There sure is a lot of truth that goes with the true-ism that claims “Facts don’t care about your feelings.”
With that said, I’m going to leave my personal opinion only in the headline. From here, it’s strictly historical facts.
Popularly known as Texas v. White, as noted by Cornell University’s School of Law, the decision that made secession illegal wasn’t even official in America’s corpus of law until four-years after the end of the War Between the States.
That’s just a fact.
Now comes the obvious question: So how exactly did the states of the Confederacy secede?
I’ll use the example of the first state to pull-the-plug, South Carolina.
The Yale School of Law cited the specific of SC’s 1860 Ordinance of Secession, officially titled, Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.
If one takes the time to read the entire document, it plainly states that the State Legislature called an official Convention to secede. The same decision this particular Convention voted in favor of was then signed by the state’s governor, William H. Gist.
Why is this important? Keep in mind that every territory/colony that ratifies the US Constitution first had to be approved by the various territorial/colonial legislature, then approved by the territorial/colonial governor.
That’s just a fact.
Please keep in mind that when South Carolina essentially de-ratified the US Constitution, the SCOTUS decision of Texas v. White was nine-years in the future.
What the states of the Confederacy did was exactly the same path they took to join the United States.
Just to emphasize the point, what of the Union states that still had legal slavery on the books? I’ll use Delaware as a for instance.
As noted by the good folks at History.com, within ten-days of South Carolina’s decision to secede, Delaware’s Legislature voted to remain in the Union.
That begs the legal question, why would a Union state even bother to vote on secession, if the same is illegal?
Another point I’d like to make note of, Ohio State University not only cites the dates and vote tallies of every Confederate state, but also of Delaware’s, Maryland’s, Kentucky’s, and Missouri’s legal decisions the stay within the Union.
Interesting, indeed.
Lastly, it’s a little-known fact that in the case of United States v. Davis, the official website of the Federal Bar Association cites that the case of treason against ex-CSA President Jefferson Davis, the SCOTUS ruled against the prosecution. All further charges and/or indictments against Jefferson Davis were thrown-out forever.
But I’ll readily admit that my whole argument is a moot point. Unless the SCOTUS reverses itself, secession is illegal. Period.