TNA- In response to a question posed to him by a viewer of his September 11 “Liberty Report” video podcast, Ron Paul said he supports a state’s authority to secede from the union.
“Ron Paul, do you favor the rights of states, communities, and individuals to secede?” the viewer asked, according to the statement read by Paul. “The answer is yes,” Paul answered. “I think the founders of this country believed that states should be able to secede. They went together voluntarily, it’s a voluntary contract and they should leave. But, of course, that principle was destroyed with the Civil War.”
Ron is the older guy, right?
Supporting the right to do something that he knows is never, ever going to happen is pointless, and it just makes Ron look silly. IMHO, that is.
The War of Northern Aggression occurred because Yankees would not mind their own business.
Had the South not fired on Fort Sumter there was little the North could have done; the conflict might have remained in Congress rather than the battlefield.
Right to secede? I thought the civil war was about slavery? You know, how the 94% sacrificed it’s blood and treasure so that 6% of it’s population could keep their slaves. They sure did love those rich people.
I don’t see where this is either silly or impossible, regardless of who uttered it. These days, I’m thinking Secession isn’t such a bad idea.
The War of Southern Secession happened because the rebels thought it was okay to use humans as mules.
He is correct.
The blacks have been told for 60 years that the Civil War was all about THEM. That’s a joke… many other factors. Country woulda been better off if Lincoln was gone 5 years earlier or 5 years later…
The idiocy in the some of the above comments is astounding.
The southern states seceeded because of states rights, slavery, and taxes. But that’s not a war. That’s just leaving.
The war happened because the north would not let the south leave, and would not let the south stop paying taxes to the gov’t. The north DID NOT go to war over slavery. Anyone that says they did is grossly misinformed, and it’s not surprising since that’s all they hear from the propagandists. And the propagandists are just a pack of bald faced liars. They know the truth but refuse to speak it because it really doesn’t sound as good to say you killed southerners to get their money, does it.
Anyone who wants to know the truth can easily obtain it by simply reading the statements of abe lincoln himself, who expressly said that he was not going to war over slavery, but just to force the south to pay their import duties.
Abe lincoln even told the south in his first inaugural address that the south could keep their slavery, but if they tried to leave and stop paying their taxes, he would send in troops. Iow, if they wouldn’t send their money to the gov’t, he would kill them.
And that’s the truth. Accept it or fall for the propaganda.
Yeah. Slavery.
Slavery was doomed anyway, as mechanized farming made the institution obsolete. At any rate, the slaves are emancipated now. (See what they have done with it.)
The bigger issue was States Rights, and the intrusion of the Federal Gov’t.
The North won that contest, and the Gov’t has grown larger and more intrusive ever since.
None of my ancestors owned slaves.
I do not condone slavery.
I do not wish to be enslaved by the Gov’t.
What Cletus said…….
There is not now, and never was, any “right” to secede. The Constitution is silent on the issue, implying that States MAY secede, if they so choose. The entire issue hinged on that. IF the Constitution is silent, is an action allowed, or not? The North claimed that IF the Constitution was silent, the action was forbidden – and the South claimed that IF the Constitution was silent, the action was allowed.
The North won the argument through force of arms, not reason, and then violated their own interpretation – saddling the country with West Virginia, the EPA, HHS, and a plethora of additional ills.
The 10th Amendment became a dead letter at that point, and the country began its long, painful slide into totalitarianism.
Translation for Ron Paul’s statement: The States are a set of conquered nations by a tyrannical Federal Government, and the People are its enslaved prisoners.
The Constution speaks very loudly about the right of States to secede. It’s all spelled out in the Tenth Ammendment.
Texas and I think Maryland specifically reserved the right to secede before joining the union. It was Massachusetts that first threatened secession back during the war of 1812.
It’s pretty obvious the states and the people had the right under the 10th amendment to leave. It doesn’t take a legal scholar to read and understand the Constitution. . .only to subvert it.
It was all about the money, which, coincidentally, came from slavery. The planters wanted to keep making money, the northern textile mills wanted to keep getting cheap cotton (via tariffs) and the northern ship owners suddenly got a conscious when the Royal Navy put an end to the international slave trade that made them rich.
Slavery was and is absolutely wrong and many if not most men fighting on both sides knew it. Just as the “lost cause” of the south is over-romanticized, so too is the “righteous cause” of the north.
The riots that erupted in northern cities after emancipation, the fact that New Jersey was the last state to end slavery and the identity of the lone participant at the surrender table at Appomattox who still owned slaves gives the lie to the great moral superiority of the north.
Both sides were guilty of reaping and coveting the fruits of slavery. And both sides sent men who typically didn’t give a shit about it to die over it. You would be very hard pressed to find a southerner today who doesn’t wish slavery had never, ever existed in America.
Yep, and it gets proven each and every day with less and less pretense.
Amendment X (in toto):
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.
There is no specific “right” to secede, and secession is not a “power” delegated or reserved.
But, as someone wrote, a “voluntary” union should be able to “voluntarily” dis-union.
The issue devolved to “The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must.” And the victors write the history.
There doesn’t need to be a specific listing I’m the Constitution granting or acknowledging the right to secede. That is the point of the Tenth Amendment. The right is implied. If the States can only do what is specifically enumerated in the Constitution, then the Tenth Ammendment is meaningless.
The issue of secession was settled in 1865. It will not be allowed. Plus, nobody really wants it, no matter how much they might talk about it when they are angry. Anyway, States cannot survive on their own – they have become addicted to the Great Government Teat, and there is no weaning them from it.
It’s always about the money. Always.
Ponder this…… If it was “Iillegal” for states to secede, why we they, over time, “readmitted” back into the union?
Why was Jefferson Davis incarcerated for around two years and then released without trial for treason, for which so many unionists called for?
JustAl:
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!
That’s the best single sentence I’ve read for a long time, not just here at iOTWReport but anywhere.
The enumerated powers are enumerated to constrain the FedGov. There are NO powers enumerated for the States. There are also specific requirements to JOIN the union, but NO mention, whatsoever, to LEAVE the union.
Raw power determined the issue.
Only raw power can reverse it.
Just as there is no “right” to marry in the Constitution, though the SCROTUS pulled one out of their asses, and now the TV fools and candidates are saying “it’s the law.” Bullshit. A law must be passed by both chambers of the Legislature and signed by the President – there simply is NO LAW.
But, again, raw force determines the issue.
Ron Paul is wrong on many things, but he is right on this. If you had the “right” to join the union than the opposite is true. To say otherwise is tyranny.
If I agree to join your men’s basketball team in a league that competes against others, I also am allowed to quit for whatever reason I see fit. It costs too much, I don’t agree with the other people you have on your team, I think your team is a bunch of PC, liberal pansies who don’t understand the game and our ruining it. Whatever. I can leave you team. You may not like my reasons but you can’t stop me. Unless you use force and make me play at the point of a sword…… and that is tyranny. And I would beat the crap out of you if you tried.
If Texas wanted to go this route, I would take up arms to defend Texas against the US federal government. Things have gotten to that point.
Before you do, you might want to read what Sam Houston had to say on the subject:
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/sam-houstons-anti-secession-speech-9-22-1860.23754/