1
Secession Fever Hits Texas
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
New York Times – November 23, 2012
1. HOUSTON — In the weeks since President Obama’s re-election, Republicans around the
country have been wondering how to proceed. Some conservatives in Texas have been asking
a far more pointed question: how to secede.
2. Following the reelection of Barack Obama,Americansrepresenting states in over half of the
country have filed petitions demanding secession from the union, and are calling for state
government officials to resist the unjust laws enacted by the federal government.
3. The first secession petition was filed the day after the election by a Louisiana resident, then
by a Texas citizen. As word began to spread about thepetitions, others began filing as well,
until at press time, citizens from 30 states had submitted petitions —growing substantially
over the past two days. Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Oklahoma and California all joined the
list of petitions on Monday.
4. So far, the Texas petition has the most signatures, numbering well over 50,000. Residents of
any state can sign the petitions, and most signatures seem to be from all over the country.
5. Sales of bumper stickers reading “Secede” — one for $2, or three for $5 — have increased at
TexasSecede.com. In East Texas, a Republican official sent out an e-mail newsletter saying it
was time for conservative states like Texas and progressive ones like Vermont to each “go
their own way in peace”.
6. Larry Scott Kilgore, a Republican candidate for governor from a Dallas suburb, announced
that he was running for governor in 2014 and would legally change his name to Larry Secede
Kilgore, with Secede in capital letters. As his Web page, secedekilgore.com, puts it:
“Secession! All other issues can be dealt with later.”
7. In Texas, talk of secession in recent years has steadily increased in popularity. It has emerged
on a variety of issues, including health care and environmental regulations. To some, this is
simply a way to deal with the defeat of Mitt Romney.
8. But for other supporters of secession and Texas nationalism (a group who wants the state to
become an independent nation, as it was in the 1830s and 1840s) it is a far more serious
matter.
9. The official in East Texas, Peter Morrison, the treasurer of the Hardin County Republican
Party, said that it may take time for “people to appreciate that the fundamental cultural
differences between Texas and other parts of the United States may be best addressed by an
amicable divorce, a peaceful separation.”
10. The online petitions — created on the We the People platform at petitions.whitehouse.gov —
are required to receive 25,000 signatures in 30 days for the White House to respond. The
Texas petition had received more than 116,000 signatures by mid-November 2012. It asks the
Obama administration to “peacefully grant” the withdrawal of Texas, and describes doing so
as “practically feasible,” given the state’s large economy. “Our economy is about 30 percent
larger than that of Australia,” said Mr. Kilgore, 48, a telecommunications contractor.
2
“Australia can survive on their own, and I don’t think we’ll have any problem at all surviving
on our own in Texas.”
11. Residents in other states, including Alabama, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana and Oklahoma,
have submitted similar petitions, though none have received as many signatures as the one
from Texas.
12. A White House official said every petition that crossed the signature threshold would be
reviewed and would receive a response, though it was unclear precisely when Micah H. would
receive his answer. Mr. Kilgore, the candidate who is changing his middle name, said he had
not signed the White House petition because he did not believe that Texans needed to ask
Washington for permission to leave.
13. The secession movement in Texas is divergent, with differences in goals and tactics. One
group, the Republic of Texas, says that secession is unnecessary because, it claims, Texas is
an independent nation that was illegally annexed by the United States in 1845.
14. Few of the public calls for secession have addressed the messy details, like what would
happen to the state’s many federal courthouses, prisons, military bases and parklands. No
one has said what would become of Kevin Patteson, the director of the state’s Office of StateFederal Relations, and no one has asked the Texas residents who received tens of millions of
dollars in federal aid after destructive wildfires last year for their thoughts on the subject.
15. But all the secession talk has intrigued liberals as well. Caleb M. of Austin started his own
petition on the White House Web site. He asked the federal government to allow Austin to
withdraw from Texas and remain part of the United States, “in the event that Texas is
successful in the current bid to secede.” It had more than 8,000 signatures as of Friday.
16. The Texas petition reads:
17. Given that the state of Texas maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the
world, it is practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union, and to do so would protect
it's citizens' standard of living and re-secure their rights and liberties in accordance with the
original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers which are no longer being reflected by the
federal government.
1. Write a 5-sentence summary of this article.
2. What is the main point of the article?
3. Find 3 quotes from the article that you think most support the main idea. Be sure to list the
paragraph numbers where you found the quotes.
a. Quote 1:
b. Quote 2:
c. Quote 3: