Nullification & Secession: The Rechabite Principle as a Political Solution

Here is a link to an excellent article on why secession and nullification are indispensable rights and strategies when seeking to correct political injustice. The article includes this crucial declaration: "...the Constitution was ratified...with the understanding that the Court could not strike down State law."

But what recourse do the people have when the US Supreme Court strikes down state and local laws—or when any branch of the federal government creates unconstitutional laws, edicts, regulations, mandates, etc?

Answer: Nullification. And if that doesn't work, secession.

To illustrate the point that the Supreme Court cannot strike down state laws, Earl Starbuck, the author of the article linked above, says, "In other words, you have two options. Either you, the people of Vermont or California or Alabama or Tennessee, or whatever State you live in, write the laws by which you are governed (through your elected legislatures), or the Supreme Court writes your laws for you. Is that self-government? Is that liberty?"

By way of defining nullification, Earl Starbuck writes this:

Nullification. The doctrine of nullification is the idea that when the Federal government exceeds its constitutional authority, the State governments possess both the right and the duty to interpose their power and authority between the people and the tyrannical usurpation of the Federal government. As sovereign and equal members of a compact, nullifying laws, rulings and edicts which exceed the delegated authority of the Federal government is one of those things sovereign States may of right do. Moreover, because all just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, the right of nullification is reserved to the sovereign States by Amendments Nine and Ten.

So where does secession come in? Well, if after a state or states dutifully exercise the people's right to nullify any particular federal law (or edict, regulation, ruling, or mandate, etc.) the federal government still tries in any way to enforce the nullified law(s) then that state (or those states) have the God-given right to secede. 

The American colonies rightfully and successfully seceded from Great Britain in the late 1700s. Former Soviet republics rightfully and successfully seceded from the USSR in the 1990s. Americans recognize the rights of the American colonists and the "captive" Soviet republics to secede. 

The Southern States also had a right to peacefully secede from the United States of America if they found that being part of that union no longer preserved their rights to govern themselves—though they were not allowed to do that. How might America be different today if the Southern States were allowed to leave peacefully? No doubt slavery would have ended in a way that didn't cause the death of nearly 700,000 Americans. For what that war cost in treasure alone, every Southern slave owner could have been amply compensated for the loss of his slaves—as the US Constitution requires. Such was the plan of 1844 presidential candidate, Joseph Smith, Jr.—but he was assassinated before the November 1844 election.

Nullification and secession are inherently part of our natural, God-given rights to govern ourselves according to the dictates of our own consciences. 

Please take the time to read Earl Starbuck's lengthy and enlightening article. It is entitled, "Judicial Review? No. Nullification."

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Orem, Utah—February 25, 2021—©2021 Daniel Kemper Lubben

 

 

 

 

 

Nine Rechabite Migrations
of Latter-day Saints

Hugh Nibley claimed that many Rechabite migrations occurred in ancient times. He included Adam & Eve’s Adam exodus from the Garden of Eden to Adam-Ondi-Ahman (even though that migration clearly was not a case of fleeing from a corrupt society).

Abraham and Sarah’s sojourn fits the Rechabite ideal of fleeing corruption to establish a righteous society in the wilderness. In fact, Abraham’s entire life was a quest for refuge from the fallen and corrupted world.

The exodus of the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt—first to the desert wilderness of Sinai and then to Canaan—is the greatest and most miraculous Rechabite migration to date. Right up to our own time the Exodus from Egypt has served as a reminder of what great things God has done for our ancestors.

I can count at least nine Rechabite migrations of Latter-day Saints in modern times:

1.  The young Church flees western New York in the early 1830s.

2.  The Church flees Kirtland, Ohio in the late 1830s.

3.  The Saints are driven from northwestern Missouri and flee to the Illinois banks of the Mississippi River in 1838 and 1839.

4.  Saints in the British Isles, Scandinavia, Polynesia and other far-flung areas gather to the main body of Saints during much of the 19^th Century.

5.  Some 20,000 Saints flee Nauvoo in 1846. Russell M. Nelson gave a speech entitled "The Exodus Repeated" at Brigham Young University on September 7, 1997 regarding the many remarkable similarities between the ancient exodus from Egypt and "the exodus from the United States". https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1999/07/the-exodus-repeated?lang=eng

6. In 1885, hundreds of polygamous Latter-day Saints flee the American west to found towns in Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico rather than being imprisoned for violating new federal mandates. 

7. In 1886, polygamous Latter-day Saints left the American west and founded Cardston and other towns in Southern Alberta, Canada for the same reason.

8. 4,000-5,000 Saints in Mexico flee to El Paso, Texas during the days of Poncho Via and the Mexican Revolution of 1912.

9. Are we not already experiencing a sort of Rechabite exodus from Bablyon? How this “migration” plays out will prove to be one of the greatest historical migrations of all time. Whether it will include flights out of worldly cities to remote mountain or desert places of resort is yet to be seen. But one thing is certain: there will come a separation between those who choose to fix their fate with the evolving globalist society and those who choose to free themselves from both the lure and tyranny of Babylon.   

Regarding yet-future migrations, prophets have said that events prior to the Second Coming of the Savior will include so many grand miracles that the miracles in the days of Moses will pale by comparison. Of the Latter-day Saint exodus from Nauvoo to the Rocky Mountains, Nibley says, “As a witness against the sins and follies of the human race, you go out by yourself. People try that all the time. The Saints were driven whether they wanted to or not. The Mormons didn’t stage it. As George Albert Smith, Sr., said, “We came out here of our own free will because they made us.”

The shutting down of freedom and righteousness by globalist conspirators as spoken of in Ether chapter 8 will trigger phase after phase of the exits  from Babylon the Great—which is now entering its final throes of death. Valiant, righteous, Christ-worshipping and liberty-loving modern Rechabites in days ahead will likely say, “We came out here of our own free will because they made us.”

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Orem, Utah—February 1, 2021—©2021 Daniel Kemper Lubben