Secession?
What is secession?
To secede means to withdraw formally from an alliance, federation, oe association, as from a political union, a religious organization, etc.
Event Information
Hey guys lets break away from the Union!
Maybe we can even get Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas to join us too!
When?
Thursday, Dec 20, 1860, 12:00 AM
Where?
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas
The Southern states threatened to secede if Abraham Lincoln became President of the Union in 1860. When he was elected, the states did then secede starting with South Carolina on December 20, 1860. In a letter, Lincoln wrote to New Hampshire Senator John Hale a week before Georgia seceded, '“We have just carried on election on principles fairly stated to the people...Now we are told in advance, the government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the offices. In this they are either attempting to play upon us, or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us, and of the government. They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum….There is, in my judgment, but one compromise which would really settle this slavery question, and that would be a prohibition against acquiring any more territory.”' This shows that President Lincoln stood his ground and let them secede.
Again? Really?
Event Information
Hey Guys! Let's secede!
When?
Tuesday, Nov 6, 2012, 12:00 AM
Where?
Texas
In 2012 Texas threatened to secede and created an online petition that got over 100,000 signatures. This prompted a response from the white house. This was the responce, https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/our-states-remain-united. With this letter, President Obama took the diplomatic approach and responded by acknowledging that there are issues and diffusing the high tempers in Texas by describing how all the states of the nation help "to create a more perfect union".
President Obama Vs. President Lincoln
When President Lincoln was confronted with this issue, he stood his ground and refused to budge. This caused the southern states to secede from the Union. When President Obama was confronted with a similar issue, he took the diplomatic route and tried to diffuse the situation and work with them on a solution.
My reaction
Before this project, I only knew of the southern states seceding during the Civil War and I did not know any states have tried to do it since. I learned that it was more common for states to try to secede than I thought.
Works Cited
Fernandez, Manny. "White House Rejects Petitions to Secede, but Texans Fight On." New York Times. New York Times, 15 Jan. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Harris, William C. "Abraham Lincoln and Secession." Abraham Lincoln's Classroom. The Lehrman Institute, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.