Secession; Always Viewed As A Right?

[Baggage Handler #2]

Originally Posted by cw1865

...
Just some food for thought, remember these issues that they faced in 1861 are still being addressed today....they don't simply exist in an historical vacuum....

MFHP (My Favorite History Prof), he of the battlefield commission, Darby's Rangers, Eisenhower's Staff, Operation Torch, and the DeMedici family, was kind enough to discuss this topic, although somewhat obliquely, with me one day.
It came under the category of "why bother learning history at all." And the answer is, that as human beings, we can never get an objective measure of behavior, but by analyzing such events as we can with some degree of abstraction, we may gain some insights on the essentials of human nature.

[trice]

Originally Posted by cw1865

Tim's assesment of the Dennison case is correct. And yes, there were people who felt that states had constitutional duties that the Feds could simply not compel, but before we go off the deep end on unenforceable constitutional duties, take a look at Gibbons v. Ogden and McCulloch v. Maryland.

In both Gibbons and McCulloch, the state could simply have turned around and said, "well, the judgment is the judgment, but you can't make us comply with it" - that clealy is not the case.

Dennison is a difficult case and frankly I see it as more indicitive of the struggle between free and slave states than as an expression of what was intended with the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

I think the actual decision is particularly apt in that context. The Supreme Court announces it in March of 1861, with Ft. Sumter under siege and seven states already declaring secession, as Lincoln takes up the office of President. In the circumstances, people must have been looking at anything and everything that came out of the Court for an indication on their thinking about the crisis.

Tim