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SECESSION

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 569 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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SECESSION , a See also:

TERM

term used in See also:

POLITICAL

political See also:

SCIENCE (Lat. scientia, from scire; to learn, know)

science to signify the withdrawal of a See also:

state from a confederacy or composite state, of which it had previously been a See also:

PART

part; and the resumption of all See also:

POWERS, HIRAM (1805-1873)

powers formerly delegated by it to the federal See also:

government, and of its status as an See also:

INDEPENDENT

independent state. To secede is a See also:

SOVEREIGN

sovereign right; secession, therefore, is based on the theory that the See also:

SOVEREIGNTY

sovereignty of the individual states forming a confederacy or federal See also:

union has not been absorbed into a single new sovereignty. Secession is a right claimed or exercised by weaker states of a union whose rights are threatened by the stronger states, which seldom acknowledge such a principle. See also:

War generally follows the secession of a member of a union, and the seceding state, being weaker, is usually conquered and the union more firmly consolidated. The See also:

HISTORY

history of See also:

EUROPE

Europe furnishes several examples of secession or attempts to secede: in 1309 the Swiss cantons withdrew from the See also:

EMPIRE

Empire and formed a confederacy from which, in 1843-1847, the See also:

CATHOLIC (Gr. KcaBoXuK6s, general, universal)

Catholic cantons seceded and formed a new confederacy called the Sonderbund, which was crushed in the war that followed; in 1523 See also:

Sweden seceded from the Kalmarian Union formed in 1397 of See also:

Denmark, Sweden and See also:

Norway; and in 1814 Norway seceded and entered into a union with Sweden, from which, in the same See also:

YEAR

year, it attempted to secede but was forcibly prevented; Norway, however, accomplished a peaceful secession from the Union in 1905 and resumed her independent status; in 1848-1849 See also:

Hungary attempted to withdraw from the union with See also:

Austria but the See also:

ATTEMPT (Lat. adtemptare, attentare, to try)

attempt was defeated; See also:

Prussia and other See also:

north See also:

German states withdrew in 1866-1868 from the German See also:

CONFEDERATION (Fr. confederation, Lat. confoederatio, from foedus, a league, foederare, to form a league)

Confederation and formed a new one; a See also:

LATE

late instance of successful secession is that of See also:

PANAMA

Panama, which seceded in 1903 from the See also:

REPUBLIC (Lat. respublica, a commonweal or common-wealth)

Republic of See also:

COLOMBIA

Colombia. But secession in theory and practice is best exhibited in the history of the See also:

UNITED

United States. Most of the See also:

ORIGINAL

original states, and many of the later ones, at some See also:

period when rights were in See also:

JEOPARDY

jeopardy proclaimed that their sovereignty might be exercised in secession. The right to secede was based, the secessionists claimed, upon the fact that each state was sovereign, becoming so by successful revolution against See also:

England; there had been no political connexion between the colonies;. the treaty of 1783 recognized them " as See also:

FREE

free, sovereign and independent states "; this sovereignty was recognized in the Articles of Confederation, and not surrendered, they asserted, under the Constitution; the Union of 1787 was really formed by a secession from the Union of 1776-1787. New states claimed all the rights of the old ones, having been admitted to equal See also:

STANDING

standing. Assertions of the right and See also:

NECESSITY (Lat. necessitas)

necessity of secession were frequent from the beginning; separatist conspiracies were rife in the See also:

West until 1812; various leaders in New England made threats of secession in 1790—1796 and 1800-1815—especially in 18o3 on See also:

account of the See also:

PURCHASE

purchase of See also:

LOUISIANA

Louisiana, in 1811 on account of the proposed See also:

ADMISSION

admission of Louisiana as a state, and during the troubles ending in the War of 1812. Voluntary separation was frequently talked of before 1815. Two See also:

early commentators on the Constitution, St See also:

George See also:

Tucker in 1803 and See also:

William Rawle in 1825, declared that the sovereign states might secede at will.

In 1832-1833 the " Union " party of See also:

South Carolina was composed of those who rejected See also:

NULLIFICATION

nullification, holding to secession as the only remedy; and from 183o to 186o certain See also:

RADICAL (Lat. radix, a root)

radical abolitionists advocated a See also:

DIVISION (from Lat. dividere, to break up into parts, separate)

division of the Union. But as the North See also:

GREW, NEHEMIAH (1641-1712)

grew stronger and the South in comparison grew weaker, as See also:

SLAVERY

slavery came to be more and more the dominant political issue, and as the South made demands concerning that " See also:

PECULIAR

peculiar institution " to which the North was unwilling to accede, less was heard of secession in the North and more in the South. Between 1845 and 186o secession came to be generally accepted by the South as the only means of preserving her institutions from the interference of the North. The first See also:

general See also:

MOVEMENT

movement toward secession was in 1850. In 186o-1861, when the federal government passed into the See also:

CONTROL (Fr. contrdle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of " control " in this, its literal, meaning)

control of the stronger See also:

section, the See also:

SOUTHERN

Southern states, individually, seceded and then formed the Confederate states, and in the war that followed they were conquered and j forced back into the Union. So, in the United States, secession I along with state sovereignty is of the past. From the See also:

HISTORICAL

historical point of view it may be suggested that neither North nor South was correct in theory in 1861: the United States were not a nation; neither were the states sovereign; but from the embryo political communities of 1776-1787, in which no proper sovereignty existed anywhere, two nationalities were slowly being evolved and two sovereignties were in the making; the North and the South each fulfilled most of the requirements for a nation and they were mutually unlike and hostile. See See also:

Jefferson See also:

Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (New See also:

York, 1881); A. H. See also:

Stephens, Constitutional View of the War between the States (See also:

PHILADELPHIA

Philadelphia, 1868-187o) ; J. L. M.

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