Does a State have the right to secede?

[Rob Wick]

In actuality, the escape clause previously mentioned was demanded in specific instances and was not a general overarching possibility of secession. In the late Pauline Maier's book Ratification, In New York, delegate Melancton Smith proposed an amendment which would have allowed New York to ratify the Constitution "in the firmest confidence that an opportunity will speedily be given to revise and amend the Constitution." Maier writes "However the state reserved the right 'to recede and withdraw from the said Constitution in case such opportunity be not given within ____ years."

Further, Maier writes "The idea of including an escape claue in the state's form of ratification wasn't new. Smith had mentioned it to [Nathan] Dane in late June. In Virginia, Richard Henry Lee had proposed a very similar form of ratification after the acceptance of the Constitution by several other states complicated the demand for prior amendments." So it appears pretty clear that the escape clause came about from the anti-Federalists, who were generally strongly opposed to ratification of the Constitution in the first place. There was little or no general feeling that secession would ever become necessary.

Best
Rob