That in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual is confirmed by the history of the Union itself.
No State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union.
Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision has ever been denied.
All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and provisions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning them.
If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease.
If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them.
Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.
A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.
Unanimity is impossible.