Secession Talk in the Tundra

by Karl Kurtz

No, we're not talking Alaska, rather Wisconsin--in the 19th century.  When I sent out a survey of state legislators several weeks ago in which I asked respondents to identify what state they were from, I inadvertently left the last three states in the alphabet off of the list to choose from.  In an e-mail message of apology to legislators from those states, I used the subject line, "WV, WI, WY have NOT seceded from the Union!"

Here is a response to that message from Wisconsin Rep. Marlin Schneider:

Karl - What are you talking about?  For quite a few years I have wished we could secede.  Actually the first state to consider secession the first time around was Wisconsin, which refused to obey the Supreme Court decision on the Fugitive Slave Act and Dred Scott.  Bet you didn't know that, did you?  You thought it was South Carolina, home of the famous Citadel that opened fire on Fort Sumter.  No, actually it was us up here in the tundra.

No, Marlin, I didn't know that, so I looked it up.  Here's what the Wisconsin Historical Society has to say about it:

Between 1860 and 1861, eleven Southern states defied the authority of the U.S. government and seceded from the Union, asserting a doctrine of states' rights. Ironically though, for several years before the war, Wisconsin had been the most thoroughgoing champion of states' rights. Unlike the Southern states, however, Wisconsin had used the doctrine in opposition to, rather than in support of, slavery. States' rights had been the basis of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision to nullify the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act after the controversy surrounding the fugitive slave Joshua Glover (see "Abolitionism and Other Social Reforms").

Other Web sites are more explicit that Gov. Alexander Randall (photo) advocated secession.  But history buffs, in particular those who know John C. Calhoun, would dispute Rep. Schneider's claim that Wisconsin was "the first state to consider secession."  See this article from eHistory.com:

The first state to secede from the Union was South Carolina. Significantly, this was not the first time that the people of South Carolina had discussed secession. During the debate over tariffs in the 1830s, South Carolina seriously considered secession. Fortunately, John C. Calhoun helped to solve the problem and South Carolina remained in the Union.