DiogenesLamp #147: "Good aggregation of information, but pointless I think.
Our opposition is driven by an emotional need to see a distinction between what the 13 slave owning colonies did, and what the 11 slave owning states did."
Among our Lost Causers, rustbucket is exceptionally honest, straightforward and thorough, orders of magnitude more so than, for examples, DiogenesLamp or jeffersondem.
Still his argument cannot be made without lying about it, as we see in the line quoted above.
In fact, the word "unilaterally" is a lie because "secession" in 1788 was done peacefully & lawfully by mutual consent, not "unilaterally".
The truth is that no legitimate Founder at any time ever proposed or supported unilateral, unapproved declaration of secession at pleasure, meaning absent the kinds of compelling necessity spelled out in their Declaration of Independence.
Blush
Still his argument cannot be made without lying about it, as we see in the line quoted above.
In fact, the word "unilaterally" is a lie because "secession" in 1788 was done peacefully & lawfully by mutual consent, not "unilaterally".
Perhaps I misspoke. I meant "unilaterally" in the sense that they each decided, one at a time in their own independent conventions from 1787 to 1790, to secede the failing Union under the Articles to join in a different Union proposed by the Constitutional Convention. The ninth state to ratify was New Hampshire on June 21, 1788. Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island ratified later.
Perhaps "independently" might have been a better choice of words in my post above. I was not "lying," just struggling over the right word to use if a single word could describe what the original states did.
The states that seceded in 1860-61 did something similar to those that left the Articles. They seceded from a Union that their voters and/or elected secession conventions were no longer happy with. The states decided one at a time in their own independent conventions and/or by a vote by their voters to secede. Once they seceded, delegates from the first six states that seceded convened in Montgomery, Alabama on February 4, 1861 and by February 8 developed their own provisional Constitution which was largely based on the US Constitution. Texas and the states who seceded after Texas were joining a government with a provisional Constitution.
The original 13 states seceded and joined a Union with a proposed Constitution. In a sense, that Constitution might have been called provisional in that amendments suggested by the various ratification conventions were quickly added to it after the government was formed. On September 25, 1789, the US Congress approved twelve articles of amendment to the Constitution, ten of which (The Bill of Rights) were approved by enough states as Amendments on December 15, 1791.