"I Believe in the Right to Secede"

After the Civil War, the idea that any state could withdraw its voluntary consent from the union -- or secede -- has been largely forgotten.

However, this is beginning to change. Individuals accross the country are thinking more about their state's right to secede from the federal government.

The whole idea of secession may seem controversial, but it does have historic precident in America. Afterall, didn't the thirteen colonies secede from England under King George III? Yes.

Our Declaration of Independence states,

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; ... mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms [of Government] to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing ... a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

In fact, even after independence in the early stages of our Union there were threats of secession from different state legislatures. (Consider the Hartford Convention and the efforts of some of the New England Federalists in the early 19th Century.)

So the question is: is a state's right of secession still relevant today?

Sign the petition if you think that secession is part of the American tradition and still an important defense against tyranny.