“If the states do not have the right to secede, then they have no rights at all.”  — Dr. Walter Williams

Dr. Williams is one of the few men I’ve ever read who understood the American Constitution. That marvelous document has been so warped all through U.S. history that very few Americans truly understand what our Founders did in the Constitution. It isn’t going to change any time soon, and Dr. Williams’ statement is probably shocking to many. Let’s look at it.

The Declaration of Independence created 13 “free and independent states”; it did not create the United States of America (read it). Those states (colonies under England) jealously guarded their individual colonial rights and privileges. When they declared independence, leading minds convinced most colonists that there were certain matters (like fighting a war) that were better accomplished collectively than individually. Many, many of the new Americans were very suspicious of any nationalized government (that was, remember, the very thing they were rebelling against), but enough of them went along with it to establish the United States, and finally, in 1789, provide a constitution for the new nation. That Constitution went into effect only when nine of the states ratified it; the other four didn’t have to, but they eventually did. Each state voluntarily joined the American Union; none of them was forced in, and none of the subsequent 37 states have been “forced” to join the Union, either. That wouldn’t be freedom if they had.

In that 1789 Constitution, the “national” government was allowed very limited power. Congress, the only branch with the authority to make laws, was........

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