It has not always been so. The United States was born during a time that secession and self determination were not only observed as inalienable rights but were practiced.  Virginia set the example in June of 1776 by declaring her independence from Great Britain.  She along with the twelve other colonies jointly declared their independence the following month.  These were acts of secession and our Independence Day might rightly be called Secession Day.

The charter of the American Secession Project is simple.  We desire to place the concept of secession in the mainstream of political thought.  Our intent is to proclaim that secession is a viable and legal right and a practical solution to contemporary problems. Secondly, we desire to build a coalition of groups seeking autonomy and independence within the current United States.  Mutual support for the concept of self-determination and secession will eventually benefit all groups seeking freedom.

Secessionist come in all ethnic and cultural backgrounds colors and religious persuasions.  Secession is neither liberal nor conservative, it is a right that might be equally applied regardless of a group's persuasion. The folks that support a free California and an Independent Alaska certainly disagree on numerous issues, specifically environmental issues.  However the concept of supporting another in their bid to manage their own affairs is certainly a historic American (if not 20th century American) point of view.

As such the project has and will attempt to represent each separatist, independence and secessionist group fairly and objectively. Our purpose is to establish that self-determination is a basic right and support all groups seeking self-determination and independence.

We invite input from any and all groups seeking self-determination and autonomy.  The sections of this site dedicated to particular movements are open to input from group leaders and members.  We want to show what you are really about. Please email us with information and inaccuracies.

We congratulate the Middlebury Institute and the successful hosting of the 2006 North American Secessionist Convention be sure to stay posted for the results of the Second Annual Secession Convention. When the American Secession Project began in 2004 this is exactly the sort of gathering we had in mind.  Kudos to the Vermont folks for making this a reality. Read the Burlington Declarationand the CHATTANOOGA DECLARATION. Stay tuned for details on the 2008 Secession Convention.

Secession Quotes

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right – a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit." – Abraham Lincoln, (speech in Congress January 1848)

"A nation, therefore, has no right to say to a province: You belong to me, I want to take you. A province consists of its inhabitants. If anybody has a right to be heard in this case it is these inhabitants." - Ludwig Von Mises. Omnipotent Government, p.90

"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector." – Plato (circa 400 B.C.)

"When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." – Thomas Jefferson

"The constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."-Patrick Henry

"Only a despotic and imperial government can coerce seceding states" - William Seward US Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln in 10 April 1861 to Charles Francis Adams, Minister to the Court of St. James (Britain)

"We do heartily accept this doctrine, believing it intrinsically sound, beneficent, and one that, universally accepted, is calculated to prevent the shedding of seas of human blood. And, if it justified the secession from the British Empire of Three Millions of colonists in 1776, we do not see why it would not justify the secession of Five Millions of Southrons from the Federal Union in 1861." - The New-York Daily Tribune, December 17, 1860

"The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin of all that has proceeded it." - Robert E. Lee to Lord Acton December 15, 1866

"We dissent . . . because the powers vested in Congress by this constitution, must necessarily annihilate and absorb the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of he several states, and produce from their ruins one consolidated government, which from the nature of things will be an iron handed despotism, as nothing short of the supremacy of despotic sway could connect and govern these United States under one government. . . . [I]t would . . . produce a despotism, and that not by the usual gradations, but with the celerity that has hitherto only attended revolutions effected by the sword." (The Address and Reasons of Dissent of the Minority of the Convention of Pennsylvania to their Constituents, December 18, 1787), in R. Ketchum, ed., The Anti-Federalist Papers, pp. 237-256).

George Orwell Quotes (rather applicable today)

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

"Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac."

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

"Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war." (From 1984)

Join us and help restore the rights our States have and if necessary free ourselves from a Federal government gone mad with power, corruption and decay

Feb. 3, 2010

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