[Non-Sequitur]

Prior to the American Civil War, it was popularly assumed that states which had freely chosen to enter the Union could just as freely withdraw from said union at their own discretion.

It falls apart right there because many political leaders from Webster to Clay to Madison to Jackson to Buchanan to Lincoln all disputed the idea that states could secede - either unilaterally or at all.

[MrEdd]

And many others did not. And some of those you mention took one posstion at one time and the opposite at another time.

Lincoln, in a very Kerry-esque manner was for seccesion before he was against it.

In any case, the minutes of the constitutional convention make it clear that the men who wrote that august document clearly believed in a right to seccede.

[Conservative9]

Since you missed it the first time: January 12, 1848, Abraham Lincoln said, “Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable and most sacred right, a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world!”

[PeaRidge]

“It falls apart right there because many political leaders from Webster to Clay to Madison to Jackson to Buchanan to Lincoln..”

His argument does not fall apart. Your use of ‘higher authority’ political leaders is not relevant since the government was a representative republic, not an oligarchy of political personalities.

The Republic was governed by law, not the masses. There was no admonition against secession, nor consequence of enforcement ever vested in the central government.