James Madison, the father of the constitution said you are dead wrong on that. According to him, unilateral secession was not constitutional in any way, shape or form.
James Madison, the father of the constitution said you are dead wrong on that. According to him, unilateral secession was not constitutional in any way, shape or form.
Actually, it doesn't really matter. In the secessioist eyes, they no longer had Constitutional protection, so to them anything in the Constitution had no meaning. They can't rely on it one way or the other, as they have renounced it by seceding.
In Lincoln's eyes he could see it two ways -- they were still in the Union and therefore violating the Constitution, or they were now a hostile foreign power. In either case Lincoln could persue the interests of the Union by invading the hostile foreign power -- or -- invading the Constitution violating rebel states.
Secessionists have no legal case to complain about Lincoln's actions.