Read Federalist 43 “absolute necessity of the case”
“In April 1830, Madison wrote to Robert Hayne that in “extreme cases of oppression” a state would be “absolved . . . from the Constitutional Compact to which it is a party” (in Gaillard Hunt, The Writings of James Madison, Volume 9, New York : Knickerbocker Press, 1910, p. 383
In regards to this whole debate...Many legal minds surrounding George Washington would agree with a States Right to leave..
George Washington's first U.S. Attorney for Pennsylvania William Rawle
“It depends on the state itself to retain or abolish the principle of representation, because it depends on itself whether it will continue a member of the Union . To deny this right would be inconsistent with the principle on which all our political systems are founded, which is, that the people have in all cases, a right to determine how they will be governed.
This right must be considered as an ingredient in the original composition of the general government, which, though not expressed, was mutually understood. . . . (A View of the Constitution of the United States, 2nd Edition, 1829, Vol. 4, p. 571)
George Tucker—A federal district court judge appointed by President James Madison
The federal government, then, appears to be the organ through which the united republics communicate with foreign nations and with each other. Their submission to its operation is voluntary: its councils, its engagements, its authority are theirs, modified, and united. Its sovereignty is an emanation from theirs, not a flame by which they have been consumed, nor a vortex in which they are swallowed up. Each is still a perfect state, still sovereign, still independent, and still capable, should the situation require, to resume the exercise of its functions as such in the most unlimited extent. (Tucker, editor, Blackstone’s Commentaries: With Notes of Reference to the Constitution and Laws of the Federal Government of the United States, Volume 1, Philadelphia: William Birch and Abraham Small, 1803, Appendix: Note D, Section 3:IV)
Timothy Pickering -—— George Washington's Secretary of State——
The Federalists are dissatisfied, because they see the public morals debased by the corrupt and corrupting system of our rulers. Men are tempted to become apostates, not to Federalism merely, but to virtue and to religion and to good government. . . . the principles of our revolution point to the remedy—a separation. That this can be accomplished, and without spilling one drop of blood, I have little doubt. . . . The people of the East cannot reconcile their habits, views, and interests with those of the South and West. The latter are beginning to rule with a rod of iron. . . .
A Northern confederacy would unite congenial characters, and present a fairer prospect of public happiness; while the Southern States, having a similarity of habits, might be left “to manage their own affairs in their own way.” If a separation were to take place, our mutual wants would render a friendly and commercial intercourse inevitable. . . . (Letter from Timothy Pickering to George Cabot, January 29, 1804
But once again I ask, what was the "Extreme Oppression: that justified secession in 1860?
Thank you, again!