New Hampshire
New Hampshire's history is dotted with various movements of communities desiring to secede from the state.
- On the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, the state of New Hampshire hastily enacted a state constitution. Dismayed at the lack of prudence, leaders of Grafton County effectively seceded from the state by refusing to pay state taxes and fees, and attempted to form a new state ("New Connecticut") or merge with Vermont.
- Between 1776 and 1781, numerous communities along the Connecticut River (the border with Vermont), from Lyman to Newport, expressed their stronger ties with the then-independent Republic of Vermont and voted to join it instead. Eventually 36 towns had been accepted by the Republic, but were still claimed by New Hampshire. General George Washington settled the dispute by threatening military action if Vermont did not give up its claim to the towns. In exchange, Vermont was accepted as a U.S. state.
- In the 1830s, a portion of New Hampshire called the Republic of Indian Stream declared its independence in protest at being claimed and taxed by both the United States and British Canada. It maintained its own organized, elected government for three years before being occupied by the New Hampshire Militia.
- In 2001, the communities of Newington and Rye considered seceding from the state in response to the enactment of a uniform statewide property tax.
Read more about this topic: List Of U.S. State Partition Proposals
Famous quotes containing the word hampshire:
“Not even New Hampshire farms are much for sale.
The farm I made my home on in the mountains
I had to take by force rather than buy.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days and feels no shame in not “studying a profession,” for he does not postpone his life, but lives already.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)