It may do so or not, as it chooses.
What, then, hinders the State once in the Union from going out or
returning to its former condition of territory subject to the
Union? The original States did not need to come in under an
enabling act, for they were born States in the Union, and were
never territory outside of the Union and subject to it. But they
and the new States, adopted or naturalized States, once in the
Union, stand on a footing of perfect equality, and the original
States are no more and no less bound than they to remain States
in the Union. The ratification of the constitution by the
original States was a free act, as much so as the accession of a
new State formed from territory subject to the Union is a free
act, and a free act is an act which one is free to do or not to
do, as he pleases. What a State is free to do or not to do, it
is free to undo, if it chooses. There is nothing in either the
State constitution or in that of the United States that forbids
it.
This is denied. The population and domain are inseparable in the
State; and if the State could take itself out of the Union, it
would take them out, and be ipso facto a sovereign State foreign
to the Union. It would take the domain and the population out of
the Union, it is conceded and even maintained, but not therefore
would it take them out of the jurisdiction of the Union, or would
they exist as a State foreign to the Union; for population and
territory may coexist, as Dacota, Colorado, or New Mexico, out of
the Union, and yet be subject to the Union, or within the
jurisdiction of the United States.
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