BuckeyeWarrior
Sergeant
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2020
- Location
- Ohio
Well you would be wrong there. During the New York constitutional ratification convention Alexander Hamilton wrote a letter to James Madison questioning what he should do in response to some New York constitutional representatives proposing a conditional adoption of the constitution with a provision that if certain amendments weren't adopted within a certain time limit that they would leave the government formed by the constitution. Here is James Madison's letter in response;A territory or colony opting to voluntarily join the Union is little different than an individual signing up for a "Book of the Month Club".
You opt to join and sign up for that subscription, but when it no longer suits your needs and you try and quit, then and only then, do you discover the "predatory practices" of the "big business".
I am absolutely certain that every territory or colony that joined the Union did so with the understanding that they could quit and leave it, if later they so desired.
Lee did not violate his oath. He sequentially resigned his commission, and then joined the righteous cause of his home state of Virginia months later.
My dear Sir,
Yours of yesterday is this instant come to hand & I have but a few minutes to answer it. I am sorry that your situation obliges you to listen to propositions of the nature you describe. My opinion is that a reservation of a right to withdraw if amendments be not decided on under the form of the Constitution within a certain time, is a conditional ratification, that it does not make N. York a member of the New Union, and consequently that3 she could not be received on that plan. Compacts must be reciprocal, this principle would not in such a case be preserved. The Constitution requires an adoption in toto, and for ever. It has been so adopted by the other States. An adoption for a limited time would be as defective as an adoption of some of the articles only. In short any condition whatever must viciate the ratification. What the new Congress by virtue of the power to admit new States, may be able & disposed to do in such a case, I do not enquire as I suppose that is not the material point at present. I have not a moment to add more. Know my fervent wishes for your success & happiness.
James Madison
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-05-02-0012-0086
Alexander Hamilton read this letter to the New York ratification convention.
On November 10, 1860 the New York times published an article in response to the news that South Carolina was contemplating seceding from the Union. They published both letters in this article and stating this;
"New-York finally abandoned her claim, and "adopted the Constitution in toto, and FOREVER." And so did all the other States. No one of them has any right to secede, -- or to withdraw from the obligations and responsibilities of the Union. In the language of Judge SPENCER ROANE, President of the Electoral College of Virginia, in 1808, "it is treason to secede."
https://www.nytimes.com/1860/11/10/archives/the-right-of-secession.html