Secession, State and Liberty

The essays in Secession, State & Liberty argue that the political impulse to secede--to attempt to separate from central government control--is a vital part of the Lockean classical-liberal tradition, one that emerges when national governments become too big and too ambitious. 


Unlike revolution, secession seeks only separation from rule, preferably through non-violent means. It is based on the moral idea, articulated by Ludwig von Mises in 1919, that "no people and no part of a people shall be held against its will in a political association that it does not want." 

These important essays--which cover philosophy, history, economics, and law--argue that the threat of secession should be revived as a bulwark against government encroachment on individual liberty and private property rights, as a guarantor of international free trade, and as protection against attempts to curb the freedom of association.

This volume is composed of these eleven essays:

• The Secession Tradition in America (Donald W. Livingston)
• When is Political Divorce Justified? (Steven Yates)
• The Ethics of Secession (Scott Boykin)
• Nations By Consent: Decomposing the Nation-State (Murray N. Rothbard)
• Secession: The Last, Best Bulwark of Our Liberties (Clyde N. Wilson)
• Republicanism, Federalism, and Secession in the South, 1790 to 1865 (Joseph R. Stromberg)
• Yankee Confederates: New England Secession Movements Prior to the War Between the States (Thomas DiLorenzo)
• Was the Union Army's Invasion of the Confederate States a Lawful Act? An Analysis of President Lincoln's Legal Arguments Against Secession (James Ostrowski)
• The Economic and Political Rationale for European Secessionism (Hans-Hermann Hoppe)
• A Secessionist's View of Quebec's Options (Pierre Desrochers and Eric Duhaime)
• How to Secede in Business Without Really Leaving: Evidence of the Substitution of Arbitration for Litigation (Bruce L. Benson)

Included as appendices are the text of:

• The Declaration of Independence
• The Articles of Confederation
• The Constitution of the United States
• The Constitution of the Confederate States

Source:  Secession, State and Liberty