Rural
Northern California with counties from Southern Oregon are not alone in their
desire to be free from marginalization and plunder by outside interests. Since the Colonial Period, States and their
boundaries have been subject to change or movements to change them. New Jersey was once partly "New Netherland" and
partly "New Sweden". It then became North
Jersey and South Jersey before taking its present form. Vermont’s Green
Mountain Boys fought for independence from New York State and its taxation before
joining in the American Revolution. Maine achieved its independence from
Massachusetts in 1820, a struggle partly fueled by the pro-British Boston elite
refusing to defend Maine in the War of 1812. Michigan and Ohio had a border
conflict in 1835-6.
Everyone
recalls West Virginia leaving Virginia during the Civil War. Poor whites had
little to gain with their wages depressed from competing against the slave
labor owned by the rich. Numerous more states were created by the westward
expansion with New Mexico and Arizona not entering the Union until 1912.
Alaskans voted for statehood in 1946 and fought until 1959 to achieve their
goal. Also, in 1959, Hawaii became a state, but some native Hawaiians are still
advocating an independent country as they have since the 1880’s. Many are today
lobbying to grant statehood to Puerto Rico.
Seen
within the context of American history, the State of Jefferson is neither far
out nor unique. In 1859, the California
legislature approved dividing California into two states, but Congress didn’t
agree and the Civil War then took precedence. In 1925 and 1931 the Chicago City
Council voted to succeed from Illinois, while in 1981 some state legislators
introduced a bill to remove Chicago from Illinois. The movement for statehood
for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has been continuous since Michigan became a
state in 1837 with a 1970 ballot initiative losing by only one vote. In 1981
the Committee to Free South Jersey won a non binding referendum in five of its
six counties. Their leader said “…(this) is a matter of survival.”
The
Eastern Shore has proposed leaving Maryland in 1833,1835,1852,1972 and 1998.
The seven counties of West Kansas held a constitutional convention in 1992. In
1998 the Congressional representative from North Maine sponsored a bill to free
his area from Maine. North Lauderdale city commissioners voted in 2008 for the
new state of South Florida. The liberals in southern Arizona/Tucson
(carpetbaggers like those in Amador County) failed in a 2011 movement to create
the new state of Baja Arizona. North Colorado got the approval of several
county commissions in 2013, but the referenda passed in only half the affected
counties. While the specifics vary between the different situations, there are
two common threads: lack of representation and use of natural resources.
Hydraulic
fracking has brought prosperity to Pennsylvania, but the adjacent southern tier
area counties of New York State stay mired in poverty. Along with the state’s
denial of a casino, the residents there have just started a movement to leave
New York and join Pennsylvania. I have a personal interest here; my grandmother
grew up in one of those counties while her father worked in the local oil
fields. One local resident summed up the situation when “He described this ban
as a violation of his natural rights as a property owner.”
Many
of these movements are ongoing, and while they appear to have failed in many
cases, they have been effective in winning concessions. Sadly, but accurately, I
don’t think this is possible in California. While we live in an historic time,
history is still being made. So goes California, so goes the nation. This
coming Wednesday, January 6, 2016, on the west side of the state capitol at 10
am will be the State of Jefferson Declaration Day.
Copyright
2016, Mark L. Bennett
