A “thoroughly researched [and] historically enlightening” account of how the Commonwealth of Virginia split in two in the midst of war (Civil War News). “West Virginia was the child of the storm.” —Mountaineer historian and Civil War veteran Maj. Theodore F. Lang As the Civil War raged, the northwestern third of the Commonwealth of Virginia finally broke away in 1863 to form the Union’s 35th state. Seceding from Secession chronicles those events in an unprecedented study of the social, legal, military, and political factors that converged to bring about the birth of West Virginia. President Abraham Lincoln, an astute lawyer in his own right, played a critical role in birthing the new state. The constitutionality of the mechanism by which the new state would be created concerned the president, and he polled every member of his cabinet before signing the bill. Seceding from Secession includes a detailed discussion of the 1871 U.S. Supreme Court decision Virginia v. West Virginia, in which former Lincoln cabinet member Salmon Chase presided as chief justice over the court that decided the constitutionality of the momentous event. Grounded in a wide variety of sources and including a foreword by Frank J. Williams, former Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and Chairman Emeritus of the Lincoln Forum, this book is indispensable for anyone interested in American history.

Excerpt from Political History of Secession: To the Beginning of the American Civil War Greeley gives to the preface of The Great American Con ict. Few authors can afford to be as frank in their prefaces as Horace Greeley was in his, for he had the advantage of knowing that many would be interested in hearing whatever he might have to say and that there was some foundation for any seeming egotism. The preface to a volume like this is usually the last and the hardest thing to write. I have repeatedly rewritten this, in a vain effort to make it satisfactory to myself. I do not propose to expand it by telling what the book is about, or to apologize for writing it. The title and table of contents sufficiently indicate its general character. I have endeavored in a volume of moderate size to give a concise history of the development of the causes, of which slavery was the chief, but not the only one, that culminated in the Civil War. Although it is difficult to find new facts, it is still possible to array old facts in such a way as to give them a new interest, and to develop new theories more or less interest ing and instructive. But to avoid writing too much or too little; to escape the criticism that what is good is not new and what is new is not good; above all to make what is written as accurate as possible, - to do all this is not an easy task. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

A timeless reference on the right of secession from Britainís Glorious Revolution to Canada's current situation. Born in Minnesota, John Remington Graham is a constitutional-law attorney who served as an advisor on secession to the amicus curiae for Quebec.

This is the first book-length treatment of an increasingly crucial topic. Professor Buchanan develops a coherent theory of the conditions under which secession is morally justifiable and applies it to historical and contemporary examples. Buchanan locates his account of the right to secede in the broader context of contemporary political thought, introducing readers to influential accounts of political society, such as contractarianism and communitarianism, and showing how the possibility of secession fits into a more complete account of political community and political obligation.This is an important book, not just for political and social theorists, but for any reader concerned with the future of troubled political federations and other states under conditions of ethnic and cultural pluralism.

The political impulse to secede - to attempt to separate from central government control - is a conspicuous feature of the post-cold war world. It is alive and growing in Canada, Russia, China, Italy, Belgium, Britain, and even the United States Yet secession remains one of the least studied and least understood of all historical and political phenomena. The contributors to this volume have filled this gap with wide-ranging investigations - rooted in history, political philosophy, ethics, and economic theory - of secessionist movements in the United States, Canada, and Europe.