Rindge Rep. Matthew Santonastaso urged the N.H. House Thursday to back legislation for the state to declare independence from the U.S., but lawmakers trounced the proposal, 323-13.
Opponents of the proposed constitutional amendment, CACR 32, said representatives who supported it were bordering on treason.
Santonastaso, a Republican, said lawmakers should take the long view.
“The United States is not going to outlast the sun,” Santonastaso said. “One day it will end.”
He laid out a scenario in which the world would “stop subsidizing the dollar.” Its currency worthless, the federal government would be unable to “bribe” states, and the union would quickly fall apart, said Santonastaso, whose district covers Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Harrisville, Jaffrey, Rindge and Roxbury.
“This national divorce is going to happen,” he said. “It’s inevitable, and we have an opportunity to get ahead of it.”
He rejected arguments that it is treasonous and unconstitutional for a state to become independent from the U.S.
“If it were unconstitutional for a state to secede, this prohibition would have been included in the original Constitution,” he said.
His legal analysis runs counter to that of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who said in a 2006 letter, “If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede.”
Also, the U.S. Supreme Court found in Texas v. White, an 1869 case involving a dispute over federal bonds, that the United States is “an indestructible union” from which no state can secede.
In an earlier interview, Santonastaso said he didn’t think the measure would pass but thought it worthy of serious discussion. He said he wanted to represent the wishes of those who feel New Hampshire should govern itself and asked him to introduce a secession bill.
As a first-term legislator, he enlisted the support of Rep. Mike Sylvia, R-Belmont, who became the prime sponsor. Santonastaso became a co-sponsor along with five other Republicans.
Rep. Tim Smith, D-Manchester, spoke against the secession measure before the full House on Thursday.
“We have this legislation in front of us; it is a bill to destroy the United States,” he said. “We stand in the shadow literally of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, and we are considering legislation to take a star off of that flag.
“A vote for this is really close to the federal definition of treason.”
He said the bill felt personal for him because he has an ancestor who fought alongside George Washington and another who fought in the Civil War.
Speaking in favor of the bill, Rep. Max Abramson, R-Seabrook, also mentioned ancestors.
“We had members of our family from my grandmother’s side who fought in the Civil War, and they risked their lives and some of them died to end slavery, not to subject us to socialist tyranny from a top-down federal government,” said Abramson, who ran for governor as a Libertarian in 2016.
The 13 lawmakers who voted for the bill Thursday were all Republicans: Abramson, Sylvia, Santonastaso, Dennis Green of Hampstead, Ray Howard of Alton, Diane Kelley of Temple, Paul Terry of Alton, Mark Warden of Manchester, Josh Yokela of Fremont, Alan Bershtein of Nottingham, Glenn Bailey of Milton, Glen Aldrich of Gilford and Dustin Dodge of Raymond.
Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@keenesentinel.com or 603-355-8567. These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.