A prudent person asks when joining what the consequences are if they decide to leave. In many cases there are no consequences at all. Each member may be free to leave at will. In other cases, they might forfeit money that they give initially as a membership fee. Perhaps, as is the case when some people sign employment contracts, they will be prevented from working with competitors if they terminate their association early. There may be a price associated with exercising free choice, but the price can be calculated in advance at the time the person agrees to join.
Over the years, we have seen instances of organizations that do not allow their members to leave. There have been a number of cults that enforce mandatory lifetime membership, using intimidation, isolation, and threats of violence to keep their members in line. Almost universally, people reject that concept. As a free people we generally believe that it is the right of every person to make and break bonds freely.
With that prevailing set of beliefs in mind, it is interesting to look at our country as a “group” that has members who joined of free will. In 1776, thirteen colonies decided to form an organization. They recognized that their goals and purposes were best served if they united. In fact, they chose to name themselves the United States, emphasizing the fact that they retained their individuality while composing a new body. As with any organization that is to exist without chaos and strife, they decided to form rules that each member would be bound to follow. At the same time, there had to be something in it for each of the colonies, so the rules also stipulated rights that the members would each be entitled to. Those rules were collected together and named the Constitution. Each member agreed to the rules, signing the document to publicly declare their agreement.
The rules are quite explicit in many regards. They describe how the new body would be governed. They even addressed relatively mundane matters such as requiring and constraining a census. They stipulated how leaders would be chosen. And importantly for a group that expected to and needed to attract new members, the rules specifically described the way in which other members (more states) might be accepted. The people who wrote the Constitution clearly went through a lengthy process of thinking through many “what if” questions and then tried to account for each possibility so that each major situation that might arise would be covered. What if the leaders die? What will we do? What if a leader is corrupt? How will we be able to remove them without revolution? One by one, they addressed the weightiest issues, as well as many lesser matters. All of which makes it seem strange that they overlooked one important matter. Specifically, they did not write any rules for how a member might leave if that member decided that participation in the group was no longer in their best interest.
In the 1860’s eleven states decided just that. By that time there were more than the original thirteen states. Many others had been accepted into the “club” according to the rules laid out in the Constitution. There were now 34 states. But a number of states decided that the policies and values of the United States were no longer in concert with their best interests. They wanted to leave.
One of the things that is interesting about the dissenters is that four of them had been among the original thirteen states, charter members who had helped form the union in the first place.
It is not hard to imagine that they combed the Constitution, looking for rules that described how a member could petition to leave. Or perhaps as men of learning and politics, they had already long known. There was no rule that addressed the issue.
For over a decade prior to secession those who chafed at what they considered the Union’s meddling in their affairs had looked for ways to get what they, the states, thought they were entitled to, while staying in the union. They battled over each emerging issue in the legislature, particularly the admission of new states, and they formed compromises that pleased almost no one.