1848: When Lincoln Supported Secession
In the days of the American Civil War, Americans were not exactly known for their ideological consistency. Many who sang the praises of the American secession in 1776 suddenly decided that the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence—where it states that it’s perfectly fine “for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another”—changed their minds and decided allegiance to the government is the most important thing in the world.