[Retain Mike]

The Constitution would not have been ratified if James Madison, who was unequaled in among delegates for scholarship of political organizations, had not with others supported positions that states retained sufficient sovereignty to secede as the last resort to a political impasse created by perceived usurpations or abuses of the federal government. He believed the transcendent law of nature demanding the right of self-preservation declared the safety and happiness of society must dominate political institutions and require their sacrifice. This point was emphasized by the fact the perpetual relationship language binding the colonies and colonists in the Articles of Confederation did not carry over into the Constitution. The point was also emphasized by the fact the Treaty of Paris ending the revolution was signed between Great Britain and the individual colonies as sovereign states and not with the Continental Congress.

In the final days before the Civil War, heated opinions did or did not advocate the right of secession, but none could point to specific language in the Constitution, Federalist Papers, or James Madison’s notes to the Constitutional debates of 1787 saying states could not secede. Instead, one found language supporting peaceful secession.

However, as he took office Lincoln was determined to preserve the Union and in his inaugural address said, “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."

Finally, though, disunion was determined by the Southern states, and most particularly South Carolina’s, violent seizure, and destruction of federal property at Fort Sumter independent of any formal or covert discussions of political proprieties.

[TBP]

The South knew they would be attacked, despite what the Northern politicians told them, and they didn’t want an outpost on their territory.

[Twotone]

Maybe we don’t need secession, either by states or counties. What if Red States simply stated that while the Federal Gov’t is not bound to the constitution, all they try to do will be considered null & void, until constitutional principles are followed. Refusal to comply, & maybe withholding tax monies, will start a conversation about what is wrong in this nation.

[the OlLine Rebel]

There was no desire to “destroy the government”.

Secession is simply separation.

They simply wanted to separate, not “destroy” the US gov.

[freedomjusticeruleoflaw]

Lincoln was no angel, and should be replaced as presidential iconography. He oversaw the slaughter of 500,000 Americans. There is no speechifying that justifies that. If the North hated the South, why the desire for Union? It makes no sense… unless empire is the goal.