SECANT 320 SxjCK1i*ji Paris (1856) Russia lost the right of navigation on the Danube, besides a strip of territory to the N. of that river, and, also, the unrestricted navigation of the Black sea. In November, 1870, Russia, availing herself of the Franco-Prussian imbroglio, demanded and obtained from the Western Powers a revision of the treaty of Paris, in so far as it affected the restrictions placed on her in the Black sea. The Bolshevist army in November, 1920, occupied Sebastopol after defeating the anti-Red forces under General Wran- gel. Pop. about 77,000. SECANT, in geometry, a straight line cutting a curve in two or more points. If a secant line be revolved about one of its points of secancy till the other point of secancy coincides with it, the secant be- comes a tangent. If it be still further revolved, it again becomes a secant on the other side; hence, a tangent to a curve, at any point, is a limit of all secants through that point. A secant plane is one which intersects a surface or solid. In trigonometry, a straight line drawn from the center of a circle through the second extremity of an arc, and termi- nating in a tangent to the first extremity of the arc. SECATJCUS, a borough of New Jersey, in Hudson co. It is on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad. It is the center of an important farming and stock-raising region. Its notable build- ings include a public library, borough hall, and the county institutions. Pop. (1910) 4,740; (1920) 5,423. SECESSION. Whenever a State has claimed the right to withdraw from the Union, it has based its claim on the doc- trine of State sovereignty. This claim must be considered as emphatically dis- tinct from the right of revolution, insur- rection, or violent revolts, in all of which there is no claim of legal right, and the appeal of which is to force instead of to reason. In its turn, nearly every State in the Union has advanced the right of secession, and usually each has been con- demned by the others as treasonable. This claim was specifically brought for- ward or involved in the Kentucky "Reso- lutions," the Hartford "Convention," and the "Nullification Ordinance." In the dis- cussion preceding the annexation of Texas there were arguments that led to threats of secession in the South if the refusal ito annex should be passed, and in the North if permission to annex should be granted. This demonstrates that before these cases materialized, the doctrine of State sovereignty had been understood, both in the North and South. Among the Southern States there had been some talk of co-operation for the purpose of effect- ing a secession programme, for no State would have made the attempt indepen- dently, but such discussion had resulted in nothing. Nevertheless, State sover- eignty and slavery had been bound up to- gether since about 1835, and the logical consequence was secession. Though no such issue had actually been instituted, the feeling between non-slave-holding sec- tions and slave-holding sections, and be- tween the North and South, had become more and more strained. The election of Abraham Lincoln, when the political sit- uation was flanked with sectional differ- ences resting on State claims, was all that was necessary to change the theory of secession in the South into an attempt to effect the reality. South Carolina took the lead by issuing a circular to all the Southern States, in which she declared her readiness to unite with any other States in the act of secession, or to secede alone, provided any other State would agree to follow. No single State was pre- pared or willing to secede alone, but Flor- ida, Mississippi and Alabama agreed to secede with any other State. Again South Carolina was leader in calling a State convention, and on Dec. 20, 1860, the Act of 1788, ratifying the National Constitu- tion, was repealed, and it was declared "that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the United States of Amer- ica, is hereby dissolved." A declaration of the causes for this act was formulated, and on the 24th was adopted. The gov- ernor proclaimed "the secession of South Carolina" the same day. Mississippi was the first to follow this example, Jan. 9, 1861, then in succession came Florida, Jan. 10; Alabama, Jan. 11; Georgia, Jan. 19; Louisiana, Jan. 26; and Texas, Feb. 1, though in the case of this last State the proceedings were decidedly irregular. Virginia followed in April; Arkansas and North Carolina in May; and Tennessee in June. The Civil War was the conse- quence. The final issue was the victory of the government, the surrender of the Con- federate to the Federal army, and the full union of the United States of America. See Confederate States. SECKER, THOMAS, Archbishop of Canterbury; born in Sibthorpe, Notting- hamshire, in 1693; son of a Dissenter of independent means, who wished him to enter the ministry of his own communion. In 1716, however, the son turned to medi- cine, taking his doctorate in physic at Ley den in 1721. Meanwhile, urged by his old schoolfellow, Joseph Butler, he had decided to take Anglican orders; in 1722
