2 Documents you need to refer to...
Articles of Confederation - Predated the Constitution and were the original agreements that bound the colonies together
However...
They proved to be inadequate and so the Constitution was developed and ratified, it replaced the AoC and was ratified in I believe March of 1789
Elements of both were in there and it was till somewhat malleable in execution especially when it came to States Rights versus Federal ones.
It all settled down to the current state of being where States can have their own laws and Federal ones in general deal with the overall populace of the United States in matters of specific natures, and states can still create laws within their borders that deal with their own populace separate and aside from the overall one
The issue you mention goes back to the 2 core documents and the overall nature of the Union which by that time included other new states that were not part of the original pact and as such created issues with the new broader position of the United States under the Constitution
Secession break down in the midst of all of this and is probably in part why the California state slit into 3 was nixed by the Supreme Court here. Secession in general is not an option that can and will be tolerated as you then remove yourselves into a configuration of states at odds with the Constitution itself and it’s authority over all the states at large
A new element has been introduced to reinforce your view: federal largess. With the creation of the federal income tax and the establishment of huge federal bureaucracies, Washington confiscates enormous amounts of wealth from local communities, and thus states, by which the USGVT can then offer assistance to states IF they comply with federal regulations... if the states decline due to state's rights, then they forfeit access to federal funds. All apparently Constitutional. The burden is then on the states to raise the needed revenues in addition to federal taxation on those communities. However, James Madison, the author of the Constitution, stated that that document did not allow for the federal govt to take money from one group of people in order to benefit another group of people. Today that is the whole political discourse: what will the USGVT do for me, and how do I keep from losing it?
Any way you interpret it, we have wandered far off of the original reservation, and I cannot see how we shall ever find our way back, short of complete financial collapse. Who knows how that may turn out, however?
Interesting tidbit about AoC. Canada had the right to become a state without that request being accepted or ratified by the requisite number of existing member states. Any other application for statehood had to be ratified.