Why did the southern states believe they had a constitutional right to secede from the Union?
~They didn’t believe they had the right. They knew they did. First, you have to understand what happened in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris. When Great Britain granted independence to the colonies, not one but thirteen new nations were created. Each colony became a separate and distinct sovereign nation-state in its own right, independent of the others. Those nations then formed an alliance, a confederation of nations. That was done by means of the Articles of Confederation first, and then by the constitution. Read James Madison’s notes of the Philadelphia (Constitutional) Convention for the discussion by the draftsmen as to their ideas on secession. When New York, Rhode Island and Virginia acceded to (not ratified) the constitution, they specifically reserved the right to secede. The delegates of the other states (ie, nation-states) said the reservation was not necessary because Article IV impliedly reserved the right. It was a given, understood by all that in joining the confederation,
