The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire has started openly advocating for secession from the United States, part of its radical tilt after the LP Mises Caucus took over the state committee. New Hampshire is considered the beating heart of Libertarianism in America, being the site of the political migration plan called the Free State Project. In its conception the FSP was explicitly secessionist although the Project’s leadership at this time do not advocate for it. New Hampshire is part of the American Region known as New England which has a long and storied history of secession movements dating from before the revolution. We will trace that history today on Springtime of Nations.

After the establishment of the Plymouth Colony in 1620 British settlement spread throughout Northeast America, with two new colonies being founded in 1636 on the basis of religious differences, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Rhode Island was founded by a Quaker and had radical religious tolerance for the time, becoming a beacon of Enlightenment thinking for over a century, and it later was the one state to reject the new, centralizing constitution of 1787 until major threat of war or blockade forced them to submit. The Province of New Hampshire gained political autonomy in 1679 until it and all the other New England provinces were pulled into a pro-Absolutist pro-Anglican Dominion of New England during the Glorious Revolution, which was overthrown by angry Puritans during the 1689 Boston revolt. New Hampshire’s Governor in the late colonial period, John Wentworth, birthed the next New England polity when he sold deeds to land disputed by the Colony of New York. A place later called Vermont.

The Province of New York was far more populous and had more pull with British authorities, so when it finally decided to send goons to evict the New Hampshire settlers in March 1775 the self defense militia led by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys fought them off and maintained de-facto control of the area until they officially declared independence from both the UK and New York in 1777 as the Republic of New Connecticut (later Vermont). The Vermont Constitution was incredibly liberal, affirming full male suffrage and the universal right to bear arms (which meant that until 2003 Vermont was the ONLY state with constitutional carry until being joined by Alaska). While independent of the 13 colonies who had declared independence in 1776, they allied with the USA and Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys were instrumental in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga and the battle of Bennington, a run up to the major British defeat at Saratoga in 1777. New York continued to claim all of the land in Vermont for its own and relations between the two countries became strained, with Ethan Allen secretly meeting British agents to negotiate land recognition in exchange for rejoining the Empire though this plan fell through. Eventually, Vermont gave NY $30,000 to resolve the dispute and in 1791 the Republic became the State of Vermont.

The next time New England considered slipping the bonds of their neighbors was during the War of 1812. The Anglophile Federalist North had little interest in antagonizing the British or extending federal lands where riffraff frontiersmen would make new Democratic States to deprive them of even more power, while the Democratic South was intent on their Jeffersonian Empire of Liberty. Furthermore much of the land war had taken place in the North, and it was not going well! So at the end of 1814 Federalists met to discuss the problems of the day, with a small minority advocating secession while most of the delegates were simply for reform of the union. Fate cruelly struck the Convention however, as General Andrew Jackson’s forces pulled an 11th hour victory in New Orleans during the peace negotiations that gave Americans sufficient morale to claim victory, and the Federalists were lambasted as traitors, being thrown into electoral Oblivion until their official dissolution in 1835.

While individualism bloomed into the distinct American strain of anarchism in New England, with natives such as Josiah Warren (a descendent of the Dr. Warren who led the fateful defense of Bunker Hill), Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker and William Green founding the so called “Boston School of Anarchism, New England separatism has been incredibly dormant until a small 2003 meeting of Libertarians who met to discuss an idea created by a Jason Sorens. With the lack of progress being made by running libertarians as third party candidates in federal elections, Jason suggested Libertarians move to a small state without heavy control by either of the major political parties, and there mold a libertarian society. In 2004, having eliminated the choices down to New Hampshire, the project turned to getting 20,000 signatures, the number of active libertarians it was estimated to be needed to completely change a state of around 1 million people. Slowly signatures with intent to move trickled in, while “early movers” created the groundwork with cultural and civic institutions and the now famous Porcfest to draw in more settlers. By 2016, the 20,000 signatures had been reached, although in the 5 years since only a few thousand have been confirmed as having actually moved yet. Even so, “Free Staters” have an outsized influence in state politics, with 17 of the 400 New Hampshire representatives being Free Staters themselves and many other politicians directly pandering for free state votes. The State has in the last 10 years become what the Mercatus Institute has called the “freest state in the Union”, with personal liberty and economic liberty at record highs.

Now the radical Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, staffed by Free Staters, is ready to move to the next level. If the Free Staters really succeed at gaining independence from the American Empire, it will truly be worthy of their name, and worthy of the New Hampshire motto, “Live Free or Die!”. May 1000 flowers bloom!