[fortheDeclaration]

As for the Founding Fathers Madison did not accept the idea that a State could leave the Union. Nor, did most of the Founders. Do not confuse the right of revolution (stated in the Declaration of Independence) with the right of secession." You couldn't be further from the truth if you tried. Read up on the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. See whom the Founders viewed as the real seat of power for government. And the Declaration of Independence was a declaration of secession from England. You really are quite ignorant of American History aren't you. Don't reply as anything you would try to say now is moot. You need to study up a heck of a lot more to try and discuss politics and early American government.

Regarding Madison,

Alarmed at this reasoning, Madison argued, as he was to do again in 1830, opposing Calhoun, that 'we should never think of separation except for repeated and enormous violations,' which if committed, would put an end to the Constitution and leave the people,as they were in 1776,in a natural state of revolution. But such a state, in Madison's view, dissolved the Constitution, and therefore it was wrong to speak of nullification and secssion as legimate process within the frame of Government. Jefferson readily accepted this vital revision. (James Madison, A Biography by Ralph Ketcham, p.399)

As for the Declaration, it was a statement of universal principles, applicatible to all men.

It defended the right of the individual to resist the State when those rights are abused, since the State did not give those rights to the individual in the first place.

Hence, the only ones who had a right to 'revolt' were the slaves who were being denied those rights by the 'noble' Confederacy, not the Confederates who were leaving the Union to keep other men enslaved.

[RobbyS]

The war of 1861065 was a revolution, which is why one name for the war was "the War for Southern Independence." Pointless to talk about rights under the Constutution when the Confederates were breaking away from it. The matter was not to be settled by argument but by force of arms, just as in 1776. Despite union victories, the South came close to independence. If John Hood had made a more intelligent defense of Atlanta and held the Union forces off for another six week's Lincoln would have been defeated for re-election, and McClellan led a party that accepted disunion.