The Constitutional Convention votes to recognize the rights of the States to secede from the voluntary Union, by rejecting the clause (and thus denying Congress the power) “to call forth the force of the Union against any member of the Union, failing to fulfill its duty under the Articles thereof”:
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.
[restored 9/18/2021]
Subsequent Events:
Authority:
Articles of Confederation, Article XIII
ccc-2point0.com/Articles-of-Confederation
References:
James Ostrowski, “Was the Union Army’s Invasion of the Confederate States a Lawful Act? An Analysis of President Lincoln’s Legal Arguments Against Secession,” Secession, State and Liberty, David Gordon, ed., (New Brunswick, New Jersey and London: Transaction, 1998), 167.
Was the Union Army’s Invasion of the Confederate States a Lawful Act? by James Ostrowski
www.lewrockwell.com/ostrowski/ostrowski31.html
Current U.s. National Debt:
