Understandably, many people have questions about New Hampshire’s next Declaration of independence. On this page, you’ll find the answers to just about ever important question. If you still have questions, feel free to give us a shout anytime.
In 1776, the people’s legislature of New Hampshire famously authorized their delegates to the Continental Congress to declare independence for the first time. Through their heroic actions, The Declaration of Independence reminds us that self-determination is a basic right, and that no one — not even the King of a world-spanning empire — can take it away.
“…these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved…”
No one seriously denies that the people of New Hampshire had the right to declare our independence from a corrupt, distant, and overbearing government in 1776. It’s equally undeniable that New Hampshire has that same right today.
In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, 15 new countries were peacefully created and the international community never labeled the post-Soviet people as “overthrowers of a government”.
Likewise, the people of New Hampshire will be declared innocent of overthrowing the government in Washington DC. On the other hand, Washington DC is in fact guilty of overthrowing or attempting to overthrow a staggering 57 governments since 1949.
Also, contrary to what most Americans are told, there is absolutely no clause in the United States Constitution that forbids any state from declaring its independence from the federal government. Furthermore, if the founders wanted to bind every state from ever leaving, they would’ve included that action in Article 1, Section 10, along with the specific actions that states are forbidden from doing.
Even more explicit, New Hampshire’s constitution explicitly allows and encourages the people to rise up against “arbitrary power, and oppression” and “establish a new government”. Those that disagree are constitutionally labeled as “absurd, slavish, and [destructors] of the good and happiness of mankind.”
Article 10, The Right of Revolution clause clearly states:
Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.
When that fateful day arrives, New Hampshire’s next Declaration of independence will be the equivalent of a battered wife filing divorce papers against her abusive husband – legal, moral, and wise.
Historically, the Declaration of Independence (1776) came before the U.S. Constitution was ratified (1787). Of course, the biggest difference will be that New Hampshire already has an establish constitution, whereas the 1787 constitution had yet to exist. Still, upon New Hampshire’s next Declaration of Independence, the constitutional amendment process will remain the same as it is today.
There was a time when New Hampshire and Washington DC shared the same interests and stood for the same values. Sadly, that time is past. Today, DC is a government of midnight raids, warrantless searches, confiscatory taxation, and an insatiable appetite for power and control. They’ll continue trying to erode New Hampshire’s culture of peace and freedom as long as we allow them to.
Fortunately, New Hampshire has all the makings of a prosperous and successful country. As an independent nation, New Hampshire would instantly take our place as the 7th richest country in the world by GDP per capita, according to the World Bank (note: the World Bank lists Bermuda and the Cayman Islands as “economies” that are parts of the United Kingdom). Further, of the ten richest countries in the world, five are geographically smaller than New Hampshire (San Marino, Brunei, Qatar, Singapore, and Luxembourg). In other words, New Hampshire will fit right in being small and rich. Of course, after the anchor of Washington DC is tossed aside, the Granite State would quickly rise even higher in the rankings.
Furthermore, our strong, diversified economy, our border with Canada, and our commercial shipping ports make us ideally situated for international trade — including trade with the United States. As an independent nation, New Hampshire could continue to trade with the US in peace and friendship, much as the United States and Britain did after the end of the American Revolution.
In 2016, 42% of respondents to a poll conducted by the Live Free or Die Alliance supported New Hampshire divorcing DC. Even more impressively, a poll conducted by the largest newspaper in New Hampshire, the Union Leader, showed the same results – 42% of people supported New Hampshire’s next Declaration of Independence.
Even on a national level, support for breaking up the United States is exceptionally high and growing more every year. As evidence of this trend, in September of 2021, the results of a survey conducted by University of Virginia Center for Politics showed 52% of Trump voters and 41% of Biden voters supported red and blue states declaring their independence from DC.
As the divide deepens between Americans who favor freedom and Americans who favor government control, support for a peaceful divorce will only increase.
After New Hampshire’s next Declaration of Independence, the people will have substantially more wealth.
