[mek1959]

It's hard to have a perpetual Union when in between June 21, 1788 and May 29, 1790 (almost 2 full years) the Union only consisted of between 9 and 13 States. That is just a fact. per·pet·u·al /pərˈpeCHo͞oəl/ Adjective Never ending or changing. Ummm...in June 1788, the Union went from 13 down to 9 and was still only 12 out of 13 for almost 2 full years. Now, one can wax eloquent about the "nature" of a Union persevering even when it wasn't a Union, but that's not a fact, just a philosophical opinion, that's all. The facts are, the Perpetual Union of 13 States was fractured for almost 2 years after the new Union met the Article 7 threshold. Which begs the question; just how "perpetual" was this non-perpetual Union. Rhode Island certainly didn't think it was part of the "perpetual" Union. Further, 3 States made it exquisitely clear in their ratification documents they they would re-assume power to themselves "whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness." I see no question or clause in Article 7 that the States were "surrendering" their sovereignty to the newly created non-perpetual Union. You can search, but it just ain't there. The "perpetual" Union nonsense was just a figment of a couple of presidents imaginations. A truly silly idea to boot.

[PeaRidge]

Great post!

[Psalm 144]

“The “perpetual” Union nonsense was just a figment of a couple of presidents imaginations. A truly silly idea to boot.”

---

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley

[donmeaker]

the union still existed, the government was in transition from the A of C to the Constitution.