Are we looking at an incipient revolt by the states against Washington’s tyranny? Let’s hope so. From Gib Kerr at lewrockwell.com:
Thousands of anti-war activists, including newspaper publishers and even priests, were imprisoned by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Seward oversaw a secret police force that arrested vast numbers of citizens for “disloyalty” and—denying them due process—left them to rot in prison.
Seward claimed that he could “ring a bell” and have anyone arrested. He apparently believed that you have to destroy civil liberties in order to save them.
Anyone recognize a pattern here?
The Southern states had sought to separate from the Union, proclaiming the right to secede. Through four years of war—at a cost of nearly 700,000 lives—the Union was torn asunder, until the issue was settled by the brute force of Northern military victory.
The notion of states’ rights has ever since been tainted by its association with slavery and secession. The Tenth Amendment is ignored and dismissed as a quaint reminder of the olden days. From Lincoln to FDR to LBJ and Obama, the federal leviathan has exploded far beyond anything the Founding Fathers ever fathomed.
