Secession: New England style?

[hawglips]

Historic Vermont Secession Meeting Held
Greg Szymanski

Nov. 23, 2005

The members of a peaceful freedom-fighting group want no part of neo-cons running the imperialistic U.S. government. Plan to secede from the U.S. gaining momentum in the fiercely independent Green Mountain state.

The neo-con band of criminals running Washington, trampling on civil rights at home and invading countries at will overseas, has led a large group of strong-minded Vermont freedom-fighters with no choice but to secede from the United States.

And last Friday at the state capital building in Montpelier, a historic independence convention was held, the first of its kind in the United States since May 20, 1861, when South Carolina decided to leave the Union.

A packed House Chamber in the Vermont statehouse, with more than 400 gathered, started the daylong secession convention with a speech by keynote James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency, and ended with a resolution passed to secede from the United States.

Most people think of secession as impossible if not treasonous, but the concept is deeply rooted in the Declaration of Independence, reminding us that “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it and to institute new government.”

And with the neo-con takeover of Washington, including all its branches of government transforming America into a one-party dictatorship, that’s exactly what the resolution passed in Vermont seeks to do by members of grassroots movement growing in numbers daily.

Although the resolution is the first step in the long process that needs support from the state legislators – as well as an officially recognized convention — the grass roots group called the Second Vermont Republic passed the following citizen’s resolution: P> “Be it resolved that the state of Vermont peacefully and democratically free itself from the United States of America and return to its natural status as an independent republic as it was between January 15, 1777 and March 4, 1791.”

Even though critics give the secession group ‘a snowball’s chance in hell,’ organizers are firmly convinced in the present-day tyrannical political climate secession will not only succeed but will prosper.

‘This could only happen in Vermont where people are still fiercely independent and fed up with the course the American government is taking,” said Thomas Naylor, the head of the group calling itself the Second Republic of Vermont. “We have a lot going for us and if you think about it, we have a lot in common with Poland’s Solidarity movement, who many said would never succeed.

“But Poland did get its freedom, mainly because it was a country liked around the world, sort of like how people in America feel about Vermont. When people think of Vermont, they have a warm and fuzzy feeling, an image of black and white Holstein cows and beautiful scenery. I can also tell you there is now closet support in the legislature now and we are serious about getting the support needed to secede from the United States.’

Naylor, a former Duke University economics professor, said from his Vermont home this week that statewide independence is really a euphemism for secession, adding Vermont also will seek to join the group of Unrepresented Nations similar to the Lakota Indians and other international indigenous people.

“Secession is one of the most politically charged words in America, thanks to Abraham Lincoln,” said Naylor, adding he had been writing about secession for the better part of 10 years but the movement picked up tremendous steam after 9/11. “Secession really combines a radical act of rebellion grounded in fear and anger with a positive vision for the future.

“It represents an act of faith that the new will be better than the old. The decision to secede necessarily involves a very personal, painful four-step decision process. It first involves denunciation that the United States has lost its moral authority and is unsustainable, ungovernable and unfixable. Second, there is disengagement or admitting ‘I don’t want to go down with the Titanic. Third, there is demystification that secession really is a viable option constitutionally, politically and economically. And finally, defiance, saying ‘I personally want to help take Vermont back from big business, big markets and big government and I want to do so peacefully.’”

What started out as Naylor’s little fantasy to have an independent country made up of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, has already grown from a small group of 36 several years ago to a packed House Chamber in the state’s capital. Claiming to have a membership of 160 as of last April, Naylor said the numbers have doubled or even tripled.

“”I’m getting calls from all over the country supporting our movement,” said Naylor. “Although there are more than 20 states with some kind of secession movement, Alaska and Hawaii being the best examples, I think Vermont really has the best chance at succeeding at seceding.”

Besides holding the Vermont independence convention in Montpelier, the smallest state capital city in the United States, it also has the reputation as being the most fiercely independent and anti- big business, being the only one not allowing a McDonald’s in the entire country.

“First and foremost, we want out of the United States. It’s not just an anti-Bush statement and if Kerry was elected, we still would have wanted out,” said Naylor. “The reality is that we have a one party system in this country, called the Republican party, that is owned and operated and controlled by corporate America. So it’s not just a Bush protest, but a protest against the Empire.

Although many critics have said the mighty U.S. would not stand for Vermont’s secession, Naylor as will as others disagree, including Jim Hogue, a talk show host on Vermont Public radio.

“There’s nothing they would want here. There’s no oil, just mountains. We’re just not important enough. We’re funny, we’re small and we’re peaceful,” said Hogue several months ago in an article in the Montreal Gazette.

With most Vermont politicians, including the Congressional delegation, ignoring the grassroots secession movement or just laughing it off as good theatre, Vermont’s Lt. Gov., Brian Dubie, has weighed in on the issue, giving it a certain amount of merit but stopping short of outright support.

“I really salute their energy and passion,” he said in a local press interview. “we have an obligation to think of what is in our best interest as a state and for the people of out state, even as we approach federal and national issues.”

