Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of New Virginia from the State of Virginia
with thanks to the Confederate State of South Carolina
for the Idea and Most of the Text
Which Is Sort of Ironic
Given the Context
But Hey
What Goes Around Comes Around
The people of the State of New Virginia, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A.D., 2015, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Government of the State of Virginia, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the People, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the State of Virginia; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other free States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
And now the State of New Virginia having resumed her separate and equal place among states, deems it due to herself, to the remaining United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she should declare the immediate causes which have led to this act.
In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for the government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, "that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."
They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government." Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."
We hold that the Government rightly established is subject to those two great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third fundamental principle, namely: the law of compact. We maintain that in every compact between two or more parties, the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other; and that where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences.
In the present case, that fact is established with certainty. We assert that the Senators and Delegates of the Less Populous Counties of the State of Virginia have deliberately refused, for years past, to fulfill their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own Statutes for the proof.
The Constitution of the United States, in its first Amendment, provides as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made. Yet as the People clamour for their right to liberty, the forces of the State do willfully prevent their peaceable assembly. As the People seek to live according to the blessings of liberty in their own Persons, the State does enforce the edicts of the Fundamentalist Faith, asserting through the Sword and Coercion its ill-sought will to abrogate the Liberty of the People in the service of a Religion that is not freely and fully embraced. In so doing, the Senators and Delegates of the Less Populous Counties do violate and willfully impugn the Constitutional Liberties of the gathered People.
Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the Less Populous Counties, and the consequence follows that New Virginia is released from her obligation.
The ends for which the Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the Less Populous Counties. Those Counties and the Party that they represent have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of personal liberty recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the basic freedoms of our individual persons; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to diminish the liberty of the citizens of other Counties.
They have used the Power of the State to Harass and oppose the free practice of Science, and to willfully suppress the free distribution and presentation of Scientific opinion, and in so doing have shown a willful disregard for the Freedom of the press and of basic human liberties.
They have betrayed the essential purpose of the Medical Profession and the liberty of her practitioners; They have passed Laws to enforce Unnecessary Medical Procedures for the Sole Purpose of Oppression and the abrogation of personal Liberty; They have inflicted such procedures as a Secret Tax to enforce their Religion on those whose Liberty they seek to diminish.
For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the *forms* of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Power of those Gathered in Richmond, the means of subverting the Constitution itself.
The State has rewritten the Electoral Map so that those in office elect themselves, and all the false and pernicious Districts so formed have united in the election of a man to the high office of Governor of the State of Virginia, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to Freedom, and of Senators and Delegates who do not serve the Freedom of the Citizens of this Great State, but their own interest, power, and Religion.
In the Year of Our Lord 2010, this Party took possession of the Government.
The guaranties of the Constitution no longer exist; the right of the People to fair redress of grievances has been lost. The Free People of New Virginia no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the State Government has become their enemy.
Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation, and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that public opinion in the Less Populous Counties has invested a great political error with the sanction of more erroneous religious belief.
We, therefore, the People of New Virginia, by our delegates in Convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared that the Union heretofore existing between this State and the State of Virginia, is dissolved, and that the State of New Virginia has taken her position among the States of the United States of America, as a separate and independent State comprised of the non-contiguous jurisdictions of Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Albermarle, Loudon, Prince William, Norfolk, Newport News, Montgomery, Buckingham, Nelson, Brunswick, Greensville, Sussex, Surrey, Charles City, Henrico, Suffolk, Chesapeake, King and Queen, Caroline, Essex, Danville, and Yea, even Richmond herself; with full power to contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.
PS: Oh, and Sic Semper Tyrannis? We get to keep that.
Adopted May 17, 2015
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