Opus 2021-089: This Ain’t the First Time

Many people are unhappy with the last election.  I think that is an understatement both is using “many” and “unhappy”.  When we look at all the tyrannical steps being taken and proposed by the Progressives*, it puts a genuine fear of God in our hearts.  What do we do?  Where do we turn?  

One of the ideas being tossed around is secession or, as Jefferson termed it, separation.  It is easy to find maps dealing with the issue and you can find people sounding wise on both sides.  You need to know that talk about separation is not new in the United States.

The first bit of this talk I have come across was during the Constitutional Convention.  Those who know nothing about history tend to take the issue of slavery and believe everything the America haters of the 1619 Project say as if it were true.  Slavery was seen as a problem in the United States from the beginning.  What was unusual was that there was so much energy against it here when most of the world thought slavery was normal.  The debate in the Convention got so heated that several southern states threatened to not join the union if slavery was made illegal.  A compromise was reached and unity was restored.

Then we come to the Hartford Convention of 1814-5.  This involved the New England states looking into the issues of the day and one of the suggestions was leaving the union.  Keep in mind they were meeting during the War of 1812.  This sounds like treasonous talk, and I guess it was.  They had other recommendations they wanted to present to congress but they did discuss secession.

Then a few years later in 1828, John Calhoun led a discussion centered on tariffs.  This would be like a discussion of high taxes today.  In those days most of the government income came from tariffs.  There was definite talk of nullification of federal laws.  You are hearing the same type of talk and seeing legislation today from the state capitals.  South Carolina said they would not allow the federal tariffs to be collected.  

In 1850 the state legislature of Wisconsin declared a federal law, The Fugitive Slave Act, unconstitutional and asserted they had the right to secede.  Massachusetts passed a law giving a five year prison term to anyone who enforced the federal law.  

We tend to think we are the only generation to live with the federal government trying things and the states resisting.  Much of this has happened before.  Corruption is not new.  It is time for the states to step up to the plate.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, MSM, etc.  Another word for swamp dwellers)

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