Many quavers and objections might be raised to the above: if any one side had been the provocateur, it was, after all, the South; more important, secession from the Union would have involved the unwilled secession from all hope of the black population of the South.
But it was just one more step towards secession, and far from a decisive one.
Considered more than a secession from the established church, the event came to be known as the Disruption.
For that matter, imagine if the Alaskan Independence Party — famous in the lower 48 because its rolls once included Todd Palin — decided to take up causes more plausible than secession, and remake itself as a populist counterweight to its state's corrupt Republican establishment.
Much more famous is The Secession Gallery (00 43 1 587 53 07; secession.at), just across the other side of Karlsplatz square, which houses paintings from the turn of the century.
He advocates genuine autonomy for Tibet and not secession, while more radical Tibetans are urging him to support outright independence.
Last month southern Sudanese voters opted for secession by more than 99 percent in a long-awaited independence referendum, and some northern Sudanese blame the government for this.
At first glance it seemed that the 23 states that remained in the Union after secession were more than a match for the 11 Southern states.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said last month that Sudan would adopt a "100 percent" Islamic constitution, prompting concerns that the country would apply Islamic law more strictly after the secession a year ago of South Sudan, which is mostly non-Muslim.
But the moves Thursday marked not only an acceleration of the vote but a far more robust declaration of secession from Ukraine, where months of protests led to the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych last month.
