"The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same."
Just saw this text quoted on the news this morning and it instantly dawned on me. This is more proof that the constitution is not compulsory to states that do not want to be a part of it.
The text articulates a possibility of a 9 state Union if the remaining 4 states chose not to join. Allowing the remaining four states to remain out of the Union is good proof that the Union was never intended to be compulsory.
Another piece of evidence I can add to my pile demonstrating that secession was understood to be a right by the founders and by the US Constitution.
Article VII, US Constitution."The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same."Just saw this text quoted on the news this morning and it instantly dawned on me. This is more proof that the constitution is not compulsory to states that do not want to be a part of it.
In point of fact, when George Washington was inaugurated there were only ELEVEN states in the Union. Washington was elected with TEN states participating in the election. (New York was in the Union but political infighting resulted in an inability to agree to delegates to the Electoral College). North Carolina and Rhode Island did not ratify the Constitution until significantly later.
Volume I, II and III of the Congressional Register began with a title page that stated,
The Congressional Register;
or,
History
of the
Proceedings and Debates
of the First
House of Representatives
of the
United States of America:
Namely,
New-Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
South-Carolina and Georgia.Being the Eleven States that have Ratified the Con-
stitution of the Government of the United States.Containing an Impartial Account of
The Most interesting Speeches and Motions; and accurate Copies of remarkable
Papers laid before and offered to the House.Taken in short hand,
By Thomas LloydVolume I
New York:
Printed for the Editor, by Harrisson and Purdy
M,DCC,LXXXIX.
See Congressional Register, Volume I, 1789,
Page 412, Mr. SHERMAN, June 5, 1789:
But all we are now to consider, I believe, is, that we invite the state of Rhode Island to join our confederacy, what will be the effect of such a measure we cannot tell till we try it.
Page 413, Mr. MADISON, June 5, 1789:
My idea on the subject now before the House is, that it would be improper in this body to expose themselves to have such a proposition rejected by the legislature of the state of Rhode Island
In the meantime, the state of Vermont had become a seperate and independent state in 1777 by means of successful revolution. This 14th state was admitted as an independent revolutionary state with self-constituted boundaries.
Vermont v. New Hampshire, 289 U.S. 593, 607-608 (1933)
Our conclusion as to the meaning and effect of the Order-in-Council of 1764 would be decisive of the boundary of Vermont upon her admission to the Union were it not for the history of Vermont as a revolutionary government and the consequent uncertainty whether she was admitted under the second clause of Art. IV, § 3, of the Constitution as a new state formed out of the territory of New York, with her boundary accordingly determined by that of New York, or whether she was admitted under the first clause of Art. IV, § 3, as an independent revolutionary state with self-constituted boundaries.The Special Master found that attempts by the New York authorities after 1764 to interfere with the possession of the holders of the New Hampshire grants made prior to the Order-in-Council led to protest and forcible resistance which assumed the proportions of a revolutionary movement. This movement culminated in 1777 in the Declaration of Independence by the towns comprising the New Hampshire grants on both sides of the Green Mountains, which proclaimed that the jurisdiction granted by the Crown "to New York government over the people of the New Hampshire Grants is totally dissolved," and that a free and independent government is set up within the territory now Vermont, bounded "east on Connecticut River . . . as far as the New Hampshire Grants extends." From that time until the admission of Vermont into the Union in 1791, an independent government was maintained with defined geographical limits extending on the east to the Connecticut River. In view of these facts, the Special Master concluded that the Order-in-Council was nullified by successful revolution, and Vermont was admitted as an independent state with self-constituted boundaries. But he also found, as we have said, that Vermont's claims of jurisdiction to the thread of the river were restricted to the low water mark on the western side by resolutions of Congress of August 20, 21, 1781, and their acceptance by resolution of the Vermont Legislature, February 22, 1782. In addition, he found that Vermont was not recognized as an independent state by Congress either under the Articles of Confederation or under the Constitution, but that her independence was recognized by New Hampshire in 1777, by Massachusetts in 1781, and by New York in 1790.
It does not matter that the U.S. government did not officially recognize Vermont's independence until it entered the union. At the time of admission, and thereafter, they were officially recognized by the U.S. Government to have been previously, and at the time of admission, a free and independent state. Vermont was explicitly NOT admitted under Clause 2 of Article 4, Sec 3. Vermont was admitted as a free and independent state which achieved that status by their successful revolution of 1777.
Since whether secession is or is not a legal right of the states has never been a topic I’ve weighed in on, it’s irrelevant to me. My only dog in the fight are these points:
The reason for secession was the South’s desire to preserve slavery.
The trigger for secession was the election of Abraham Lincoln, which fed fear of the abolitionist foundation of the Republican Party.
The American Civil War began when units of the South Carolina Militia fired upon a Union fort in Charleston harbor.