“Secession is not a legal option”
BS. The way the Constitution works is unless a power was explicitly sacrificed by the states it is reserved for the states or the people. Cf. the tenth amendment. There need not be a secession process drawn out for it to be legal. Since the Constitution does not say that the union is perpetual, and does not say that the states cannot secede, they can secede.
This is elementary. If the states had known in 1789 that the union was perpetual they never would have ratified it. Everyone knows that.
By the way, if it’s not legal, so what? Then it’s a revolution. Declaring independce wasn’t legal, nor was replacing the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution.
“Madison declared once in the Union always in the Union.”
He should have declared it in the Constitution.
“possible or not it is a very bad idea and would lead to far more troubles than it would solve”
Maybe, maybe not. I’m thinking more and more things might’ve been better had we just let the South go.
The constitution merely changed the form of government of the union declared “perpetual” by the Articles.
Conditional ratification (the ability to rescind a ratification) was widely discussed at the state ratification conventions for the Constitution. The most direct comment came from the letter Madison wrote to Hamilton on the occasion of the NY state convention where the antis had Hamilton momentarily stymied. The constitution had already been written.
The Revolution was against the Royal government within which there was no representation and which our people had never given its consent and were not treated as “Englishmen”. You are advocating a revolution against a government which is of our own making and within which we have representation. It is silly to believe that anyone today could come up with something better without a massive restriction of the number of people who could vote.
Had the Union been split by the RAT Rebellion of 1861 you would probably be speaking German and saluting Hitler’s successor. There was nothing good or principled about the South’s stupidity, it was an IGnoble Cause from start to finish. That was what Washington warned about in his Farewell Address.
I don’t think that those who advocate secession are either patriots or take their oaths under the Pledge of Allegiance seriously.