I have argued that States have the right to secede. I have not argued who can or should do that. How is that being an "apologist" for anyone?
You are arguing that government does not require the concent of the governed, they can compel submission. Now that is not the principle we were founded on as a nation, that makes us subjects of government, not citizens
You are mixing rights with powers. No individual has a right to choose not to consent to being governed. Don't pay taxes ... go to jail. Even blacks in the South did not claim that right when they were being denied the right to vote, but perhaps they should have. The founders argued that without political representation in Parliament, their consent was not given. Therefore, Britain lost any power to govern them.
I never said individuals have the right to not consent to be governed, so this is a non point
The question is where does the power of a state to leave a union it voluntarily joined come from? No doubt the constitution could be amended to explicitly provide for such a power, and Articles of Confederation specified that if 9 out of 13 ratified any change to the Articles ... it was good to go.
You fundamentally don't understand the Constitution. States don't need a source of power in the Constitution, the Federal government does. Read the 10th amendment
Actually, the do. Where does anyone have the right to tell others what to do if they aren't voilating your rights in any way?
I was referring to the Constitution specifically. The Constitution restricts the Federal government to certain enumerated powers. And then in the 10th amendment says, period. If a power is not in the Constitution, the Federal government is prohibited from that power.
Originally the Constitution placed no limit on State powers. Later the 14th said limits on Federal powers were extended to limit State powers as well, but nowhere does the Constitution say that State powers need to be justified, only they couldn't do certain things
I'm not sure I understand you. Maybe. In ratifying first the Articles of Confederation and then the Const with the first 10 amendments, the states did give up powers they previously possessed, like coinage of money, treaties, the power to not recognize laws or contracts from sister states ..... They had those powers as sovereign states. They had no power to secede because there was nothing to secede from. That's why the 10th amendment can't be the source of a right to secede, because there was no power in existence that remained with the states.
But consider the quote for Hamilton that I think you posted.
"It has been observed, to coerce the states is one of the maddest projects that was ever devised. A failure of compliance will never be confined to a single state. This being the case, can we suppose it wise to hazard a civil war?
"Suppose Massachusetts, or any large state, should refuse, and Congress should attempt to compel them, would they not have influence to procure assistance, especially from those states which are in the same situation as themselves? What picture does this idea present to our view? A complying state at war with a non-complying state; Congress marching the troops of one state into the bosom of another; this state collecting auxiliaries, and forming, perhaps, a majority against the federal head.
"Here is a nation at war with itself. Can any reasonable man be well disposed towards a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself -- a government that can exist only by the sword? Every such war must involve the innocent with the guilty. This single consideration should be sufficient to dispose every peaceable citizen against such a government. But can we believe that one state will ever suffer itself to be used as an instrument of coercion? The thing is a dream; it is impossible."[8]
Legality of Secession
The quote is used to support the concept that the federal govt could not compel a state to stay in the union. But, Hamilton literally is arguing other states would never allow themselves to be used to compel another state to do something specifically not ratified that is not in the state's interest. However, LINCOLN NEVER COMPELLED A STATE TO NOT HAVE SLAVES until after secession was already a reality and all attempts to negotiate a peace, with the states remaining in the union WITh the slaves, failed.
So, I could maybe agree that people who voted on ratification, and perhaps even today, should believe citizens have a right to vote to deratify, and the states retained that power, but ONLY if the motivation to leave is because the federal govt is doing something expressly forbidden and outside it's power.
So, perhaps there was a "retained" power to either ignore the fed govt, or leave the union, if the federal govt took some unconstitutional step, or claimed a power it did not have.