Partition and secession in New York
There are and have been several movements regarding secession from the U.S. state of New York. Only one of them – the state of Vermont – succeeded. Among the unsuccessful ones, the most prominent included the proposed state of Long Island, usually proposed as consisting of Suffolk and Nassau counties; a state called Niagara, the western counties of New York state; the northern counties of New York state called Upstate New York; making the city of New York a state; a proposal for a new Peconic County on eastern Long Island; and for the borough of Staten Island to secede from New York City.
Article 4, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States includes a provision that "no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress". At the time of Vermont's secession in 1777, the Constitution of the United States did not yet exist. By the time Congress recognized Vermont and admitted it to the Union in 1791, the Constitution was in effect and the legislature of New York had consented. All later secession proposals would require similar consent.
History
Tensions between what eventually became upstate and downstate New York had existed since Leisler's Rebellion in 1689. That rebellion was more heavily supported in the lower Hudson Valley, near modern New York City, than it was in the Albany area, which remained loyal to the English crown. Although the rebellion was settled in 1691 when Leisler was executed, tensions between the upper and lower Hudson Valley remained high for another two decades afterward.Vermont, 1777
The only successful secession from the state of New York was that of Vermont in 1777, and whether that amounted to secession depends on the validity of New York's always-disputed claim to Vermont. After Vermont had been governed for fifteen years as a de facto part of New Hampshire, King George III had ruled on July 20, 1764 that the disputed territory belonged to New York and not to New Hampshire. The disputed territory later became the state of Vermont. The government of New York refused to recognize the property rights of homesteaders who had settled there under the laws of New Hampshire from 1749 to 1764. Armed militias, formed by settlers in the region prevented the government of New York from evicting settlers from their land and largely prevented New York from governing at all. Sovereignty also continued to be relatively passively asserted by New Hampshire until 1782.After the United States Declaration of Independence, the people of the New Hampshire Grants could no longer hope for redress from the courts of England. Consequently, they issued the Vermont Declaration of Independence in January 1777, including a long list of grievances against the government of New York. For 14 years after that, Vermont functioned as a de facto independent country. The question of recognizing it and admitting it to the Union was occasionally discussed in the Continental Congress, but New York's representatives successfully opposed it. On March 2, 1784, New York's governor, George Clinton, asked Congress to declare war on Vermont, the object being to overthrow Vermont's government and reincorporate Vermont into New York, but Congress did not act, and some members proposed recognizing Vermont and offering it admission to the Union. On March 6, 1790, the legislature of New York expressed its consent to the admission to the Union of what they called "the community now actually exercising independent jurisdiction as 'the State of Vermont'", provided an agreement on the boundary between the two states could be reached. In the ensuing negotiations, Vermont's commissioners insisted on also settling the numerous real-estate disputes arising from conflicting land grants from New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont, rather than leaving those to be decided in a federal court. On October 7, 1790, the commissioners proclaimed the negotiations concluded. In January 1791, a convention called by the state of Vermont ratified the Constitution of the United States, declaring that it would be part of the law of Vermont as soon as Congress admitted that state. On February 18, 1791, Congress decided to admit Vermont to the Union two weeks later on March 4.
Post-Revolution era
In the battle over the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1787–1788, Governor George Clinton in Albany, wishing to preserve his power, led the local Anti-Federalists in opposition, with support for the Constitution coming from Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists, who were largely urbanites and saw opportunity in a stronger national union and published The Federalist Papers as their manifesto in several New York City newspapers, including The Independent Journal. There was a large divide, and with the recent independence of Vermont, a threat of secession of New York City and the southern counties to join the new Federal government. The leaders of Richmond County, which maintained an ambiguous position, threatened to join New Jersey. With secession threatening to marginalize Governor Clinton and a lightly developed upstate, the Constitution was ratified and the crisis passed.At the time, much of what is now upstate New York, particularly Western New York was disputed and unsettled frontier territory, with Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut claiming portions of the mostly undeveloped land. This frontier land was not included in the Northwest Ordinance, but it was not until the Phelps and Gorham Purchase and the Holland Purchase that it became New York territory.
Civil War era
In the period of national crisis immediately preceding the American Civil War, Democratic Mayor Fernando Wood proposed the secession of New York City as a sovereign city-state to be called the Free City of Tri-Insula, and incorporating Manhattan, Long Island and Staten Island. In an address to the city's Common Council on January 6, 1861, Mayor Wood expressed a Copperhead sympathy with the seceding states and a desire to maintain profitable cotton shipping, confidence that the city-state would prosper on the import tariffs that then supplied 2/3 of federal revenue, and especially dissatisfaction with the state government at Albany. But the idea of leaving the United States proved too radical even in the turmoil of 1861 and was poorly received, especially after the Southern bombardment of Fort Sumter starting on April 12. The war, and especially conscription, was nevertheless often unpopular in the city, sparking the deadly New York Draft Riots. The neighboring City of Brooklyn, in contrast, was staunchly Unionist.Coincidentally, the upstate locale of Town Line, New York voted to secede from the Union, contributing five soldiers to the Confederate troops. Since Town Line was an unincorporated community with no legal status, the secession vote had no legal effect, and the Confederacy never recognized it. Town Line ceremonially "rejoined" the Union in 1946; its residents paid taxes during its time "out of the union", which amounted to 85 years.
1969
In 1969, writer Norman Mailer and columnist Jimmy Breslin ran together on an independent ticket seeking the mayoralty and City Council Presidency, challenging Mayor John Lindsay with an agenda to make New York City the 51st state. When questioned as to the name of the new state, Breslin said the city deserved to keep "New York" and that upstate should be renamed "Buffalo", after its largest city.2000s
On February 26, 2003, a bill was introduced by Astoria, Queens Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr., and sponsored by 20 of 51 City Council members, reviving the idea of referendum for secession from New York State in the context of the red state vs. blue state divide and opposition to the policies of Governor George Pataki. A committee report was written but otherwise little action was taken, and the bill was reintroduced with one additional sponsor on the same date in 2004. Like Mayor Wood, Council Member Vallone emphasized the fiscal benefits of secession, with revenue now derived not from tariffs, but from Wall Street. Council Member Vallone reintroduced the bill in 2006.In January 2008, Vallone again offered a bill for the secession of New York City from New York state. After Mayor Michael Bloomberg testified to New York state legislators that New York City gives the state $11 billion more than it gets back, Vallone stated: "If not secession, somebody please tell me what other options we have if the state is going to continue to take billions from us and give us back pennies? Should we raise taxes some more? Should we cut services some more? Or should we consider seriously going out on our own?" The New York City Council planned to hold a meeting on the topic.