Should peaceable declarations of seccession be a punishable crime?

[Barnes]

I'm confused as to how to answer: I certainly think this game flourishes when people express their views and advocate for them.  However, it can get very messy here when players take it too far and start to lead rival states and groups within the game itself (the "Papal Patch," etc.)

In my opinion, that starts to legitimately undermine the simulation itself.  There is a whole board devoted to election and history games/simulations, after all that's free to use.