[Who is John Galt?]

My friend, you are nothing if not predictable. Since it's a holiday weekend, and I lack the time to demolish your fatally-flawed arguments in detail (as I have every single time I've seen you post them in the past), let's examine just the most humorous bit of your post:

The concept of legal secession under our system was unknown to the framers. It was a construct by Calhoun and others made from whole cloth. And it won't stand the light of the whole record.

"Unknown to the framers?" And Calhoun's "construct?" Are you trying to tell us that you once again refuse to discuss the secession of the States that ratified the Constitution, from the previous union formed under the Articles of Confederation? It is quite obvious to everyone that it is your position, my friend, that "won't stand the light of the whole record," else why would you so studiously ignore the ratification process by which the Constitution itself was adopted?

(Merry Christmas, Walt! ;>)

[WhiskeyPapa]

"Unknown to the framers?" And Calhoun's "construct?" Are you trying to tell us that you once again refuse to discuss the secession of the States that ratified the Constitution, from the previous union formed under the Articles of Confederation? It is quite obvious to everyone that it is your position, my friend, that "won't stand the light of the whole record," else why would you so studiously ignore the ratification process by which the Constitution itself was adopted?

But you agree that Jefferson Davis took pretty much the same tack on national power as Lincoln; silence is consent.

Walt