Last Confederate hold out - was in upstate New York!?!

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

  • '22 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    Not an expert on the New York State Constitution, but I think like any state secession/partition you need approval of the legislature in order to secede (much like the disputed legality of the Confederate states seceding). The secession should have never been recognized in the first place. As a resident of New York City, I would put my mortgage on a secession vote passing if it were as simple as letting the city’s popular vote decide. But Albany would never let it happen.

    In my perfect world, the NYC metropolitan area (NYC, lower Hudson valley, north Jersey and western CT) would be its own state.

    I believe the eastern counties of Colorado did stage symbolic votes of secession from the state over gun/marijuana laws among other things but they’re not going anywhere


  • Great news Garg!
    Are you sure it is not a wind up though?
    I find it hard to believe, just as the residents and historians have.


  • Interesting bit of obscure history.  The argument I’d use to analyze this one would go as follows:

    The first state to leave the Union, South Carolina, voted for secession on December 24, 1860.  The military action that is generally regarded as starting the Civil War, the bombardment of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, began on April 12, 1861.  During the three-and-a-half month period separating these two events, South Carolina was in the position of having declared its independence from the Union but of not yet having started to defend that independence by force of arms.  Once the shooting started, however, the issue stopped being a legalistic one and instead became a military one, with the ultimate outcome depending on whether southern arms would be able to uphold Confederate independence from the Union or whether Union arms would be able to reinstate federal government in the southern states.  So if the tiny New York hamlet of Town Line did indeed vote to secede from the U.S., but took no steps to back up its claim to independence by force of arms, then Albany and Washington would have had no compelling reason to consider this action as anything other than a symbolic vote which they could simply ignore (especially since they already had their hands full with a real war in the south).  It’s even possible that Albany and Washington “never got the memo” because the article is a vague about whether Twon Line ever notified the federal authorities that they had voted to secede.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    @General:

    Not an expert on the New York State Constitution, but I think like any state secession/partition you need approval of the legislature in order to secede (much like the disputed legality of the Confederate states seceding). The secession should have never been recognized in the first place. As a resident of New York City, I would put my mortgage on a secession vote passing if it were as simple as letting the city’s popular vote decide. But Albany would never let it happen.

    In my perfect world, the NYC metropolitan area (NYC, lower Hudson valley, north Jersey and western CT) would be its own state.

    I believe the eastern counties of Colorado did stage symbolic votes of secession from the state over gun/marijuana laws among other things but they’re not going anywhere

    Veers…

    No offense, but isn’t the whole concept that “the government” has to “allow you the right” to secede a bit preposterous?

    It’s not like Abe Lincoln “allowed” or “approved” states like virginia to secede; and as mark says - they took up arms!

    By the argument presented - America wasn’t legally “allowed” to secede from Britain, does that mean their secession should not be recognized?

  • '22 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    Fair, but as Marc said, since there wasn’t even any force involved, no one took it seriously then or now. I’m just stunned Truman wrote a letter to them.

    But call me an arrogant New York City resident, but this is just a story about a sleepy way upstate town getting its fifteen minutes of fame.


  • @General:

    this is just a story about a sleepy way upstate town getting its fifteen minutes of fame.

    It may also be a bid to boost the local tourist industry.  Or create one, if the town is too small to already have one.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    Considered the population was sub 100; and assuming 50% female and 50% male.  They sent 10% of their citizens off to the war effort!

    That’s a big deal!


  • To quote Ronald Reagan “Its the people who should tell the Fed. Government what to do not the other way around”
    I’m going to move to one of the hand full of States that are going to secede
    from the union.
    I liked Oklahoma when I lived there, also lots of inlaws in N. & S. Carolina’s

  • '22 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    @Gargantua:

    Considered the population was sub 100; and assuming 50% female and 50% male.  They sent 10% of their citizens off to the war effort!

    That’s a big deal!

    Hey, NYC was ready to secede if circumstances changed, it was home to opportunistic copperheads wanting to trade with the CSA and angry immigrants resenting the draft. Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island would have formed “tri-isle” city.

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