Besides Naylor and Kuntsler, others who spoke at the Oct. 28 independence convention included Professor Frank Bryan of the University of Vermont; Kirkpatrick Sale, author of Human Scale; J. Kevin Graffagnino, executive director of the Vermont Historical Society; Professor Eric Davis, Middlebury College; Shay Totten, editor of the Vermont Guardian; and Dr. Rob Williams of Champlain College.

Links

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Greg Szymanski" - http://www.arcticbeacon.com/articles...8131/36584.htm

[hawglips]

VERMONT'S RADICAL IMPERATIVE

Few Americans realize that Vermont is hands down the most radical state in the Union in terms of its commitment to human solidarity, sustainability, direct democracy, and political independence, and it’s been that way for a very long time. With its 237 or so annual town meetings, the Green Mountain state is by far the most democratic state in America, ranking a close second behind Switzerland internationally.

Vermont’s radicalism can be traced back to 1777 when it first became an independent republic prior to joining the Union fourteen years later. Vermont was the only American state which truly invented itself before becoming a part of the United States. Unlike other New England states, Vermont was never an English colony, or any other kind of colony, thus avoiding a period of aristocratic oligarchy. Influenced by some of its earlier Iroquois and Yankee inhabitants, Vermont established an almost casteless society never to be replicated elsewhere in America.

Vermont was the first state to outlaw slavery in its constitution in 1777 and also the first to require universal manhood suffrage. By the 1830s, Vermont had the strongest abolitionist sentiment of any state in America. Vermonters were active participants in the "Underground Railroad" which helped runaway slaves find refuge in Canada. In 1858, in defiance of the Federal Fugitive Slave Law, Vermont freed all blacks who had been brought into the state.

As early as July 2, 1777, the Constitution of Vermont presciently anticipated the risks of the future military-industrial complex: "As standing armies in time of peace are dangers to liberty, they ought not be kept up; and the military should be kept under strict subordination to and governed by the civil power." No major battle between European invaders and Native Americans ever took place in Vermont territory. Although Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys had no love for New Yorkers or the British, both they and Allen himself managed to avoid ever killing anyone at Fort Ticonderoga or elsewhere – so the story goes. Only one minor skirmish occurred on Vermont soil during the American Revolution. The lone Civil War engagement fought in Vermont on October 18, 1864 in St. Albans was more like a Jesse James-style bank robbery carried out by a handful of Confederate soldiers. However, Vermont was the first state to send troops to fight in the Civil War. Half of the eligible men in Vermont served in the Union Army.

Even though Vermont has no death penalty and virtually no gun control laws, it is one of the least violent states in the Union. It also has no military bases, no strategic resources, and few military contractors. All three members of its Congressional delegation voted against the resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.

Vermont has the highest percentage of unpaved roads in the nation and was the first state to ban billboards alongside highways. It’s unique environmental law regulating real estate development, Act 250, was the first in the nation and remains one of the toughest.Vermont was the first state to pass a "bottle bill." It kept Wal-Mart at bay longer than any other state, and Montpelier remains the only state capital in America without a McDonald’s restaurant.

Vermont always ranks near the top of the list of states who treat women and children well. Its Civil Union law was the first in the nation. Thanks to Mayor Peter Clavelle, employees of the City of Burlington will soon be able to purchase prescription drugs from Canada in spite of opposition from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Ultimately, secession represents the most radical form of peaceful rejection of the policies of the U.S. Government. Vermont is home to one of the most sophisticated political independence movements in the country today. But there is nothing new about Vermont’s secession movement. As far back as January 5, 1815, Vermont joined other New England states in signing the report of the so-called Hartford Convention in opposition to the proposal of the U.S. Secretary of War to implement a military draft for continuing the mismanaged War of 1812 with England. This report was, in fact, a declaration of secession.

In 1973, Chicago-based economist David Hale, who grew up in St. Johnsbury, called for Vermont independence in a provocative piece in The Stowe Reporter entitled "The Republic of Vermont: A Modest Proposal." University of Vermont Professor Frank Bryan and State Representative Bill Mares dubbed Hale "the patron saint of Vermont secession," in their 1987 book Out! The Vermont Secession Book. Then in a January 6, 2004 piece in The Burlington Free Press Hale proposed that Vermont rejoin the British Commonwealth.

As part of Vermont’s bicentennial celebration in 1990, Frank Bryan and Vermont Supreme Court Justice John Dooley debated the pros and cons of Vermont leaving the Union in seven different Vermont towns. After each debate a vote was taken and all seven towns voted in favor of secession. A few years earlier when Ronald Reagan was still president, over 180 Vermont towns voted to defy him and demanded a nuclear freeze. According to Frank Bryan, whose most recent book is the widely acclaimed Real Democracy, "Vermont is just obstinate. We’ll do anything to be on the wrong side." But is Vermont or the rest of America on the wrong side?

