Secession and the US

To secure these rights [of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness], Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.
--Declaration of Independence

In the United States, secession as a valid strategy for coping with oppressive government goes at least as far back as Jefferson's words above. In the early 1800s, even outside observers such as Alexis de Tocqueville recognized the legitimacy of secession in the American system:

"The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and in uniting together they have not forfeited their nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. If one of the states chooses to withdraw from the compact, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so, and the Federal Government would have no means of maintaining its claims directly either by force or right (1945: 381)."

Through the distortions of popular history, many think that the only movements toward secession in the United States were those by the Southern states prior to the Civil War. However, there were numerous threats of secession prior to 1860.

The Alien and Sedition Acts of the late 1790s drove resolutions drafted by Jefferson and Madison for Kentucky and Virginia that hinted at secession. In the early 1800s, several New England states believed that the economic policies enacted under the presidencies of Jefferson and Madison were disproportionately harmful to New England state interests (which mirrored arguments of Southern states under later administrations); the wisdom of secession was debated in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and elsewhere over the span of at least 20 years.

As disagreements between Northern and Southern states got louder in the late 1850s, individual secession movements were spawned in several 'middle states' including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Various themes drove these movements. Some states wanted to join the Southern Confederacy, some wanted to form a 'Central Confederacy,' and some simply preferred that the South should go in peace rather than destroying the Union by trying to hold it together by military force.

There was even some chatter in a few Northern states with abolitionist tendencies that Northern border states should secede in order to negate the federal Fugitive Slave Act, thereby making it easier for runaway slaves to escape.

By the time that Southern states undertook secession proceedings in 1860-1861, the right of states to secede was widely recognized and respected--even in the North. Historical studies of editorials from Northern newspapers (e.g., Perkins, 1964) clearly indicate that secession as a Constitutional right was broadly understood.

Lincoln sought to alter history by arguing that the federal Union preceded the states. He denounced the right of secession as 'an ingenious sophism.' Even in his Gettysburg address, at which time hundreds of thousands had already died from a conflict that he put in motion, Lincoln argued that representative government would 'perish from the earth' if the South won the war, and that the war was being fought in defense of government by consent.

The opposite was in fact true. If Southern states had been permitted to peacefully secede, two representative government would have existed--on in the North and one in the South. Moreover, it was clear that the Federal government under Lincoln sought to deny Southerners the right to government by consent, for Southern states, by their movement to secede, certainly did not consent to remaining in the Union.

The Civil War can be seen as Lincoln's war against the right of secession.

References

de Tocqueville, A. 1945. Democracy in America. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House.

Perkins, H.C. 1964. Northern editorials on secession. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith.