Why Argue About the Constitutionality of Secession?

Joined
Jun 16, 2016
Why do posters here feel compelled to argue again and again and again about whether secession was a constitutional right?

It's not as if anyone's reached a definitive decision that's widely accepted.

Isn't it enough to say that Americans at the time disagreed over whether there was a constitutional right of secession, and, as so many arguments were cast in terms of constitutionality and original intent, that the inability of people at the time to reach a generally-agreed upon conclusion contributed to the events leading up to the secession crisis and the decision for war in 1860-61?

I think there would have been a separatist movement in any case. It isn't as if the fire-eaters would have been deterred in their quest for securing southern independence by a finding that secession was unconstitutional. The crisis they fears was upon the South was far too important to be dismissed due to constitutional interpretation.

After all, even if someone here finally offered an explanation that satisfied everyone, how would that change a single thing about what happened over 150 years ago?

These debates never end, and they never will. We might thus realize that the same was true for the Civil War generation.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top