And what was Madison’s view on secession?
RE: And what was Madison’s view on secession?
I believe that Madison, being a Federalist, wanted more than anyone else to preserve the union. Do I, who argue that states have the legal right to secede, want to see the USA splintered ? Of course not. Just as I do not want to cut my leg off simply because I have a wound, I will only consider cutting it off as a LAST RESORT.
We do not consider secession wily nily... we only consider it if and when all conditions become so intolerable and tyrannical, that a state has no choice but to consider it.
But why view the legality of secession only through the prism of one James Madison when we have history to show us what the original intent of those who signed on to the constitution was?
There is no evidence that secession was illegal or prohibited by the Constitution, and in fact there is almost overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that secession was a legal, constitutionally sanctioned act.
Historian Kenneth M. Stampp, in his book The Imperiled Union, maintains that it is impossible to say that secession was illegal because of the ambiguity of the original Constitution as to state sovereignty and the right of secession. He points out that “the case for state sovereignty and the constitutional right of secession had flourished for forty years before a comparable case for a perpetual Union had been devised,” and even then its logic was “far from perfect because the Constitution and the debates over ratification were fraught with ambiguity.”
It appears that the original intent of an unquestioned right of secession was established by the Founders, took root and “flourished for forty years,” then later a “perpetual Union” counter-argument developed out of political necessity when Northern states began realizing their wealth and power was dependent on the Union and its exploitation of the South.