Secessionist No. 16

by Brian McCandliss June 2005
An original essay written for the American Secession Project
In my article "In my article "Were the States Sovereign Nations?" - Secessionist Paper No. 6  I concluded that the states were, indeed, separate sovereign nations under the law prior to the Civil War. Since this time, however I have likewise come to a more-recent conclusion, i.e. that, legally speaking, that the states are still sovereign nations under the law.

This is because the Civil War was federally-proclaimed as a legal police-action to put down an unlawful rebellion, which it claimed was justified under an alleged legal-claim to federal national authority over the individual states. However since this claim was legally false-- and, more importantly, since no laws were changed afterward to substantiate such a claim-- then it was merely an act of Orwellian censorship, i.e. an act by government in order to change the perceived meaning of the law via long-term totalitarian suppression of the truth.

As such, the current order of federal national authority over the individual states, is simply supported by repression-- not law. Rather, the law-- being, once again, unchanged from its original form with regards to state sovereignty-- still regards each state as a separate, sovereign nation unto itself (as stated above). Therefore, claims of the type found at http://www.americanpresident.org/history/abrahamlincoln/, i.e. that "Union victory ended forever the claim that state sovereignty superseded federal authority", are entirely spurious and fallacious; for the question is one of simple historical fact, not subsequent military victory. And no amount of force or victory can change or determine prior history, but rather can only suppress accurate readings and teachings thereof. History may be written by the victors, but it cannot be changed by such--- at least not without time-travel.

In conclusion, therefore, the states currently exist, legally speaking, under an order of pure suppression, whereby their true legal rights and status as separate, sovereign nations-- equal to that of any other nation to be free from coercion by the US government-- are censored via ongoing occupation, backed up by threat of military retaliation for dissent or disobedience by any state.

Any serious discussion of "liberty" must recognize this fact concerning the current state-of-affairs under which we live-- as well as to recognize that the states are still sovereign nations under the law.

The Calhoun Institute