I spend much of my time researching, writing about, and using the works of the Framers. Walter William's research is correct. Most of the Framers were of the view that states could as freely leave the Union as they had chosen to join it.
The legal / political premise of the Confederacy was correct, at the time they adopted it.
However, the ulimate way of losing an argument is to lose a war over the subject of that debate. So the answer to that question is now an emphatic no.
What Abraham Lincoln did in prosecuting the war to preserve the Union was quite similar to what Thomas Jefferson did in approving the Lousiana Purchase. Both actions were critical to the future of the nation. Both actions were beyond their apparent powers at the time they took them. Both actions were backed up by the Congress. Neither action was ever questioned in the Supreme Court.
Your questioning of Dr. William's assertion is off-base. He is correct. It was losing the Civil War, not any legal argument, that established that the position of the Confederacy was wrong.
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I'm just reading the Constitution. Please explain to us how the act of secession -- and the actions of the seceeding states -- do not qualify as insurrection?
Your post (except above) was a wonderful addition to the thread. You're dead on.