>>>A rightful secession requires the consent of the others, or an abuse of the compact, absolving the seceding party from the obligations imposed by it. (Madison, 1832)<<<
Right on, James Madison! According to you, the day the U.S. Government abused its compact with the Southern states, secession became a right (and, of course, a duty)!
Thank you so much for your quote by Madison, Non-Sequitur.
No. Madison went on to say, "The characteristic distinction between free Governments and Governments not free is, that the former are founded on compact, not between the Government and those for whom it acts, but between the parties creating the Government. Each of those being equal, neither can have more rights to say that the compact has been violated and dissolved, than every other has to deny the fact, and to insist on the execution of the bargains." In plain English, that means that the compact was abused merely because the South claimed it was. Nor is it dissolved merely because the South wanted it dissolved.
But Madison concluded that paragraph by saying, "An inference from the doctrine that a single state has a right to secede at will from the rest, is that the rest would have an equal right to secede from it; in other words, to turn it, against its will, out of its union with them." Is Madison correct? If not, why not?