Who was William Rawle?
Beyond the Substackverse
This Beyond the Substackverse post inaugurates a change for 2025. Since this segment has become more and more challenging to keep up to date, even as it has fallen in readership, I decided that instead of a round-up of many things I’ll just share the single most compelling item I found online in the past week.
William Rawle and Secession | Mises Institute
This week’s offering was uncovered (as so many gems are) at the Mises Institute. It tells the story of a 19th century abolitionist who was also an proponent of the right for states to secede from the union!
It’s understandable why you might’ve assumed that the one must necessarily preclude the other. It seems a great deal of effort has been expended to make sure everyone knows that no state has a right to leave the United States because, “the Civil War settled that question.”
Even as a kid, I wondered how a war could possibly settle a question of morality. There’s a proverb of uncertain origin that perfectly expresses this:
War does not determine who is right; only who is left.
Rawle was the founder and president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Whatever you think motivated his views on secession, it’s pretty clear it wasn’t any desire to promote or preserve slavery.
What do you think of Rawle? Would you be interested in hearing more about his book, A View of the Constitution of the United States of America?