(05-28-2019 08:30 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I think there is no more reason to assume that the USA was a union that could not be withdrawn from, than there is to assume that that woman cannot withdraw from a marriage.


Somebody name an association that cannot be withdrawn from. MS-13? No. NATO? No. EEU? No. Opec? No.

USSR? No. Warsaw pact? No. United Kingdom? No.

Why is this one, and only this one, unbreakable?

Quote:I think the attitude that "Hell no you aren't going anywhere" was seen in Hungary in 1956, as well as the USA in 1860. Any other examples of armed force being used to coerce a member into staying? Maybe India, 1857?

Czechoslovakia, 1968. Hungary, 1956. Poland, 1988. Georgia/Ossetia, 2008. Kosovo, 1990's. Pretty much every ex-Yugoslavian province, 1990's. East Ukraine, current day.

Neat group there, isnt it?

Quote:A quick perusal of the latter produced this interesting nugget - nobody was ever prosecuted for treason after the CW - not even Jeff Davis.

And a number of turn of the 20th century historians noted that a major reason that Davis was never prosecuted was because of the fear that a trial could result in a judicial decision that would validate the constitutionality of secession.

But, why let that get in the way of a good ex-post facto characterization?