But the new US Constitution was never ratified by state governments -- state legislatures, courts or governors.
Instead, it was ratified by "We the people" in every state, through specially elected ratification conventions.
Jay Redhawk: "By agreeing to the Constitution the states were in essence seceding from the Confederation.
The difference being that no group of states was willing to use force to save a failing Confederation."
And no group of states used force in 1861 to prevent Deep-South slave-holders from declaring secession.
But when those secessionists declared war on the United States (May 6, 1861) then the issue was not secession, but rather rebellion, insurrection, war and treason.
Just as the first six words of the Constitution confirm, we the People of the United States created the Constitution. It was then ratified by the people living in various states.
We, too, ratify the Constitution each time we pledge allegiance to our national flag and to the republic for which it stands, when we perform our military service and when we pay our federal taxes.
Each of us born here is an American citizen. In 1861, our national government was required to defend the rights of American citizens living in southern states because their state governments tried to deprive the American citizens living in those states of their rights under the United States Constitution.