It is quite good.
I have only put in the conclusion, the link is below.
Conclusion In a sense, the "Nationalist" and the "Weak Compact" views are the easiest to hold. The "Nationalist" view sees the nation coming into being with "the people" ratifying the Constitution. In the process of that act, the people give their sovereignty to the national government. The "Weak Compact" view sees the nation as existing in states which grant powers, but not sovereignty to a national federation. Thus, the "Nationalists" cannot agree with secession because it is an act of sovereignty no longer existing in the states, but given to the national government. The "Weak Compact" adherents cannot but support secession in principle because it remains a concomitant of sovereignty that the states have retained.
However, it is apparent that James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution," supported a third approach, which he denominated "in strictness neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both."35 Thus, the states, national government, and the people retain a measure of sovereignty. However, since the states had unanimously granted three-fourths of the states the ability, through the Constitution, to amend the document governing the wielding of power and sovereignty at a national level, it was obvious that individual states could not secede and claim a constitutional prerogative for doing so any more than a majority of the states could vote to withdraw from another. Still less could they do so in the name of claiming a prerogative to systematically violate the private property rights of a significant majority within their borders.
While the biblical warrant, if any, for any of the above analysis will have to wait for another discussion on another day, the topic of constitutional secession is one, I am tempted to say, that we will have to fight about.
http://www.nationalreform.org/statesman/98/refight.html
It is an excellent essay! Thank you for the link. I had lost my bookmark in a computer crash last year.
Being a little bit sovereign is like being a little bit pregnant.