[DJ MacWoW]

I disagree. States had a right to secede as the federal government didn't own them. The states that seceded would have eventually failed without the industrial north.

Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution. James Madison

[DiogenesLamp]

I disagree. States had a right to secede as the federal government didn't own them. The states that seceded would have eventually failed without the industrial north.

You are quite mistaken about that. The North would have collapsed without US Federal laws artificially creating domestic markets for them at the expense of the Southern states. Without those protectionist laws, the South would have prospered massively, and the North would have fallen into bankruptcy.

You may not know this, but 60% of all the revenue produced by Southern slavery ended up on New York and Washington DC pockets.

That 60% going into the South instead of New York would have massively boosted their economy.

[OIFVeteran]

The Constitution requires an adoption in toto, and for ever. It has been so adopted by the other States.

James Madison letter to Alexander Hamilton (which Hamilton then read to the New York ratification convention) 20 July 1788