More recently David Hale, Frank Bryan and several hundred other Vermonters have joined the Second Vermont Republic—a peaceful, democratic, grassroots solidarity movement opposed to the tyranny of the U.S. Government, Corporate America, and globalization and committed to the return of Vermont to its rightful status as an independent republic as it once was between 1777 and 1791.

Consistent with Vermont’s radical imperative, the Second Vermont Republic embraces libertarian populism, sustainability, direct democracy, and political independence. In so doing, it hopes to provide a kinder, gentler, more communitarian alternative to a nation obsessed with money, power, size, speed, greed, and fear of terrorism.

Thomas H. Naylor
December 1, 2004
_______________________

Thomas Naylor is author of The Vermont Manifesto and one of the founders of the Second Vermont Republic. For information visit www.vermontrepublic.org.

[hawglips]

Sunday, November 13, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.com

INITIAL POST: 11.08.05

PART ONE

PROPHET TALK: NEWS ANALYSIS

Is the Vermont secession for real or is it at least partially intended to dull the impact of a truly significant change taking place in New Hampshire - where free-market oriented individuals have signed up to help make that state a truly classical liberal habitat by moving there.

The "free-state" movement started by free-market thinker and FMNN commentator Jason Sorens is succeeding, albeit at a slow pace, in raising its profile within the libertarian community and may generate as many as 1,000 residents within the next couple of years according to internal numbers. The Vermont secession movement, while flashier, has seemingly a number of strange bedfellows. That's not to say that the people involved aren't earnest about it, but given the history of such movements and the backgrounds of the individuals involved, caution is certainly one of the elements that ought to be included in any coverage of the ongoing Vermont campaign.

The Vermont movement was recently characterized as follows by one of the more prominent and courageous alternative press reporters as follows: "The neo-con band of criminals running Washington, trampling on civil rights at home and invading countries at will overseas, has led a large group of strong-minded Vermont freedom-fighters with no choice but to secede from the United States. ... And last Friday at the state capital building in Montpelier, a historic independence convention was held, the first of its kind in the United States since May 20, 1861, when North Carolina decided to leave the Union."

Yet as FMNN has already pointed out, the movement's featured speaker at the aforementioned independence movement was "James Kunstler ... a one-time Rolling Stone writer, prominent countercultural novelist and journalist [who] has been 'active in the New Urbanist movement over the last ten years.' ..."

And FMNN added, "Kunstler is an avid proponent of the controversial 'Peak Oil' theory which claims that the world is running out of fuel, has nothing to replace it with, and thus must scale back economic activities to sustainable proportions ... [In fact] there are a great many overlaps between the stated vision of people like Kunslter and some of the world’s most prominent power elite. Kunstler has worked [on a peak oil video] with ... Matthew Simmons, “CEO of the world's largest Energy Investment Bank, Simmons & Co. International, with clients including Halliburton and the World Bank. Simmons is a also a member of the US Council on Foreign Relations and the National Petroleum Council's Natural Gas Task Force ... Texas-based Simmons bills himself as George Bush’s energy advisor and is still today said to be one of President George Bush’s closest confidantes."

CONTINUED, SEE PART TWO ...

staff reports - Free-Market News Network

[unionblue]

Hal,

Seems fair and balanced reporting.

Hal, you are saying and posting this for what in particular?

And are you aware of the already existing thread under The Mason-Dixon Gazette?

Vermont Secedes

http://civilwartalk.com/forums/mason-dixon-gazette/23710-vermont-secedes.html

Unionblue

[olerebel]

Don't start a war until spring. My old bones don't like sleeping on frozen ground.

[Alabaman]

Ah come on, Olerebel; ya gonna let a little cold ground stop a fellow from doing his duty? ;-) Well...just follow old Alabaman! :-) ...Rob

[hawglips]

Neil, I've only been posting here for a few years now, so I don't yet know my way around.

You will note that I've joined the discussion of VT at the Mason-Dixon Gazette.

Hal

[unionblue]

Hal,

You've been busy on so many other threads of late, I was just checking.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

[matthew mckeon]

Hey,

Over at "Mode for Caleb" a blog written by Prof. Caleb McDaniel, there is an interesting paper on abolitionist secessionist sentiment: the idea they would leave the Union because it was corrupted by contact with slavery. The "punchline" is this belief was influenced by the Irish nationalist movement being led by Daniel O'Connell at the same time. It definitely worth reading, although I'm not getting the link set up right. I'm posting it here, because its about northern secessionists.

Second thought: The Vermont seceders of today are nutjobs! (That's so unfair! Bad poster! ) But really, independent Vermont? Maple syrup, gay marriage and really good ice cream are not the basis for political independence. Does anyone but me see that its absurd?

Check out "Mode for Caleb" blog. Very interesting essay on abolition secessionist thinking.

[hawglips]

Originally Posted by matthew mckeon

The Vermont seceders of today are nutjobs! (That's so unfair! Bad poster! ) But really, independent Vermont? Maple syrup, gay marriage and really good ice cream are not the basis for political independence. Does anyone but me see that its absurd?

The absurdity is pretending to know better than VT what's best for her.

Hal