Is this "Constitution" in the room with us now?
#44 | Posted by snoofy
Actually it is, and doesn't say anything about secession!
Thanks for prompting me to look it up.
I was probably remembering such as:
What did Thomas Jefferson say about secession?
If any state in the union will declare that it prefers separation with the 1st alternative, to a continuance in union without it, I have no hesitation in saying, "Let us separate."
and
President Buchanan, dismayed and hesitant, denied the legal right of states to secede but held that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them.
and
5: If secession was treason, surely the Constitution would say so. It does not. If secession was treason, surely the United States government would have been delegated the authority to prevent States from leaving. No such authority was or has been delegated.
and even
In his inaugural address, Lincoln attempted to be both firm and conciliatory. He declared secession to be wrong; but he also promised that he would "not interfere with the institution of slavery where it exists." He announced that he would use "the power confided to me...to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government." But he assured Southerners that "there would be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere."
(which was of course dishonest)