[4CJ]

Wilson's quote is actually setting up "artificial systems of states" against the "rights of man" not urging secession.

What Wilson wrote was that some of the states would 'withdraw themselves from the Union' - secession.

Marshall is referring to the people taking back power NOT States seceding.

Justice Marshall in stating, 'It is the people that give power, and can take it back" was referring to a secession by the state of Virginia if the new government abused the powers delegated.

Madison's prerequisite that the Union become "inconsistent" with public happiness was not met merely because the Slavers decided in a hissy fit to try and illegally remove their States from the Union.

Madison stated that if the new union were unsatifactory, because the yankees refused to abide by it or any other reason, then he would 'Abolish the Union'.

The authority Paterson was referring to was the PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES not a group of States.

No, Paterson was referring to the state Constitutions and the federal, 'In America, the case is widely different: every state in the Union has its constitution reduced to written exactitude and precision.' The case properly recognizes that the people of the state are sovereign over their legislatures. 'The life-giving principle and the death-doing stroke must proceed from the same hand' - the several states independently ratified the Constitution and independently secede.

There was no "secession" from the Articles, the constitution even included some of the same language. Changing a government is NOT secession from the UNION. It is a LIE to claim that was secession.

Madison in Federalist No. 43 disagrees,

'Should it unhappily be necessary to appeal to these delicate truths for a justification for dispensing with the consent of particular States to a dissolution of the federal pact, will not the complaining parties find it a difficult task to answer the MULTIPLIED and IMPORTANT infractions with which they may be confronted? The time has been when it was incumbent on us all to veil the ideas which this paragraph exhibits. The scene is now changed, and with it the part which the same motives dictate.'

They were discussing the withdrawal of the states from the existing union, which formerly consisted of 13 members, but now could consist of only 9. The idea which had "been" veiled was that of secession, which "scene is now changed" so that secession may be exercised.

Standard sophistry from justshutupandtakeit will not change the facts.

[justshutupandtakeit]

The Wilson quote does not say what you claim.

Marshall NEVER supported secession.

Madison stated explicitly in a letter to Hamilton that once the constitution was ratified a state HAD NO RIGHT TO SECEDE. You already know this having been hammered over the head with it by me in earlier posts.

States did not ratify but merely the American people gathered in conventions in the states. Had Congress wished it could have easily (even more easily actually) had state conventions ratify. It did NOT want this precisely because then the ratification as a legislative act could have been undone by another legislative act. But it wanted to make sure no secession could occur.

Madison recognized that the Union of 1776 had de facto already been dissolved, Congress was powerless and few Congressmen attended. However, a majority changing the form of government is not the same as a minority seceding illegally. Congress had the power to call a convention and send the results out for ratification. No state had such power legally in 1860.