Secession Petitions On White House Website Reach 675,000 Signatures: How Andrew Jackson Responded To Secession In 1832

Petitions to "secede" on the White House's “We the People” online petition system have reached 675,000 signatures and 50-state participation. Various States have reached the 25,000 mark at which point the White House promises to respond. Here's how the White House's Andrew Jackson responded to secession in his 1832 "Proclamation to the People of South Carolina":

"The Constitution of the United States...forms a government, not a league, and whether it be formed by compact between the States, or in any other manner, its character is the same. It is a government in which all the people are represented, which operates directly on the people individually, not upon the States; they retained all the power they did not grant. But each State having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute jointly with the other States a single nation, cannot from that period possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation, and any injury to that unity is not only a breach which would result from the contravention of a compact, but it is an offense against the whole Union. To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union, is to say that the United States are not a nation because it would be a solecism to contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its connection with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without committing any offense. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a constitutional right, is confounding the meaning of terms, and can only be done through gross error, or to deceive those who are willing to assert a right, but would pause before they made a revolution, or incur the penalties consequent upon a failure."

Tweet