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Originally Posted by mookiemookie
I'm in line with his reasoning. The preamble (and the very name of the document - Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union) said that the Union is perpetual.
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The Constitution didn't supplement or add to the Articles, it overwrote it. Legally speaking the Articles are nonexistant. In the matter of intent, I tend to agree, but there is always that argument between Literal Interpretation and Original Intent.
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Article 2 doesn't grant the right to secede as it would directly contradict that perpetual nature of the Union. That is the basis of the Constitution forming a more perfect Union. A more perpetual, a more binding Union. That phrase alone in my mind builds on the Articles and reaffirms the notion that once a state is admitted to the Union, it's permanent.
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The Constitution defines how the Federal Government is to be run, nothing more. The Amendments define how that Government is restricted from interfering with the People, and with the States. The States are prohibited from infriging the peoples' rights, but they are still autonomous in everything else. Federal power derives from the States, and is only as strong as they allow it to be, within the limits predetermined by the Constitution. It doesn't say they can secede? It also doesn't say they can't, and Amendment 10 still carries some weight.
The "Father of the Constitution" believed that the states had the right to secede, and that's good enough for me. But then I don't make the laws, so we'll have to see what the future holds.