“Apparently, if the Constitution and its mechanisms don’t produce the results you want, it’s okay to take your ball and go home.”
Yes. I think in large part that is what the whole tussle was about.
It is a good question to toss about though.
To summarize why some like me believe secession is a right,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights—snip—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —snip—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it——etc.”
The Declaration is just that, a declaration of rights between God and man. It references God in one form or another 4 or 5 times. Those rights are between man and God and therefore supreme.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The Constitution is a mere contract among men. You will not find God in it anywhere nor does it claim anywhere to be in perpetuity. Further, as it is a document of enumerated powers and nowhere in it does it state it can compel its sovereign states to remain within it….and the 10th amendment specifically reserves all rights not delegated to the Federal government to the states or the people respectively-—just to paraphrase for brevity.
And that is why the Southern States, including Virginia, the mother of our nation, and Bobby Lee, the step great grandson in law of George Washington thought the “seceders” had it right. Especially when my childhood hero Honest Abe ignored multiple rulings by the Supreme Court on the illegality of his actions….and…marshaled that pesky army to invade his own country.
The Civil War we are told, settled the matter. It did for that time by force of arms, but not by greater weight of right. It has often been said that given the economic trajectory of the South and North at the time, had the war broken out 20 years before or after 1860, the outcome would have been different.
It appears, given current events, that theory may one day be tested again. And again despite all the legal and philosophical sophistry by the likes of us, it will be settled by force of arms.
A tragedy past and in the making. Peace.
Lee most definitely did NOT think the seceders had it right. He opposed secession right up until VA pulled out and he had to choose between the Union and his State.
Especially when my childhood hero Honest Abe ignored multiple rulings by the Supreme Court on the illegality of his actions….and…marshaled that pesky army to invade his own country.
AFAIK, the Supremes never ruled on whether Lincoln had legal power to invade the South. Chief Justice Taney made several rulings Lincoln ignored, but they were mostly habeas corpus rulings and such.
The Supreme Court, during the period of the war, never ruled on secession, mostly because southern states chose not to address secession via the legal system or in other constitutional means. Instead, they chose to "appeal to arms."
As an American citizen, I take great pride in my country, her prosperity and her institutions, and would defend any State if her rights were invaded. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than the dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution.
He also wrote this:
The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it were intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It is intended for perpetual union, so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government (not a compact) which can only be dissolved by revolution, or by the consent of all the people in convention assembled.
It has often been said that given the economic trajectory of the South and North at the time, had the war broken out 20 years before or after 1860, the outcome would have been different.
Interesting. I've never heard anyone say that before. I would disagree.