Townhall's Ken Blackwell Wrong on Ron Paul and Secession

Ken Blackwell of Townhall.com attacks Ron Paul's claim that secession is a right of the states in his latest misguided piece. Blackwell writes:

Congressman Ron Paul has just delivered his valedictory address in the House of Representatives. And he has told TV interviewers that the American Revolution was a wonderful example of secession. He's a much better OB/GYN, I'm sure, than he is a student of America's history. He could be cited for political malpractice.

If the Founding Fathers and the Patriots who fought and won the Revolution were seceding, why is it that none of them ever called it secession? They certainly had the word back then. They invoked the well-known right of revolution. They had read their John Locke and their Montesquieu, to be sure, but they most often listened to sermons advocating independence--especially those of the New England clergy.

I can't believe what I am reading. Anyone who clearly understands the basis of the Declaration of Independence knows it was a declaration of secession from England and King George. It lists the crimes of King George as justification for removing the colonies from British control to form their own sovereign states.

Let's take a first look at the first paragraph of the Declaration.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Does it get any clearer than that?

What Mr. Blackwell misses is the word secede comes from the Latin word secedere. Secedere means to withdraw formally from membership in an organization, association, or alliance.

Jefferson's beautiful prose clearly calls for a formal withdraw from the British empire Mr. Blackwell. While Jefferson never says the word secede in the Declaration, it is clearly his intent given the first paragraph. If the founding fathers, who weren't fans of war (knowing how war in itself was often a tyrannical action), could have done it peacefully, they would have done so. That wasn't an option King George would allow.

The Declaration was obviously the result of the King's tyranny as was the Revolution and both are an important part in the withdraw from the British Empire. While the Revolution was a necessary evil, the Declaration clearly states the founders intention of secession.

Mr. Blackwell clearly doesn't understand the events leading up to the Declaration. While the Declaration doesn't use the word secede, the founders like Jefferson had no issue using the word leading up to its draft. The people of Virginia gathered in convention two months before the Declaration was signed in May of 1776. There, Virginians declared their sovereignty and cut political ties to King George. This convention signifies the state of Virginia seceding from Great Britain and the Virginia Constitution followed. George Mason and James Madison were drafters of the Virginia Constitution, and Thomas Jefferson attempted to draft a Constitution, but his drafts showed up at the convention too late.

 Clearly what the Virginians did was an act of secession, the first. Of course the other 12 would follow. How much more formal do you need to get? They had a convention. Formally agreed to remove the political bonds and with draw, thus drafting their own Constitution ensuring self government--not continued rule of the King.