At its inception, the United States of America was so loosely linked that its creators felt it necessary to use the word “united” in its name. There was a chance that the name wouldn’t live up to its promise when more areas were added to the original 13 colonies through battles, accession, and even outright purchase. The US was put to the test during the Civil War regarding the slavery issue, but it managed to endure. In a case from 1869, the Supreme Court of the US felt it essential to say that the US is “an indestructible union” from which “no state may secede.”
Since that time, the notion of any state seceding from the indivisible union has been handled somewhat humorously. Just before the 2004 presidential election, an online meme appeared that portrayed blue, Democratic-voting states on the coast that bordered Canada as the United States of Canada and red, Republican-voting states in Middle America as “Jesustan.”
