I suppose it was obviously wrong in practice because the Union’s greater population and industrial capacity made a Union victory almost inevitable, but I wouldn’t say it was obviously wrong as a legal theory. The US was created by people who thought they had a moral right to leave the British empire and in that context it would be odd for them to intend that there should be no legal way for any state to leave the USA.
My understanding is that the US constitution was adopted illegally, anyway. The previous government didn’t have a mechanism to do a full rewrite, I don’t think. The adoption of the constitution via “fuck it, this isn’t working” was almost in living memory at the time of the civil war.
I think the way US history is taught tends to be very civic religion-y
I suppose it was obviously wrong in practice because the Union’s greater population and industrial capacity made a Union victory almost inevitable, but I wouldn’t say it was obviously wrong as a legal theory. The US was created by people who thought they had a moral right to leave the British empire and in that context it would be odd for them to intend that there should be no legal way for any state to leave the USA.
My understanding is that the US constitution was adopted illegally, anyway. The previous government didn’t have a mechanism to do a full rewrite, I don’t think. The adoption of the constitution via “fuck it, this isn’t working” was almost in living memory at the time of the civil war.
I think the way US history is taught tends to be very civic religion-y
But also like fuck the slave states.