[RedMonqey]

Where in The Constitution does the right to secede exist? The States voted in, but the right to vote out is not mentioned.

True. However equally so, NOWHERE does it FORBID states the right to secede either. One could go the easy route and say it is hidden in the Tenth Amendment but one does not have to go there.

In many European societies if the right is not mentioned then it is assumed it does not exist. Divine right of Kings transposed to the State in the modern era. However our founding fathers believed that Man had inalienable rights given by God and stated numerous times in the document and without our constitution of it. States that just because a right is not numerated(mentioned) does not mean it does not exist. It is the reverse. It is assumed man has that right unless strictly forbidden or comes into conflict with the rights of others or powers stated in the constitution.

Although not exactly the same as individual liberties, states also have certain powers that are assumed to them unless expressly denied by or restricted to only the federal government or impedes upon individual rights.

Secession is one of them and Jefferson spoke of it several times in his writtings.

(Mute point anyway. Lincoln settled this one by force....)

[wideawake]

However equally so, NOWHERE does it FORBID states the right to secede either.

The Constitution obliges the states and the American people to regard the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.

In other words, if a state is to secede, its legislation in this regard is subject to review under the authority of the Constitution. By refusing to allow secession statutes to be submitted to this review, the seceding states violated the Constitution and the officers of those states violated their oaths to uphold that Constitution.

Moreover, the Constitution forbids states to enter into pacts with one another - and it is clear from the speed and coordination exhibited in the creation of the so-called Confederacy that the officers of states engaged in that criminal conspiracy had colluded with one another in contravention of the Constitution and their oaths to uphold it in that regard also.