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<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>I heard recently that many people in Texas
wanted to secede from the U.S.,</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>No problem, I will sign that petition, but
hopefully Austin Texas will want to be a " Free City State " totally
autonomous from the state of Texas.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>David J.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ewj@pigsqq.org href="mailto:ewj@pigsqq.org">"E. Wayne Johnson
朱稳森"</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=peace-discuss@anti-war.net
href="mailto:peace-discuss@anti-war.net">Peace-discuss</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, December 23, 2012 7:32
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Peace-discuss] hasta la vista,
baby.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<H3 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in">It seems far from settled.<BR></H3>
<H3 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in"><FONT face=Arial>Parting Company</FONT></H3>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Over
150 years ago, the Northern Democratic and Republican parties favored allowing
the South to secede in peace. Just about every major Northern newspaper
editorialized in favor of the South's right to secede. New York Tribune (Feb.
5, 1860): "If tyranny and despotism justified the Revolution of 1776, then we
do not see why it would not justify the secession of Five Millions of
Southrons from the Federal Union in 1861." Detroit Free Press (Feb. 19,
1861<I>): "An attempt to subjugate the seceded States, even if successful,
could produce nothing but evil – evil unmitigated in character and appalling
in content."</I> The New York Times (March 21, 1861): "There is growing
sentiment throughout the North in favor of letting the Gulf States
go."</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2 face=Arial>There's
more evidence seen at the time our Constitution was ratified. The ratification
documents of Virginia, New York and Rhode Island explicitly said that they
held the right to resume powers delegated, should the federal government
become abusive of those powers. The Constitution would have never been
ratified if states thought that they could not maintain their
sovereignty.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The War
of 1861 settled the issue of secession through brute force that cost 600,000
American lives. Americans celebrate Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, but
H.L. Mencken correctly evaluated the speech, "It is poetry, not logic; beauty,
not sense." Lincoln said that the soldiers sacrificed their lives "to the
cause of self-determination – that government of the people, by the people,
for the people should not perish from the earth." Mencken says: "It is
difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle
actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought
for the right of people to govern themselves."</FONT></P>
<P>
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