[justshutupandtakeit]

Who denies there were some sovereign powers possessed by states even the Bill of Rights did not apply to them in 1860? Did not the federal government recognize a sovereign "right" of some states to legalize slavery and others not to?

The point is no state had the right to unilaterally change the constitution, that sovereignty was never possessed nor renounced since the American People predated the Articles, the States and the Constitution all of which were an expression of that People. Unite or Die was the only choice. Forces of the Slavers joined the forces of death.

There were "NO tyrannical assumptions of authority" except by those attempting to attack the United States of America and those assumptions were trumped by the magnificent leader Abraham Lincoln.

[Gianni]

The point is no state had the right to unilaterally change the constitution, that sovereignty was never possessed nor renounced since the American People predated the Articles, the States and the Constitution all of which were an expression of that People. Unite or Die was the only choice. Forces of the Slavers joined the forces of death.

But 'Unite or die' was turned on it's head. It was not John Brown's raid that so frightened the South, but the Northern celebration of it.

Were it the case today that Churches west of the Mississippi tolled their bells on September 11th in honor of the POS hijackers, imagine the outrage on the Eastern seaboard. I think that many who cry for Union do not grasp the depth of division and hate that the country felt in 1860.