That's what I thought! It isn't there and never has been!
You are, as usual as wrong as wrong can be! There would have BEEN no ratification of the Constitution had not every one of the states who ratified it firmly believed that they had the right to leave when the union no longer served them!
That was the understanding of everyone at the time and went unquestioned for more than 50 years!
"Although the federal government can, in no possible view, be considered as a party to a compact made anterior to its existence, and by which it was, in fact, created; yet as the creature of that compact, it must be bound by it, to its creators, the several states in the union, and the citizens thereof. Having no existence but under the constitution, nor any rights, but such as that instrument confers; and those very rights being in fact duties; it can possess no legitimate power, but such, as is absolutely necessary for the performance of a duty, prescribed and enjoined by the constitution. Its duties, then, become the exact measure of its powers; and wherever it exerts a power for any other purpose, than the performance of a duty prescribed by the constitution, it transgresses its proper limits, and violates the public trust. Its duties, being moreover imposed for the general benefit and security of the several states, in their politic character; and of the people, both in their sovereign, and individual capacity, if these objects be not obtained, the government will not answer the end of its creation: it is therefore bound to the several states, respectively, and to every citizen thereof, for the due execution of those duties. And the observance of this obligation is enforced, by the solemn sanction of an oath, from all who administer the government. The constitution of the United States, then being that instrument by which the federal government hath been created; its powers defined, and limited; and the duties, and functions of its several departments prescribed; the government, thus established, may be pronounced to be a confederate republic, composed of several independent, and sovereign democratic states, united for their common defence, and security against foreign nations, and for the purposes of harmony, and mutual intercourse between each other; each state retaining an entire liberty of exercising, as it thinks proper, all those parts of its sovereignty, which are not mentioned in the constitution, or act of union, as parts that ought to be exercised in common. It is the supreme law of the land, and as such binding upon the federal government; the several states; and finally upon all the citizens of the United States.... It can not be controlled, or altered without the express consent of the body politic of three fourths of the states in the union, or, of the people, of an equal number of the states. To prevent the necessity of an immediate appeal to the latter, a method is pointed out, by which amendments may be proposed and ratified by the concurrent act of two thirds of both houses of congress, and three fourths of the state legislatures: but if congress should neglect to propose amendments in this way, when they may be deemed necessary, the concurrent sense of two thirds of the state legislatures may enforce congress to call a convention, the amendments proposed by which, when ratified by the conventions of three fourths of the states, become valid, as a part of the constitution. In either mode, the assent of the body politic of the states, is necessary, either to complete, or to originate the measure."
“Their submission to it’s operation is voluntary: it’s councils, it’s engagements, it’s authority are theirs, modified, and united. It’s sovereignty is an emanation from theirs, not a flame by which they have been consumed, nor a vortex in which they are swallowed up. Each is still a perfect state, still sovereign, still independent, and still capable, should the occasion require, to resume the exercise of it’s functions, as such, in the most unlimited extent."
Both excerpted from:
BLACKSTONE'S COMMENTARIES: WITH NOTES OF REFERENCE, TO THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS, OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES; AND OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA. IN FIVE VOLUMES. WITH AN APPENDIX TO EACH VOLUME, CONTAINING SHORT TRACTS UPON SUCH SUBJECTS AS APPEARED NECESSARY TO FORM A CONNECTED VIEW OF THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA, AS A MEMBER OF THE FEDERAL UNION.
BY ST. GEORGE TUCKER, PROFESSOR OF LAW, IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WILLIAM AND MARY, AND ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE GENERAL COURT IN VIRGINIA.
PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM YOUNG BIRCH, AND ABRAHAM SMALL, NO. 17, SOUTH SECOND-STREET. ROBERT CARR, PRINTER. 1803.
The inability to secede is in the logic and definition of a constitution.
Conditional ratification was never an option for the state ratification conventions. The question was to be answered with a “yes” or a “no” not a “yes, if...” It was explicitly voted down at the NY convention after receipt of the Madison letter.
The states were never truly sovereign most did not even have constitutions as states until the Union was formed. Americans fought for NATIONAL independence and the generation of the Founders thought of themselves as one People.
It was that PEOPLE gathered in conventions in the states (for administrative convenience) which ratified the constitution.
In reality, Congress EXPLICITLY forbid ratification by state legislatures PRECISELY because, if considered as just another state legislative act, it could be revoked by another legislative act.
St. George Tucker quotes don’t change these facts. Nor do they refute what I said. In fact, he specifies how the Union could be CONSTITUTIONALLY changed. A procedure the Slavers never tried.
The inability to secede is in the logic and definition of a constitution.
Conditional ratification was never an option for the state ratification conventions. The question was to be answered with a “yes” or a “no” not a “yes, if...” It was explicitly voted down at the NY convention after receipt of the Madison letter.
The states were never truly sovereign most did not even have constitutions as states until the Union was formed. Americans fought for NATIONAL independence and the generation of the Founders thought of themselves as one People.
It was that PEOPLE gathered in conventions in the states (for administrative convenience) which ratified the constitution.
In reality, Congress EXPLICITLY forbid ratification by state legislatures PRECISELY because, if considered as just another state legislative act, it could be revoked by another legislative act.
St. George Tucker quotes don’t change these facts. Nor do they refute what I said. In fact, he specifies how the Union could be CONSTITUTIONALLY changed. A procedure the Slavers never tried.
While I admire Non-Sequitor’s knowledge of the RAT Rebellion I am not him. Thanks for the compliment, though.
Should I call you Stand Watie?