Friday, November 10, 2006

Secessionists' Burlington Declaration

The first North American Secessionist Convention met in Vermont November 3-5, 2006. Sponsored by the Middlebury Institute, it drew 43 people from 16 secessionist organizations in 18 states.
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Paul Nussbaum of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote an very interesting article - Latter-day secessionists of all stripes convene in Vermont - which stated in part:
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The First North American Secessionist Convention, billed as the first national gathering of secessionists since the Civil War, included an eclectic mix of conservatives, liberals, libertarians, left-wing Green Party zealots, and right-wing Christian activists.
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They joined folks from such disparate groups as the League of the South, the Confederate Legion, the Free State Project, Christian Exodus, Free Hawaii, the Alliance for Democracy, the Abbeville Institute, and the Center for Democracy and the Constitution.
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All agreed on one thing: their disdain for "the empire" of modern America. The latter-day separatists inveighed against government intrusion, the influence of corporations, and the loss of individual freedoms. They castigated the Patriot Act, the war in Iraq, and corruption in Congress.
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"Reform is useless. Rebellion and revolution are useless," said Kirkpatrick Sale, a New York author who organized the session. "What is left? Secession."... The obvious challenge for the group was finding a way to make its effort more than just an intellectual exercise.
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The convention issued the Burlington Declaration
outlining "the following principles as representing the truths of natural law and historical experience." The first two read:
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1. Any political entity has the right to separate itself from a larger body of which it is a part and peaceably to establish its independence as a free and legitimate state in the eyes of the world.
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2. Governments are instituted among peoples, deriving their just powers from the consent of their citizens, and whenever any form of government becomes destructive of the legitimate goals of life, liberty, prosperity, and self-determination, it is the right of the people in democratic fashion to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
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Read the rest at Secession.Net.

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