From: "lee gilliland" <leeandalexis at hotmail.com>
To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Colonial History
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 15:08:25 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Mike, what were the dates on those?  In years.

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Colonial History
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 12:16:59 -0500

 > sgs at aginc.net 04/05/02 03:25AM >>>
 >
 >>Samuel Lubell wrote:
 >
 >> Nowhere in the Constitution does it give states the right to leave
 >
 >Article X.
 >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.

Here's how to enter the Union:

"Article IV, Section. 3.
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new =
State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other =
State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or =
Parts of States,  without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States =
concerned as well as of the Congress."

I've searched the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the various =
Amendments and find no reference to a mechanism to leave the Union.  At =
best, one could make a case for a State to leave the Union only with "the =
Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the =
Congress."

There is this interesting piece in the earlier Articles of Confederation:=

"VI.
No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation or =
alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States =
in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the =
same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue."

And this:
"XI.
Canada acceding to this confederation, and adjoining in the measures of =
the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the =
advantages of this Union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the =
same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States. "

But more telling:
"XIII.
"Every State shall abide by the determination of the United States in =
Congress assembled, on all questions which by this confederation are =
submitted to them.  And the Articles of this Confederation shall be =
inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual; nor =
shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless =
such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be =
afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State."

Note the phrase: "and the Union shall be perpetual".  But since this =
phrase did not make it into the subsequent Federal documents, what should =
one make of it?  Was it an assumption that the framers felt wasn't needed? =
  One source of information is the work of the First Federal Congress =
Project (based at GW), so far they've produced 16 volumes of documentary =
history (see: http://www.gwu.edu/~ffcp/publications.html).

mjw

 >
 >--
 >Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
 >Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
 >"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."
 >

_________________________________________________________________