Over the decades, plenty of economists have opined about the negative effects of excessive federal regulations and colossal taxation, especially the most sinister tax of them all, the inflation tax. Entrepreneur, Peter Schiff, explains the inflation tax in the simplest of terms:
Inflation is really a tax. That’s basically what it boils down to. And you have to understand this…. When the government taxes you to pay for its spending, it literally takes your money….Government takes your money and then they give that money to somebody else. And now somebody else spends the money that you earned…. But when the government doesn’t raise your taxes, it just prints money and then gives it to that same individual to spend… And so what happens is that person competes with you to buy stuff and prices are bid higher…. So, instead of the government taking your money, the government takes the purchasing power of your money. And that’s a tax.”
No matter if you’re rich, poor, or somewhere in between, DC corruption has gradually grown to titanic proportions for more than 100 years. Instantly lifting those crippling taxes and regulations will set off an explosion of New Hampshire small and local businesses, strong growth from larger companies, and will catch the attention of countless international angel investors, too.
Finally, citing our Top 10 Reasons for New Hampshire to Declare Independence, the biggest catalyst of New Hampshire’s future economic freedom might be the removal of DC’s Great Wall of Bureaucracy:
The Federal Register of U. S. business regulations is over 80,000 pages long — and, remember, ignorance of the law is no excuse. By declaring our independence, New Hampshire could wipe this byzantine tangle of job-killing regulations off our books forever.
Not only will the people of New Hampshire survive, we will thrive! For each dollar the people of New Hampshire send to Washington, we get about seventy cents back. This dismal return on our hard-earned money has placed New Hampshire among the nation’s top five “donor states” — states that send more money to Washington than they receive — for over twenty years.
Worse yet, the Federal government isn’t content to merely bleed us of our wealth. They demand that New Hampshire enact statewide policies to suit Washington’s tastes before they will graciously agree to send us pennies in return for our dollars. Their dictates are expensive, poorly conceived, and repugnant to New Hampshire’s most dearly held values — but the government in Washington will withhold our own money from us if we do not obey them.
An independent New Hampshire could keep the millions of hard-earned dollars that currently melt across the border each year and disappear forever into Washington’s coffers. We could invest our money to solve our most pressing problems here at home, and we could set policies that reflect our national values without fearing impoverishment at the hands of Washington’s paymasters. As an independent nation, New Hampshire will be even wealthier and more resilient than we are today.
Perhaps a better question to ask would be: after New Hampshire declares its independence again, and other states start seeing the benefits of a peaceful divorce, how long will Washington DC survive?
New Hampshire’s own Constitution has governed our state wisely and well since 1784 – three years before the United States even existed. In addition to laying out the structure of New Hampshire’s government, it contains strong, time-tested safeguards protecting all of the individual rights guaranteed by the US Constitution.
That’s why the Foundation supports independence under the terms and authority of our present Constitution. It’s hard to improve on nearly 230 years of peace, prosperity, and freedom.
The Foundation is absolutely committed to a peaceful separation from the United States. We firmly believe that there is no room for a civilized, modern Western nation to resort to violence simply because some of its people choose to peacefully go their separate ways.
It’s true that convincing the government in Washington of this may take some work. Fortunately, history is on our side. In 1991, the Soviet Union — a brutal Communist dictatorship that ruthlessly murdered millions of its own citizens — watched fourteen of its member states repudiate the Soviet ideology and declare their independence. There was no bloodshed and no attempt to re-conquer the newly free nations.
Thankfully, the same peaceful pattern has played out across most of the globe for over a century. Back in 1900, there were only about 60 sovereign nations in the world. Today, there are over 200! The great centralizing trends before the 20th century have been completely reversed. Today, the future belongs to smaller nations and local control.
The Foundation believes that the time is ripe for this decentralizing trend to take root in the United States. Now more than ever, American citizens in New Hampshire and elsewhere distrust the Federal government and understand that bureaucrats in Washington are ill-equipped to micromanage the lives of free people.
