The Civil War Negates Secession: Is It Possible to Control the Power of the Federal Government?

ft-sumter Our forefathers wisdom brought together 13 colonies as one for defense and commerce purposes. At any time any of these colonies felt violated of their rights granted at the Constitutional Convention, they had the right to leave the union.

The states were to preserve their power and their identity, but clearly in 2009, that’s not the case. Out government has become a strong centralized government that often walks over the Constitution for partisan legislative and judicial gain. As the Federal Government has left the gold standard, turned control of our money to the Federal Reserve, increased and created unfair taxation, and most recently printed money to bailout private entities, any of the 50 states should have the power to leave the union. Obviously, this is not what our forefathers prescribed.

The southern states secession began in during Abraham Lincoln’s victory over the issue of slavery. Slavery was a driving economic factor in the poorer southern states, and the fear of northern economic superiority drove southern states to fight for the rights of slave owners. I am by no means justifying slavery, but the southern states, realizing a possible economic collapse and the violation of states’ rights, seceded from the union. They were well within their rights.

Once they announced their secession, the United States government needed to extract federal troops from forts in the south, since the south no longer would depend on the federal government for protection. Jefferson Davis attacked Fort Sumter to remove the northern influence and presence from the South. The southern secession added four more states after the attack. When Lincoln organized Union troops to keep the country together, he violated the power of secession, probably denying it forever.

Since the Civil War, the power of the Federal Government has grown at an alarming rate. So far gone is the idea of centralized state governments that rely on a weaker federal government to insure interstate commerce and defense, schools rarely teach this truth to students anymore.

Each year the federal government grows and removes more responsibility from the states. A perfect example of this is education. It was not intended and should not be the federal government’s responsibility to shape education policy, but we know the states have given up their power for federal funding. Now the Department of Education is far too influential in our nation’s schools.

In a Faustian deal, the states have given up their identity and most importantly their ability to stand up to the abuse of power in Washington. We may be 50 different borders, electoral contests, and smaller governments, but we are now one super glued union. To stand up for states’ rights now using the Second Amendment might provoke a scene similar to Tiananmen Square. We don’t like to think of our country like that, but to regain the rights of the states will require defeating firepower not even imagined during the first time the South tried it.

Lincoln abused the power of the Federal Government. Now we have to observe the results. Regardless of whether slavery was right or wrong during the debates of the 1850s, the real tragedy of the Civil War is the loss of states’ rights.

Originally Published at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom

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