Although the idea of secession has enjoyed a considerable comeback in recent years, the idea still has to catch on with many conservatives who consider themselves "patriotic" in the old sense. These fine men and women loathe the anti-gun, anti-freedom and anti-religion agenda of the left, yet their brand of patriotism does not allow them to admit that remaining in union with those who despise them will eventually corrupt the whole crowd. They insist that their children continue to be educated in leftist school, that their businesses be subject to leftist regulation, and their families be harassed by leftist federal agents. This all must be endured to avoid turning their backs on their country. For them, loyalty to the idea of "America" has managed to take precedence over the idea of "liberty." This attitude invariably leads to rationalization that secession is too radical an idea and any talk of it is simply treason.
The true nature of secession, however, is that it is moderate and nonviolent. Secession never profits from violence, and it strives to conserve that which is valued in a society. Unbeknownst to many, the most famous and articulate secessionists in American history are not folks with names like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, but people with names like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. The original Americans were secessionists, and they did it in order to preserve their society, not to destroy it. The founding generation saw that the American colonies were about to be radicalized. The surge in royal executive power during the 1760's and 1770's alarmed the colonists and they feared that their way of life might be destroyed. In order to preserve their "English liberties" as they called them, the colonists decided to withdraw from a governmental entity they saw as a threat to their value system. They did not wish to engage in regicide or to indulge in vengeful slaughter. They only sought to conserve a system they feared would be taken from them. Edmund Burke saw this clearly from the Parliament in London. Burke could appreciate that American politics, American values, and even American religion was not like that which existed in England. As the conflict drew on, Burke predicted that if the British were to win the war, the American colonies would have to be remade in a new image in order to remain a part of the British Empire. That which made America what is was would have to be expunged from the earth. Burke did not wish to revolutionize America or anywhere else. The fact that Burke supported the American Revolution while condemning the French Revolution is a compelling fact. While the French Revolution sought to overturn and destroy an established order, the American Revolution sought only to conserve an established order which was being destroyed by British intrusion.
Men like Washington, Franklin and Adams were conservatives. They had no interest in overturning the American order. They wished only to return to an America that freely conducted business on its own terms as it had before the days of the stamp act, the intolerable acts, and the blockading of Boston harbor. The Judiciary Act of 1789 enacted during the Washington administration created a judicial system astoundingly similar to the British Judicial system. Through judicial power, the act brought every corner of the nation under the control of the federal government, leading historian Charles Beard to declare, "In a word– something like the old British imperial control over provincial legislatures was reestablished." Both Beard and 20th century conservative Russell Kirk considered the American revolution to be a "triumph of conservatism." The founding generation enjoyed their English liberties, and they were not going to stand for having them taken away. English liberties became "rights" and liberty became something that rose above empires and national boundaries. The colonists rightly saw that Britain was one of the most free societies in the world in the 18th century. Naturally, they would seek to preserve what was good about the British system. That which they preserved, however, was only to be used for the preservation of the rights that many colonists had given their lives to conserve.
Here in modern America, we face the same problem. The politics, values, and religion of the Southern, Western, and rural people of America are not like those in the coastal cities. Secessionists do not seek to overturn the government in Washington, or to destroy the governments of Massachusetts, New York, and California. What we wish to do, is to avoid the radicalization that urban leftists wish to force on us. It is they who wish to revolutionize and to destroy. It is they who want to put an end to our churches, our private schools, our local governments, and our civic organizations. They wish to sweep away traditional American culture and traditional American institutions.
For generations now, compromise has regularly amounted to a leftist victory. This is not a battle that can be won. They have the advantage in numbers and self-righteous rhetoric. Like the Colonists who fought to preserve their British liberties, modern Americans should consider their "American liberties" and examine how they have changed in the last generation. If any vestige of these liberties are to be preserved in the long run, it must be saved now.
We are approaching the time when as Jefferson wrote, "it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another." To dismiss secession as radical and dangerous will only allow the true radicalization of all America. For you patriots who value "America," remember that America stands for something other than the Army and the Navy and lines on a map. If America does not protect liberty, then it has ceased to be America. Secession is an effort to protect those liberties and institutions that make us Americans. It is truly the moderate choice.
December 1, 2000
Ryan McMaken is a graduate student in American politics at the University of Colorado. He edits the Western Mercury.