When the time comes for us to peacefully assert our independence, this understanding will gain us the support and sympathy of open-minded Americans throughout the nation. Ultimately, the government in Washington will have no choice but to recognize our rightful status as a sovereign nation — not because it wishes to do so, but because its own citizens will demand nothing less.
As in any divorce, the issue of money will be hotly debated. So, let’s imagine how that negotiation might play out.
The Feds might say that each New Hampshire citizen owes their share of the debt. As of October 2021, the total national debt was $28,887,023,000,000, and rapidly rising by the millisecond. If we divide that figure by the population of the United States as of October 2021, each American man, woman, and child would owe about $86,787. Now, when we multiply that by the population of New Hampshire, you arrive at an amount just shy of $119,089,381,761. Many would argue that’s a small price to pay to ensure your freedom.
While there is no established international law to force New Hampshire to pay anything towards DC’s debt, historically, some new nations have paid varying sums to their former masters on their way out the door.
But a smart negotiator for New Hampshire would start by noting that DC got themselves into that mess, not you. While they were spending themselves into oblivion, you were managing your finances much more wisely, weren’t you?
Moreover, a massive percentage of DC’s debt came from funding frivolous, corrupt, and incredibly wasteful spending, like their decision to staff three times as many generals and admirals as they needed, according to a military analyst. Not to mention the mismanagement, inefficiency, and fraud. To be sure, except for those few that benefit from DC corruption, fraud, and mismanagement, no person in New Hampshire would ever have asked for much of DC’s spending.
As mentioned above, for far too long, the people of New Hampshire have paid more to DC than they’ve received. In return, DC has taken a great number of liberties away from the people and put road blocks in front of the small businesses of New Hampshire.
In other words, if one party owes the other money, without a doubt, the thieves in DC owe the people of New Hampshire a large sum of money as reparations, not the other way around.
Currently, US citizens are fully eligible for Social Security, even while living in nearly any other country. Even better, you likely won’t need to maintain dual citizenship with the United States and New Hampshire. As accomplished expats have pointed out:
Generally speaking, if you have qualified for Social Security by working and paying into the program for 40 quarters, then you will be eligible to collect benefits as an expatriate and retire in a foreign country. Keep in mind, though, that there are a variety of factors which would render you ineligible to receive benefits, so it’s important to perform due diligence and get the facts which are specific to your individual situation.
As for receiving Medicare, AARP has done a clear job of walking you through your options (TLDR; just drive over the border to Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, or any other state to get your Medicare benefits). Additionally, the professional expats at Nomad Capitalist further explain how to receive what the Feds owe you, even if you renounce your US citizenship in favor of your New Hampshire citizenship.
More importantly, though, the sad truth is that these programs can’t be sustained. There is no Social Security trust fund, and never was; Medicare and Medicaid drive the Federal government deeper into debt every year. For generations, the government in Washington has forced us to entrust them with our financial security, and for generations they’ve defrauded us by running a nation-wide Ponzi scheme that would land any private insurer in prison. Now the fraud is collapsing, and unless we take action our retirees will soon be crushed under its weight.
As an independent nation, we in New Hampshire would have no need to chain our citizens to the mistakes of the past. We could work to ensure access to quality medical care for New Hampshire citizens young and old. We could take care of our current retirees more humanely and effectively than the government in Washington ever has. Most importantly, we could give our young people renewed confidence that their own retirement years will be worth saving for.
Our future, and our children’s future, is too important to entrust to the government in Washington. As we’ve mentioned previously, we in New Hampshire can do better.
[These days], a visit to your doctor’s office feels more and more like a visit to the DMV as medical practitioners start seeing the Federal government — not you — as the customer they have to satisfy.
It doesn’t have to be this way. An independent New Hampshire could restore sanity to our medical system by junking the reams of crushing regulation that drive up costs and drive innovative health care providers out of business.
