Secession: Alex Champion's Entry 11

 

The past month afforded a few opportunities to think about a touchy constitutional subject: The Annual Tug-of-War between Annapolis and Eastport and the secession petitions following President Barack Obama’s election.  Outside of constitutional scholars, civil war historians, and unreconstructed southerners and their incomprehensibly sympathetic northerners, I probably reflect upon secession more than most Americans.  Despite the considerable baggage, both personally and in historiography, I’ve made my peace with a generally pro-Confederate interpretation of secession’s constitutionality. Arising from states rightist philosophies developing around the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions and the Nullification Crisis, it contends that the national government is a creation of the states via mutual agreement.

During the height of my secession obsession in High School I realized that a compact is built upon a promise; although the constitution does not contain provisions for exiting the union, the Constitution is essentially a contract and thus breakable only when it is violated. Since the documentary record is rich with references to slavery as the primary concern for the lower south states, the states seized or razed federal installations and captured soldiers leaving at the behest of governors, and seceded for as yet passed and imagined anti-slavery legislation from President-Elect Abraham Lincoln, I mentally entered a condition of gentle superiority in the knowledge that THEY broke the contract instead of Lincoln. It is with this perspective that I view secession here and now.

In the Land of Secesh.

On November 3, 2012 I participated in the 15^th Annual Annapolis and Eastport Tug of War. The friendly competition between Annapolis and the formerly independent city of Eastport, in which I live, is precipitated by the secessionist movement known as the Maritime Republic of Eastport. Following the repair and subsequent closure of a crucial drawbridge connecting Eastport with Historic Downtown Annapolis, the Maritime Republic of Eastport “seceded” from Annapolis and thus the United States of America to form its own micro-nation to rebuild Eastport’s spirit and support local businesses. The official reason and purpose was thus:

“The goal was to foster a spirit of independence and merriment in a manner befitting the character of Eastport and at the same time, to celebrate Eastport's proud heritage and quality of life. So the Maritime Republic of Eastport was founded on Super Bowl Sunday, 1998, when patriots residing on the Horn Point peninsula rose up in revolt against the snobbish suppression of ‘Annapolis Proper’ across the harbor. Since that time, MRE has become a force in the community, doing good for the community and having fun at the same time. MRE meetings and activities are open to all.”
 

 The MRE’s motto, “We Like it This Way” appears on its official flag. With a yellow field, the superimposed black shield depicts staples of Eastport culture: a fishing vessel and crab on the dexter, a heron and pleasure craft on the sinister, and two flanking hounds with tennis balls in their mouths.

Without guns or canons and minie ball volleys like those rebellious southern states, the Maritime Republic of Eastport and its boosters battle against the Historic Downtown Annapolis and theirs for bragging rights with the 1700 feet rope. The Tug of War competition, also known as the “Slaughter Across the Water...”

 

 

...spans Annapolis Harbor from the Chart House restaurant in Eastport to Susan B. Campbell Park in Annapolis. Naturally the harbor is closed. Also naturally, my team representing Watergate Village Apartments (a sponsor) won.

 

The re-election of President Barack Obama created the now customary slew of media coverage concerning secession. Just as Democrats did in 2000 but especially in 2004, conservative Americans decried the election of a person representing everything that contradicted their true vision of America.

 

President Obama is probably the third person to be described as a “black president.” Abraham Lincoln, a moderate figurehead of an abolition-leaning party built from a cacophonous coalition of former Federalists, Whigs, Anti-Masons, Free-Soilers, but also liberal and conservative factions within each, was often called a “black Republican” for his alleged positions on slavery. Toni Morrison once claimed that Bill Clinton, whose affair with Monica Lewinsky was treated scandalously by Republicans as if he were a black male, was America’s first black president. Whether or not she truly believed her comments, she illustrated the socio-economic gap of expectations between the common people and the political class.

 

In the blogosphere November 6^th is ancient history. Yes, America’s third black president was re-elected. Yes, Republicans are kvetching over the loss. Yes, segments of society of claim they wish to secede. My post was delayed because I hoped the discussion would continue despite the "fiscal cliff" talks and Lindsay Lohan's performance in Liz and Dick. Sadly, a rudimentary Google search for "Obama secession" yields few substantive articles beyond mid-November and virtually none drawing parallels to 1860 when the election of America's first black president precipitated the secession crisis. The articles that do get into the escoterica of "states rights" and secession are usually editorials, the print world origins of blogging, and suffer from the journalistic tendency to draw big conclusions from small examples and ignore entire facets of debate.

 

This article from the Miami Herald, reprinted in the Kansas City Star, does an exemplary job exploring the historical angles as they concern the present day but makes no mention of the Civil War--only Lincoln's ambivalence towards the validity of secession.

Secession is a subject that I feel passionately for but sadly it is consigned to sporatic tongue-in-cheek debates or opinion pieces.