[FLT-bird]

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.

[Political Junkie Too]

Yes, I meant that they go back to being a State outside of the Constitution,but I think I meant to imply that if one state leaves the Union, that dissolves the Union for all. They all devolve into 50 independent states.

That's what Madison meant by the right to secede is also the right of the many to oust. One state leaving breaks the Union for all.

-PJ

[DiogenesLamp]

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.

It's very thesis is that states have a right to be "independent", even from each other.