When thinking about the new land border between the United States and an independent New Hampshire, let’s look at the cooperation between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.
After Ireland declared its independence from the United Kingdom in 1922, the citizens of both countries retained the right to travel, live, and work in either country. In fact, until Brexit, the land border between Northern Ireland and Ireland was almost unnoticeable. But even post-Brexit, the two countries now guarantee free movement of all EU citizens between Ireland and Britain.
Yet, we can also look much closer to home for an even better example. Author, Todd Miller, reminds us about the history of the Canada-US border, the world’s largest international border:
Before September 11, 2001, more than half the border crossings between the United States and Canada were left unguarded at night, with only rubber cones separating the two countries.
So, if Canada peacefully shared a 5,525-mile border with the United States for centuries – a border that contains New Hampshire, by the way – why can’t New Hampshire do the same with much smaller borders between Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont? And to those worried about Maine being “cut off” from the other 46 contiguous states, Alaskans will remind you they’ve been doing just fine being “cut off” since 1867. Ditto for Hawaii since 1898.
New Hampshire’s next Declaration of Independence will also provide the opportunity to create a common sense immigration policy of its own, to be created through the constitutional amendment process mentioned and linked above. Plus, you can look forward to getting one of the first New Hampshire passports and visiting New Hampshire embassies and consulates all over the world.
New Hampshire’s banking sector is unlikely to experience any trouble during the transition to national sovereignty. Additionally, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce explains, New Hampshire banks will still be allowed to bank in the United States, too:
International banks are a key source of capital in the U.S., and contribute to deep and liquid markets that fuel lending and help U.S. businesses thrive in a number of ways. The U.S. operations of foreign banking organizations have total assets that exceed $4.5 trillion, which represents about 20% of our banking system. For example, these banks:
Provide one-third of the small business loans in the U.S., giving direct financing to job creators that drive economic growth;
Provide financing to help businesses expand their customer base by accessing overseas markets;
Finance infrastructure projects – whether that’s new roads or ports – making it easier and more cost effective for businesses to reach their customers;
And assist with the financing of the federal governments’ operations by acting as primary dealers for the Federal Reserve and support many state and local governments with raising capital.
Certainly, existing laws and regulations tell us that the financial sector is likely to be an area that will experience a smooth transition after New Hampshire’s next Declaration of Independence.
In the time immediately following New Hampshire’s next Declaration of Independence, the US Dollar will likely continue to be used. This is known as an informal currency union and will enable a smooth transition and provide a continuous financial system during a time when most people will, understandably, still have questions about money.
Incidentally, the US Dollar is already used in plenty of countries with informal and formal currency unions.
However, considering the US Dollar has experienced a staggering 2,671% inflation rate since the Federal Reserve started ruining the union’s monetary policy in 1913, the people of New Hampshire would be wise to quickly figure out a way to decouple from the collapsing and doomed currency.
As for what New Hampshire’s currency system will look like several years down the road post-independence, that will be entirely up to the people’s representatives in Concord. However, we’d like to suggest that, since technology has advanced so much over time, especially in the last 10 years, and since the business world already has the ability to choose from more than 700 payment processors to accept one currency and exchange it into another currency, including even many crypto currencies, all in the blink of an eye through payment processor technology, perhaps the best option is to simply let the people and businesses of New Hampshire choose which currency they like best.
In other words, in the 21st century, concerns over currency are the least of our worries.
To start, the New Hampshire Office of International Commerce already helps local businesses bring their products and services to the world. Plus, they offer a diverse set of free resources, too. So, it makes sense that they’d continue to operate in a similar way. Additionally, new and specialized businesses and nonprofits, like SCORE, would emerge to help New Hampshire businesses reach global customers on a much larger scale.
When looking at recent data, in 2020, New Hampshire’s top 10 exports included aircraft parts, medicine, and guns. After New Hampshire’s next Declaration of Independence, you can expect foreign exports to boom, thanks to the instant lifting of the crushing weight of DC taxes and regulations.
