Re: CHAT: Yorkshire/Texas (was: dl)

On Sun, 22 Apr 2001, Andrew Chaney wrote:

> Indeed, if memory serves, pre-civil war (1860-ish) the US was much more
> a loose conglomerate of states rather than the unified entity it is today.
>
> Interestingly, the Civil War was (IMS) totally un-Constitutional
> since there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent states from leaving
> if they want to.  I believe Texas's state constitution even has a clause
> specifically reserving the right to secede from the US.
EEP!  No; what Texas' state constitution actually has is a clause
reserving the right to decide to split itself up into 5 states where
previously there was one.  This would get "Texas" some more votes in the
Senate, but other than that I'm not sure what good it would do.  It's
just sort of there for Texans to be randomly amused at.

And yes, the Civil War was unconstitutional; OTOH, what fascinates me
about the Civil War was the fact that all these people spent tons of time
debating about states' rights and constitutionality, etc., with the
unspoken assumption that because something is in the Constitution it
*must* be right or desirable if you can just interpret the darn thing
right.  What *I* like about the Constitution is its flexibility
(possibility for amendments), which acknowledges that it isn't a
cut-and-dried perfect document.

Yoon Ha Lee, remembering 7th grade Texas History and Prof. Silbey's
American Civil War & Reconstruction sophomore? year