The Right of Secession and the Confederacy

One problem people often have when looking at the past is to paint a person, event, or civilization as good or bad. Of course, given the complexity of human history it is difficult to describe some event or civilization as totally good or totally bad. We can all recognize that the Founding Fathers were not totally wrong, nor were they totally right.

Having grown up in the South, I have viewed (and participated) in the arguments between people who claim the South was right, and those who claim it was wrong. I think the best position to hold is that the South was wrong about some things (e.g. slavery) and the North was wrong about some things (e.g. invading the South when they exercised their right to secession). History is too complex to try to generalize across a whole country. However, I suspect that most people who are on one side or the other of the North-South debate are actually debating over more than historical accuracy.

Having lived in the South my whole life, I have known people who make the Confederacy the centerpiece of their political viewpoints. However, the past few years I have questioned not only the practicality of doing that, but even whether one should desire to hold the Confederacy in such high esteem.

One point that people go on about ad nauseum is that the South had a right to secession. The North was wrong to invade the South when they seceded. I agree that the South had the right to secede. Yet, I do not think we should hold the South up as the great protector of the right of secession.

Case in point: In my home state, Alabama, Winston County was opposed to the secession of the states from the Union. They reasoned that, if a state could secede from the Union, then a county could secede from a state. So, they seceded. (Let me point out that I do not support the belief of Winston County that states could not secede from the Union, but I do support the right of Winston County to secede from the state of Alabama.) The Confederates came into the county, arrested every single man over 18 years old along with every married man, took them to jails in other counties, and gave them five days to decide to fight for the Confederacy. If they chose not to fight, they would be shot in the back.

Isn’t it hypocritical to claim that people have the right of secession, but then use force against those who secede?

Many Confederate sympathizers are going to reply: “You’re missing the point! States have the right to secede, not counties. States had the right to secede because they joined together to form the country, and they retained the right to split apart and dissolve the country.”

It’s a good point, but I don’t think this will work. Go back and read the Declaration of Independence. Our country was founded upon the idea that a people could dissolve a government when it became necessary. The Confederate sympathizer has two choices: the right to secession was the product of the form of government that was instituted, or that the right to secession was part of the natural rights of the people. The latter was the view of the Founding Fathers; the former view would force one to view the Founding Fathers as being wrong when they revolted. Of course, Confederate sympathizers don’t want to be placed at odds with the Founding Fathers, since many of them claim that the Confederacy was fighting for the original vision for our country.

Anyway, I think it is correct to hold that the South had a right to secede (though not a right to enslave others) and the North was wrong in invading them. It is equally correct to hold that Winston County had a right of secession, and the South was wrong to use force against them.

Lulled Into Trusting the Government

Though I cannot think of a movie or a television show to use as an example, I think most of my readers will remember the type of scene I am about to describe: a con artist, or someone just trying to deceive others, is talking to someone. They begin talking about how you cannot trust other people. When they are both in the midst of proclaiming their lack of trust in other humans, the deceptive person says, “We are lucky to have each other, because at least we can trust each other.” Of course, no viewers of such a scene would be taken in by the deception of the con artist, but, almost invariably, the other person in the scene is taken in by the “comradery” of the con artist.

I am amazed at how many people, especially conservatives, are deceived by a similar situation. Conservatives are supposed to be heirs to the ideas of the Founding Fathers, or, at least, they claim to be. From my limited knowledge of the Founding Fathers, I get the impression that many of them were distrustful of government, and part of the goal of the Constitution was to check the power of government. Yet, conservatives are, by and large, no longer distrustful of government. Look at the massive support that Bush and the Republican Congress got from right-wingers. The massive increase in federal spending, a record expansion of federal involvement in the education system, a war that is unconstitutional, the McCain-Feingold bill, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Patriot Act, etc., is evidence that the Republicans (and their conservative supporters) are not truly distrustful of government. It might accurate to say that Republicans aren’t distrustful of government, but only distrustful of government that is not in their control.

I said above that conservatives have taken part in a deception similar to one I described above. When I said that Republicans aren’t distrustful of government, but only distrustful of government that they are not in control of, I hinted at how the deception takes place. How many times do Republican politicians and conservative political pundits talk about the dangers of government? Think about how they invoke Ronald Reagan as their patron saint. Reagan, the story goes, fought big government all around the world, even in the U.S.A. The Republicans want to join us in complaining about big government, while at the same time ushering in one of the largest increases in federal government in the past few decades.

“You must be distrustful of government,” Republicans tell us. “Government is a danger to liberty. Good thing you have us in control of the government—after all, you can trust us!”