As for tariffs, grants, tax breaks, and other subsidies, we need only to look at one beautiful example from New Zealand for inspiration. In the 1980’s, the nation became the only developed country to remove all subsidies, tax concessions, and price supports for their agricultural sector. As a result, in only a few short years, New Zealand’s agricultural sector grew incredibly strong, innovative, and efficient. In fact, their agricultural sector is now so productive, and New Zealand’s people have so much food, they now export about 90% of their agricultural production. Moreover, as of 2019, their country, which only has about three times the population of New Hampshire, is able to export over $46 billion dollars worth of agriculture – 80% of their country’s exports. This is the unquestionable level of success that happens when the people reject corporate welfare and special, targeted tariffs that help specific, politically favored industries.
Indeed, the aforementioned success story is so famous, the Cato Foundation cited New Zealand when they explained the economics of what happens if corporate lobbying and government corruption is removed from just one sector of the economy:
Farms would adjust, planting different crops and diversifying their sources of income. A stronger and more innovative agriculture industry would emerge, as occurred in New Zealand after it repealed all its farm subsidies in 1984.
At the end of the day, the undisputed and enormous success story of New Zealand’s agricultural sector is only one, simple to understand example of what happens when people put their trust in freedom instead of captured bureaucrats and economically illiterate politicians who have been giving taxpayer money to farmers to not farm for over a century. Now, when you imagine applying the wisdom of that example to all sectors of business in New Hampshire, the only logical result will be life-changing wealth for all people of our new nation.
In short, whether in the agricultural industry or any other, it is our Foundation’s hope that New Hampshire will choose freedom over the corruption that DC has embraced for centuries. If subsidies, tariffs, corporate welfare, and government corruption are rejected, the people and businesses of New Hampshire will decide the winners and losers, not powerful lobbyists and fast-talking politicians. Finally, after New Hampshire gains its sovereignty, honest and straightforward international trade deals will be easily understood and uniform across all industries and will remove regime uncertainty that can paralyze economies for years.
New Hampshire’s existing sports teams should have an easy transition, especially considering that American professional baseball, basketball, hockey, racing, and many other sports have been competing outside of the union for decades, and vise versa.
As for college sports, Simon Fraser University in Canada became the first non-American school to be admitted to the NCAA in 2010. So, New Hampshire colleges and universities should continue their sports programs as usual.
When it comes to one of the oldest competitions, surely there will be great anticipation when New Hampshire’s greatest athletes tryout for the new nation’s first Olympic team!
Lastly, thanks to the lack of an income tax and DC bureaucracy, we can expect to see entire sports franchises, league offices, their rich players and coaches, and other international athletes move to New Hampshire and take advantage of the unique opportunity to maximize their wealth.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world outside of the United States, yet somehow hundreds of millions of Americans have felt safe enough to fly internationally ever since 2001 when the TSA rose up from the putrid swamp of Washington DC, a department that now employs over 54,000 actors in their security theater.
In less than 20 years of their existence, TSA employees have been caught in a laundry list of unchecked immoral, scandalous, and illegal activities, including:
By all means, the above stories are not anywhere near part of an exhaustive list, and neither is this gigantic list of hundreds of painful TSA stories just from December of 2010 – March of 2015 (apparently, their webmaster got tired of logging all of the TSA’s crimes and gave up).
In other words, yes, New Hampshire will be just fine without the TSA. Just fine.
Actually, New Hampshire taxpayers already pay for disaster response programs. So, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will not be missed. Plus, those programs are even supplemented by nonprofits, one of which is called Volunteer NH:
During an emergency event, Volunteer NH works with the state in support of NH residents faced with long-term recovery challenges and has a critical role in providing support for volunteers and donations management. VNH is an important state resource tasked with connecting volunteer resources to disaster relief initiatives. VNH also assists the NH Department of Health and Human Services Emergency Services Unit in promoting the NH Community Emergency Response Team, NH Medical Reserve Corps and NH Disaster Animal Response Team programs to identify ways that National Service and state volunteer resources can play a role before, during, and after emergencies.
