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: : Article I section 10 of the Constitution forbids the States to enter into a alliance,or confederation.Would like to hear from someone who believes the states had a right to secede,how that squares,with the aforementioned section. : : Thank you : Article I section 10 only applies if the state : is still a state of the Union. If the state is : still in the Union, it cannot do these things. : The 9th and 10th Amendment listed below state: : U.S. CONSTITUTION : Amendment IX(1791) : The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. : Amendment X (1791) : The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. : Since the Constitution does not state catergorically that: "NO State can Secede", : that right is then "reserved to the states : respectively, or to the people." : Once a state has seceded and formed its' own : country, it is no longer a state in the union, : so Article I, Section 10, no longer applies to : that new country. : The two leading Constitutional experts of the : early 19th Century were William Rawles, and : Tucker St.Thomas, both Northerns and lawyers : as well, and both wrote books on Constitutional : law, explaining the exact legal methods to : secede. : Below is an excerpt about Rawles Book: : A View of the Constitution of the : United States of America : William Rawles (1825) : 350 pages; : Excerpt About the Book : Written by a Philadelphia lawyer, this nearly-forgotten book is an excellent treatise on the federal Constitution and openly discusses and defends the right of a State to withdraw from the Union. What is not widely known today by the advocates of an "indivisible Union" is that this book was used to teach cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York from 1825 to 1861. Such noted Confederate leaders as Jefferson Davis and Albert Sidney Johnston were taught the right of the people "to determine how they will be governed" from this volume, whose education was endorsed and paid for by the Federal Government. This text book was used in all northern universities until 1861, when it was rapidly withdrawn, on orders from Washington, D.C. : : ia, New York, and Rhode Island on entering the Union in 1787/1788, when they ratified the U.S. Constitution, reserved,in express terms, the right to withdraw from the same whenever, they deemed in their interest. Were they not admitted without question? Was not the declared right of these States the absolute : right of all? : Example of Secession Acts performed and ped : as per Constitutional guidelines laid down in : Constitutional Law books by Rawles and St. : Thomas: : South Carolina - Secession Act : AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America." : : We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention embled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General embly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved. : Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty. : Source: Official Records, Ser. IV, vol. 1, p. 1. : Mississippi - Secession Act : AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of Mississippi and other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America." : The people of the State of Mississippi, in convention embled, do ordain and declare, and it is hereby ordained and declared, as follows, to wit: : Section 1. That all the laws and ordinances by which the said State of Mississippi became a member of the Federal Union of the United States of America be, and the same are hereby, repealed, and that all obligations on the part of the said State or the people thereof to observe the same be withdrawn, and that the said State doth hereby resume all the rights, functions, and powers which by any of said laws or ordinances were conveyed to the Government of the said United States, and is absolved from all the obligations, restraints, and duties incurred to the said Federal Union, and shall from henceforth be a free, sovereign, and independent State. : Sec. 2. That so much of the first section of the seventh article of the constitution of this State as requires members of the Legislature and all officers, executive and judicial, to take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States be, and the same is hereby, abrogated and annulled. : Sec. 3. That all rights acquired and vested under the Constitution of the United States, or under any act of Congress ped, or treaty made, in pursuance thereof, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall remain in force and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been ped. : Sec. 4. That the people of the State of Mississippi hereby consent to form a federal union with such of the States as may have seceded or may secede from the Union of the United States of America, upon the basis of the present Constitution of the said United States, except such parts thereof as embrace other portions than such seceding States. : Thus ordained and declared in convention the 9th : day of January, in the year of our Lord 1861. : Source: Official Records, Ser. IV, vol. 1, p. 42. : Basically what it boils down to, is that in NO place in the Constitution, prior to 1861, did it say, "NO STATE IS ALLOWED TO SECEDE", and numerous legal scholars both North and South saw the 9th and 10th Amendments as allowing, what was NOT expressly forbidden. : Horace Greeley wrote in the NEW York Tribune, : on February 9, 1861: : "Nine out of Ten Northerners do not see any : reason why the Southern States should not : secede, if they so desire. None of the : Northerners wish to go to war, over a matter : such as secession, none that is, save : financial demagoges, and corrupt politicians : eager for personal gain." :

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