Kevin: Of course slavery would have lasted longer had the South not seceded. An irony of history.
I cannot comment on the "right" to secede, because I don't know what a "right" is.
But I will say that I think it is unwise of any state to simply offer any of its component parts, the right to secede if a majority wants it, regardless of time, place and circumstances.
As a rough rule of thumb, I would say: if the seccession of an area would not result in a grave strategic danger to a state; and if the inhabitants of an area, via repeated, convincingly large, votes, demonstrate a wish to leave ... then I would probably support their right to leave.
Thank God it didn't happen to us. We would probably have split up into a half dozen smaller republics, sort of like Latin America, and would have ended up being German or Russian or Japanese colonies in the 20th Century. Thank God the world's most powerful nation is also a liberal democracy.
Please note that the Confederacy did not allow any of its component parts to secede: in a dangerous world, that would be a very dangerous right to offer too promiscuously.
If we someday have a nice peaceful prosperous world of disarmed liberal democracies -- sort of like Europe is today -- then, sure, to hell with it. Everybody cut loose. Not yet.
I cannot comment on the "right" to secede, because I don't know what a "right" is.
But I will say that I think it is unwise of any state to simply offer any of its component parts, the right to secede if a majority wants it, regardless of time, place and circumstances.
As a rough rule of thumb, I would say: if the seccession of an area would not result in a grave strategic danger to a state; and if the inhabitants of an area, via repeated, convincingly large, votes, demonstrate a wish to leave ... then I would probably support their right to leave.
Thank God it didn't happen to us. We would probably have split up into a half dozen smaller republics, sort of like Latin America, and would have ended up being German or Russian or Japanese colonies in the 20th Century. Thank God the world's most powerful nation is also a liberal democracy.
Please note that the Confederacy did not allow any of its component parts to secede: in a dangerous world, that would be a very dangerous right to offer too promiscuously.
If we someday have a nice peaceful prosperous world of disarmed liberal democracies -- sort of like Europe is today -- then, sure, to hell with it. Everybody cut loose. Not yet.