At this point, if you’ve read our answer to the TSA question above, you’re probably expecting us to include an incredibly long list of scandals, corruption, waste, and incompetence at FEMA. Don’t worry, we won’t put you through that torture. But if you’re a glutton for punishment, you could read about scandals and examples of corruption, waste, and incompetence at FEMA for years to come.
The truth is, whether it’s FEMA or any other federal agency, just about every [seemingly useful] national-level government department is already being similarly duplicated by New Hampshire’s government and nonprofits. Best of all, instead of being forced to pay for those worthless federal government departments, the people will keep more of their tax dollars in their pockets after New Hampshire’s next Declaration of Independence.
To put it simply, just as we’ve laid out in our answer to the previous question about the TSA, New Hampshire will actually be better off without FEMA, much better.
The Foundation takes no official position on the creation of a New Hampshire military – we’ll leave it to the people of New Hampshire and our elected representatives to decide how we should defend ourselves against the threat of foreign invasion. However, it’s important to note that most countries don’t need large militaries to defend themselves, and many don’t have militaries at all.
Switzerland, for instance, has never had a large military, and yet they remained secure from invasion and attack even with the conflict of two world wars raging all around them. Their success is largely due to their traditions of private gun ownership and vigilant neutrality. The Swiss model is just one of many successful approaches that New Hampshire could consider when developing a strategy for its national defense.
In addition, throughout history, invaders have been discouraged in ways other than just an expensive military. Notably, trade and travel have worked very well to ensure peace between nations.
When it comes to the one existing military base in New Hampshire, some might suggest allowing the US military to stay as part of a mutual defense pact, like NATO. But after looking at some of the headaches and problems with NATO, it seems New Hampshire would be misstepping to take that route. Instead, diplomatic negotiation should be used to peacefully pry the United States military out of our new nation. Besides, there are plenty of other alternatives for them to choose from.
As for the New Hampshire citizens that are currently employed troops, undoubtedly, the issue of their employment will be up to them and their employer. In other words, if they’ve entered into an employment contract, their employer will decide whether or not to continue to employ them in their current role, renegotiate a new contract, or void their contract.
For veterans, the question is much easier to answer. As mentioned above, and on the Veterans Affairs website, “if you’re a Veteran who lives overseas, you remain entitled to the benefits and services you earned through your military service”. Provided that veterans keep dual citizenship with the United States and New Hampshire, they’ll keep their benefits.
An independent Texas would have no effect on existing student loans. Student loans are contracts between the lender (federal government) and borrower (student). These contracts will need to be fulfilled and will not be voided. However, the federal government has facilitated predatory lending practices aimed at college students. Texas has taken a strong stance against such practices in other areas so it is reasonable to believe that an independent Texas will not tolerate such activities.
Yes. Almost nothing would change about local and state police in New Hampshire. However, certain activities and equipment that are funded by federal grants would no longer exist. This includes surveillance drones given to the Portsmouth Police by the DHS, sobriety checkpoints funded directly by the NHTSA, and BEARcats given to local NH police departments by the DHS. Few Granite Staters would miss these programs.
Yes. Like police, fire departments are funded and operated locally with essentially no federal involvement. There are small, rare federal grants that would go away. This would be insignificant in comparison to the billions of dollars we would all save once the federal income tax goes away. The biggest difference that will occur with independence will likely be the 20-30 percent increase in the net pay of every firefighter within New Hampshire.
Very little would change with education in New Hampshire. Federal mandates and requirements would cease to apply to our students. A few small federal grants would no longer be received. The largest difference would likely be the 20-30 percent increase in the net pay of every teacher and administrator within New Hampshire due to the absence of all federal taxes.
When everything is said and done, the best question to ask is: would more people in New Hampshire want to leave the new nation or would more people want to move into our innovative, free, and independent country?
I think we all know the answer to that question!
