DigitalDrifter
Diamond Member
And of course Texas vs White came after the Civil War. Prior to that, there was nothing in the Constitution that firmly forbid secession.
It ruled on the same Constitutional issue
Afterwards.
Same Constitution......it didn't change
The South did not ask for a Constitutional approval before they seceded
They didn't feel they needed to.
Then how could they legally secede?
Can you divorce by just walking away from a marriage and saying you were done?
There were legal, financial, personal and logistic entanglements of belonging to the United States and then claiming you do not
It's difficult to say, and it depends on who you talk to, or what you read.
Some will tell you that some of the states held a popular vote to secede. In some cases conventions decided, in some cases certain counties wanted out, others didn't.
Some people have written that only wealthy slave owners voted to secede.
Karl Marx as I recall reported that there was never a clear case of any of the southern states holding an honest statewide popular vote.
In the end articles of independence were written, and a declaration thereafter came out.
That gave them as much right to secede as the 53 men who made the decision 85 years earlier to secede from Britain.