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These are interesting points, but the fact is that the Constitution was only the form of government, not the admission into the Union.

The Founding Document of the United States was the Declaration of Independence, where the states "mutually pledge[d] to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." This is an unbreakable pledge between the several states to each other.

Rejecting the Constitution as the form of government does not mean they leave the Union. It means, as Madison later wrote, that they return to the state of nature that existed before the Constitution, but not before Independence. We can debate what that is, but the simplest (and least disruptive) is that they become territories with their own local governments -- but still possessions of the United States.

-PJ

These are interesting points, but the fact is that the Constitution was only the form of government, not the admission into the Union. The Founding Document of the United States was the Declaration of Independence, where the states "mutually pledge[d] to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." This is an unbreakable pledge between the several states to each other. Rejecting the Constitution as the form of government does not mean they leave the Union. It means, as Madison later wrote, that they return to the state of nature that existed before the Constitution, but not before Independence. We can debate what that is, but the simplest (and least disruptive) is that they become territories with their own local governments -- but still possessions of the United States.

Woah! Without the constitution, there no longer is a union between the states. They all agreed the Articles of Confederation weren't working out for them so they wanted reforms to the articles. There's no guarantee the states would stay together. They went to the trouble after all of having EACH state recognized by name as sovereign in the 1783 treaty of Paris which ended the war of secession from the British Empire.

The Declaration of Independence was just that. The states declared their common purpose to seek independence. It was an alliance that was not guaranteed to last once the object - ie Independence - had been achieved.

No way are sovereign states "possessions" of the United States. The states are sovereigns individually. They never agreed to surrender their sovereignty to the United States even in the Constitution much less before there was a constitution.

The Founding Document of the United States was the Declaration of Independence,...

I absolutely agree, and what does it say? It says that people have a right to secede. That is in fact the central thesis of the document.

-- but still possessions of the United States.

Okay, you lost me. Where do you get that from? Many of those states existed before the United States existed. How does this later created country suddenly own these prior existing states?