Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mmintl.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Sometimes I (don't) agree with Don Black Message-ID: <745@mmintl.UUCP> Date: Mon, 28-Oct-85 18:39:19 EST Article-I.D.: mmintl.745 Posted: Mon Oct 28 18:39:19 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 31-Oct-85 22:55:42 EST References: <774@x.UUCP> <244@3comvax.UUCP> <818@x.UUCP> Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) Distribution: net Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT Lines: 27 In article <818@x.UUCP> wjr@x.UUCP (STella Calvert) writes: >In article <244@3comvax.UUCP> michaelm@3comvax.UUCP (Michael McNeil) writes: >>Now, once having agreed that the U.S. Constitution -- and its >>institutions such as the Congress -- are the "supreme law of the >>land," where do the signatory states get the idea that they can >>unilaterally withdraw? Don't get me wrong, I believe that states >>can legally withdraw from the Union -- but it seems clear that >>the Congress must acquiesce. The Confederate States did not get >>Congress's approval before attempting to dismantle the Union! > >I don't know where those states got the idea they could withdraw unilaterally >-- but it might have been from Thomas Jefferson. > > "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one >people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with >another...." I won't quote the whole thing, but TJ argued that there are >rights that cannot be superceded by any government. > >And if that argument was sufficient for the first revolution, it would seem >sufficient for any other. Quite so -- if the government is sufficiently oppresive, you have a right to revolt against it. But that isn't a *legal* right, and you had better be prepared for it to fight back. Which is of course what happened. Frank Adams ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka Multimate International 52 Oakland Ave North E. Hartford, CT 06108