[jeffersondem]

“But in 1869 in Texas v. White Congress ruled the Confederacy had acted unconstitutionally.”

Victor’s justice: a distorted application of justice to the defeated party by the victorious party after an armed conflict.

[Verginius Rufus]

While the New York convention in 1788 was debating whether to ratify the Constitution, James Madison wrote to a friend in New York that once the decision had been made to ratify, they couldn't change their minds (there was talk of that if no Bill of Rights was added). But that was Madison's personal opinion--and he had been one of the architects of the document that many thought gave too much power to the central government.

I read once that in the very first week of the First Congress, a representative from South Carolina threatened that his state would secede. So much for the understanding of the issue when the Constitution was first adopted.