[CharacterCounts]

Why? If Williams says that secession was legal, and that Lincoln was wrong in trying to stop it; and the Constitution flatly contradicts him -- what other argument need be made?

Because the States created the Constitution you have to determine if a State has the right to not be bound by the Constitution. The federal government was brought about by the action of independent States. If an independent State enters into a compact with other independent States, each State presumably has the right to withdraw from the compact unless it explicitly forfiets or waives that right.

There is nothing in the Constitution which prohibits a State from peacefully withdrawing from the compact.

[WhiskeyPapa]

There is nothing in the Constitution which prohibits a State from peacefully withdrawing from the compact.

The Supreme Court decided otherwise in 1862.

See The Prize Cases.

Walt

[r9etb]

Because the States created the Constitution you have to determine if a State has the right to not be bound by the Constitution.

The Constitution clearly states that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and superior to the laws and constitutions of the states.

The states, through their duly-elected goevnerments, are required by the Constitution to swear an oath to that effect.

In ratifying the Constitution, the states bound themselves to be governed by the Constitution.

[KrisKrinkle]

...each State presumably has the right to withdraw from the compact unless it explicitly forfiets or waives that right.

Did not the states explicitly forfiet or waive that right when they entered into a Perpetual Union under the Articles of Confederation prior to the establishment of the Constitution?