“What stops secession is the prospect of brute force by a mighty federal government, as witnessed by the costly War of 1861.”
Seems to me that the Federal Government is not so mighty without the backing or at least the acquiescence of the States. Lincoln couldn’t have done much without the Northern States.
Synopsis
The opening portion of the declaration outlines the historical background of South Carolina and offers a legal justification for its secession. It asserts that the right of states to secede is implicit in the Constitution and this right was explicitly reaffirmed by South Carolina in 1852. The declaration states that the agreement between South Carolina and the United States is subject to the law of compact, which creates obligations on both parties and which revokes the agreement if either party fails to uphold its obligations.
The next section asserts that the government of the United States and of states within that government had failed to uphold their obligations to South Carolina. The specific issue stated was the refusal of some states to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and clauses in the US Constitution protecting slavery and the federal government's perceived role in attempting to abolish slavery.
The next section states that while these problems have existed for twenty-five years, the situation had recently become unacceptable due to the election of a President (this was Abraham Lincoln although he is not mentioned by name) who was planning to outlaw slavery.
The final section concludes with a statement that South Carolina had therefore seceded from the United States.
Later
Later
I agree that a government should not use force to deprive people of liberty. How horrible it was that the state governments illegally committed insurrection, denying the liberty and union to their citizens, and raising forces to back that insurrection with war.
The southern slave power’s insurrection began the war. Based on that, the US government put down the insurrection. As part of the means necessary to put down the insurrection, slavery in areas in rebellion was ended. After the insurrection was over, the states by constitutional amendment ended slavery in the rest of the country.
The Heritage Foundation: “Can individual states secede from the United States?”
There's a Utah state legislator who is going back to the State compacts to pry the Federal Government's claws off the land in the states. He says that the state compacts required the Federal Government to turn the land back to the states. That would be a good start, get back to the Free Soil movement. How would Illinois like to split Chicago off as a separate State? Let the liberals have their Communes in Detroit, New York, Chicago, etc. See how that works for them.