man Revolution with which he faces a decadent, confused, and dying world.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Christian, Confused, Men

  Ammon Hennacy (2010). “The Book of Ammon”, p.19, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Education, Patriotic, Free Opinion

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

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• If we think that we can somehow gain control of the US government, bring it under popular, enlightened progressive control, preserve a habitable climate, and rein in the dangers of nuclear and other warfare, then we should. However, if we think it's more likely that California can achieve those goals by secession, then we should go down that path. There's no question. It's an absolute moral imperative.

  David Swanson

  Thinking, California, Government

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Congress And The President, Giving, Civil War

  Annual Message to Congress, 1 Dec. 1862

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• All the blood shed as a result of secession could be wiped up with a handkerchief.

  LeRoy Pope Walker

  Blood, Results, Handkerchiefs

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• In all her history, from the formation of the federal government until the hour of secession, no year stands out more prominently than the year 1858 as evidencing the national patriotism of Virginia.

  John Sergeant Wise

  Government, Virginia, Years

  John Sergeant Wise, Paul Dennis Sporer (2005). “End of an Era: The Last Days of Traditional Southern Culture as Seen Through the Eyes of a Young Confederate Soldier”, p.68, Anza Publishing

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• I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races: that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Race, White

  Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Charleston, Ill., 18 Sept. 1858

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• I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Law, Unions

  Abraham Lincoln (2011). “Lincoln on the Civil War: Selected Speeches”, p.40, Penguin

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• I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."

  Abraham Lincoln

  Believe, Purpose, Slavery

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”, p.250, Wildside Press LLC

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• So the case stands, and under all the passion of the parties and the cries of battle lie the two chief moving causes of the struggle. Union means so many millions a year lost to the South; secession means the loss of the same millions to the North. The love of money is the root of this as of many many other evils ... the quarrel between North and South is, as it stands, solely a fiscal quarrel.

  Charles Dickens

  Lying, Party, Struggle

  Charles Dickens (1862). “All the Year Round: A Weekly Journal”, p.330

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• Despite the popular idea of anarchists as violent men, Anarchism is the one non-violent social philosophy.… The function of the Anarchist is two-fold. By daily courage in non-cooperation with the tyrannical forces of the State and the Church, he helps to tear down present society; the Anarchist by daily cooperation with his fellows in overcoming evil with good-will and solidarity builds toward the anarchistic commonwealth which is formed by voluntary action with the right of secession.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Philosophy, Men, Two

  Ammon Hennacy (2010). “The Book of Ammon”, p.199, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than the dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation.

  Robert E. Lee

  Country, War, Sacrifice

  Letter to his son, G. W. Custis Lee, January 23, 1861.

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• Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

  Walter E. Williams

  Men, Independence, Unalienable Rights

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• In 1856...I preferred the success of a candidate whose election would prevent or postpone secession, to seeing the country plunged into a war the end of which no man could foretell. With a Democrat elected by the unanimous vote of the Slave States, there could be no pretext for secession for four years.... I therefore voted for James Buchanan as President.

  Ulysses S. Grant

  Country, War, Men

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• I saw in States' rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy.... Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.

  Lord Acton

  Fighting, Rights, Civilization

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• It's absurd to accuse Serbia and the Serbs for the armed secession of Croatia,.

  Slobodan Milosević

  Croatia, Absurd, Serbia

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• I'm not pro-war. But I think war has been the dominant condition of humankind, and peace has been the anomaly - certainly sustained periods of peace that profit great masses of people - and I think war has worked, even awful hellish wars: worked to staunch fascist aggression in Europe, worked to preserve the Union after secession in the United States, etc. Not always, maybe not often, but to say never is to reject history in favor of a wishful unreality.

  Philip Gourevitch

  War, Thinking, Europe

  "Ask the Author Live: Philip Gourevitch on Osama Bin Laden". The New Yorker Live Chat, www.newyorker.com. May 4, 2011.

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• An anarchist is someone who doesn't need a cop to make him behave. Anarchism is voluntary cooperation with the right of secession. The individual or the family or the small group as a unit instead of the State.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Groups, Needs, Cooperation

  Ammon Hennacy (2010). “The Book of Ammon”, p.34, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Some non-communist parties and CPPCC members have, at CPPCC meetings or in their proposals, called for the enactment of a law against secession at the earliest date, to resolutely fight and curb 'Taiwan independence' activities in any forms.

  Jia Qinglin

  Party, Fighting, Law

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• Saying slavery was the cause of secession isn't politically correct; it's correct correct.

  Larry Wilmore

  Slavery, Causes, Politically Correct

  "CNN Newsroom", www.cnn.com. December 21, 2010.

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• The idea that if you don’t like how things are going, you can just leave is so engrained in Texas, the secession movement is no surprise.

  Gail Collins

  Texas, Ideas, Movement

  "Interview With Gail Collins: How Texas Hijacked the American Agenda". Interview with Martha Rosenberg, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 14, 2012.

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