Thomas Naylor, founder of the secessionist Second Vermont Republic, died this week after suffering a stroke on Sunday. He was 76. Naylor’s friend and ally Rob Williams delivered the news via email on Friday afternoon.

Naylor, a Charlotte resident, founded SVR in 2003. In his Vermont Manifesto, which he self-published the same year, he declared that, “Our nation has truly lost its way. America is no longer a sustainable nation-state economically, politically, socially, militarily or environmentally.”

His solution? Secede from the union and create a second Vermont Republic; the first existed from 1777-1791, before Vermont joined the Union.

Secession sounded nuts — until George W. Bush won a second term in 2004. Suddenly, Naylor’s quixotic quest began making headlines, and disgruntled liberals started slapping SVR bumper stickers on their cars.

Some of those supporters abandoned the group, however, after an anonymous blogger raised questions about SVR’s ties to secessionist groups such as the League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed a racist hate group. Williams, who founded Vermont Commons, a journal devoted to Vermont independence, was one of them. For his part, Naylor disputed the suggestion that SVR was in any way racist.

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23 replies on “R.I.P. Thomas Naylor, Founder of Vermont Secessionist Group, 1936-2012”

  1. Thomas Rowley, your contempt for Dr. Naylor is palpable. I don’t know what you believe he has done to you, for many of us, we consider him brilliant. It takes a particularly strong person to believe non-mainstream. Dr. Naylor was indeed strong. His love of liberty and freedom was strong as was his resolve to become independent was inspiring. Rest in peace, Doc. for those of us who had the privilege to call you friend, you will be greatly missed.

  3. While I often disagreed with Thomas, I’ve always been grateful for his bright and probing mind. We desperately need people who ask hard questions and suggest solutions that, while they may never come to fruition, at least make us think in a new direction and engage in conversation. Thank you for that, Thomas, and rest in peace.

  4. According to the State of Vermont, Charlotte VT has one of the highest household per capita income levels in the state, second only to Dorset, VT. What a person drives does not provide a record of actual wealth; Charlotte land records indicate that the casa Naylor is assessed at just south of $500K. One of Naylor’s own published bios refers to, his words, “wealth” that he amassed prior to retiring to VT. Your assumptions don’t comport with the known facts. Thomas Naylor recently wrote about the anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynistic, Holocaust revisionist leader of Iran, Mahmoud Admadinejad, “The only difference between Ahmadinejad and the other political leaders of the world is that he has the guts to stand up and confront the Israelis and their American sponsors for the hypocritical acts of terrorism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing waged against the Palestinians, all justified by the Holocaust.” “Twisted?” Yes. Extremist? Of that there can be no doubt.

  6. One of the toniest neighborhoods in one of Vermont’s wealthiest towns? Come on, I am neighbors with the Thomas family. They live in an incredibly modest home and the guy drove a blue Honda Civic. Twisted person? Talk about a name-calling bully. He’s dead so chill.

  7. Texas secessionist Larry SECEDE (yes, according to Tarrant County TX courthouse records, he recently changed his middle name to the ALL CAPS version of secede) Kilgore is perennial loser in Republican Party office attempts who also, holds these views:
    “His issues are mostly grounded in the Bible and are centered on ending abortion. Here are some of Kilgore’s positions
    Judges shall carry out the death penalty against murderers, including those who abort a fetus, within 24 hours of conviction. Crimes of other bodily injury would result literally in an eye for an eye.
    Adultery with a married woman would carry the death sentence.
    Public use of vulgar sexual language would result in flogging.
    “Judges will flog more severely those convicted of transvestism…”
    The state should stop spending money on the “government indoctrination of children” also known as public schools.
    Last, but not least, “Texas should secede because the U.S. has sealed its doom.”
    SOURCE: Houston Chronicle http://blog.chron.com/texaspol…
    Larry SECEDE Kilgore; a typical Naylor admirer.

  8. I fear some people who superficially supported Naylor’s call for secession didn’t really know him.
    Just after 9/11, when most Americans were feeling solidarity with NYC and the innocent victims of that massacre, he endeared himself — NOT — to many people by authoring an op ed suggesting that America got what it deserved and that Vermonters could make themselves safe from foreign attack by seceding and publicly declaring to the world that we were no longer asasociates with the US. Thius was a twisted person.
    In his writings on secession, he was a name-calling bully. He affiliated his organization with racist separatists from the South. And if you dared criticize him in the slightest, you were publicly subjected to ad hominems, such as “prostitute” or “technofascist.”
    Meanwhile, while preaching to the rest of us to live “small,” he resided in comfort in one of the toniest neighborhoods in one of Vermont’s wealthiest towns, having amassed his pre-retirement wealth from a career of consulting to America’s biggest corporations.

  10. Sadder still, 7Days has skipped over Naylor’s virulent anti-Semitism and his contempt for Vermont voters, clergy, legislators, many public institutions and educators who declined to join him in his ludicrous quest.
    Time to let him go, including the numerous out of state transplants that found him so endearing.

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