[Non-Sequitur]

Lincoln orders blockade proclamation of North Carolina and Virginia on 27 April, 1861.

Virginia sent its militia to seize the arsenal at Harpers Ferry on April 17, and began organizing them for that task before the Virginia convention voted for secession. North Carolina seized the U.S. Mint in Charlotte on April 21 and the federal arsenal in Fayetteville on April 22. Virginia organized her army and appointed commanders in violation of the Constitution by April 26. And you want us to believe that they were not participating in the rebellion? In light of those actions, Lincoln's including them in the blockade made perfect sense.

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On May 31, 1787, the Convention considered adding to the powers of Congress the right: "to call forth the force of the union against any member of the union, failing to fulfil its duty under the articles thereof."29 The clause was rejected after James Madison spoke against it:

"A Union of the States containing such an ingredient seemed to provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a State, would look more like a declaration of war, than an infliction of punishment, and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound."30

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