If you could read it for yourself, I wouldn't have to bother.
Nations, as we define them today, can do dozens of things that make them sovereign nations which are denied to the states.
They weren't denied to them in 1787. The power always resides in the people, and it was simply on loan to the central government until Lincoln took it permanently in the 1860s.
I never said the Constitution forbids independence.
And you can't, because it doesn't. There is no supporting documents for this claim, but there are supporting documents to prove the contrary.
What I'm saying that just because some states made assumptions in their ratification documents...
The Declaration of Independence clearly makes their position the default reality at that time. The "assumption" is that a nation founded on the right to independence could deny states that right by claiming the constitution forbids it.
*THAT* is the position that has to be proven with some sort of supporting evidence.
Sure it was. Read the Constitution.
And you can't, because it doesn't. There is no supporting documents for this claim, but there are supporting documents to prove the contrary
There is also nothing to support that secession as practiced by the Southern states was constitutional either. No matter what you may think.
The Declaration of Independence clearly makes their position the default reality at that time. The "assumption" is that a nation founded on the right to independence could deny states that right by claiming the constitution forbids it.
Well they weren't ratifying the Declaration of Independence, were they? They were ratifying the Constitution and agreeing to abide by its provisions.