>>With the secession issue, though, we are given the following as a complete and sufficient answer:
“No, because if any state tries to secede, the central government will use force of arms to keep it from succeeding.”
There is no appeal to law in this answer – just brute force.<<
I am NOT addressing the underlying question — I have learned over the years these Civil War threads get wilder than the Crevo ones!
But I would like to point out this is a bit fallacious in that all laws are, in the final analysis, enforced from the barrel of a government gun.
Other than that, have at it.
“No, because if any state tries to secede, the central government will use force of arms to keep it from succeeding.”
There is no appeal to law in this answer – just brute force.<<
And of course, the refutation of this simplistic answer is writ large across the pages of American history.
1. The military forces in the past split, rather than all going to one faction.
2. In the 1940s nuclear arms were created which makes engaging in war in which you did not reatain one hundred percent of the military and one hundred percent of military production have a whole new level of bad consequence.
Next contestant.