ABSTRACT

This chapter identifies the conditions which justify secession, and to conclude that since those conditions were effectively met in 1860s America. The secession of those parts of the United States desiring freedom from the central government was justified on both moral and legal grounds. Secession, in the chapter is described as the process of political divorce and formation of at least one new sovereign unit through a formal declaration of independence. Secession can take at least two forms. In the first, a section of a larger political entity separates from the whole (the Union) and formally declares itself a sovereign, independent unit. In the second, all (or most) regions of the larger unit secede at once. Thus, political divorce might be accomplished peacefully if the larger power either is willing to let the smaller one go, or is incapable of preventing a formal declaration of independence which is recognized as legitimate by other nations.