Constitution Quote by Daniel Webster

But as the plan of the convention aims only at a partial union or consolidation, the State governments would clearly retain all the rights…

— Alexander Hamilton

The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The Confederacy was formed for the purpose of seceding from the Union because those states could not part with their rights to own slaves.

— Jack Schlossberg

I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with the existence of the Union,…

— Andrew Jackson

“...[at the Constitutional Convention] the States were divided into different interests not by their difference of size, but principally from their having or not…

— James Madison

When any one State in the American Union refuses obedience to the Confederation by which they have bound themselves, the rest have a natural…

— Thomas Jefferson

“The Confederate States of America in 1861 was legally an independent government. The Southern states seceded by popular conventions of the people of each…

— Brion T. McClanahan

No State, upon it own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union. Resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally nothing. I…

— Abraham Lincoln

The States acceded to the Union.

— Benjamin Franklin

It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States . . . should unite in…

— George Washington

“the Southern States rebelled against the usurpation of their rights under the Constitution as sovereign states. It’s critical to remember that, until that time,…

— Joseph Befumo

If the Constitution is adopted (and it was) the Union will be in fact and in theory an association of States or a Confederacy.

— Alexander Hamilton