Sunday, November 25, 2012

Alexis de Tocqueville on the American right of secession

Alexis de Tocqueville on the American right of secession (1835-1840): "However strong a Government may be, it cannot easily escape from the consequences of a principle which it has once admitted as the foundation of its Constitution.  The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people.  If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so, and the Federal Government would have no means of maintaining its claims directly, either by force or by right."
Alexis de Tocqueville 1805 – 1859
"However strong a Government may be, it cannot easily escape from the consequences of a principle which it has once admitted as the foundation of its Constitution. The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so, and the Federal Government would have no means of maintaining its claims directly, either by force or by right."
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8 comments:

  1. I was one of the lucky ones when it came to American history. I attended a small private secondary school in north central NH in the late 60's and early70's and I had a wonderful history teacher that told us all history was written by men or women and because of that some bias intentional or not was often the rule and not the exception. In fact in some cases the result was that some history was just plain untrue. he encouraged his students to go to the source and look deep and hard at all sides of historical issues. This resulted in some enlightening discussions on the War between the States. that in and of itself is a misnomer for once the South Seceded they were by all rights a separate country made up of individual sovereign states. I guess the War of Northern Aggression rings much truer to the facts...

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  2. We have fallen so far.....

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  3. Change is coming, I have no of knowing it's ultimate outcome.... but I know on which side I stand. We are few, shuned, even ridiculed. It is what it is, we are not deterred of that I am confident.
    In the fifth grade I had a wonderful history teacher, it is she who tau

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    1. It is she who taught me that history must be studied from all sources to get to the truth....

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    2. I know on which side I stand

      As do we all and two good teachers in a row!:)

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  4. Some years back I worked with a very sweet woman from Minnesota, who'd never thought to question what she was told in the Imperial Indoctrination and Behavioral Modification Centers (aka the publik skools). I gave her a copy of Kennedy and Kennedy's 'The South Was Right', and she was totally flabbergasted by it. Sadly, she's one of the few that have actually bothered to READ it; most people are too comfortable not thinking and not questioning what they've been told is 'the truth'. Even sadder, they can vote...and just did, for Obama.

    Deo Vindice!

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