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Re: May 14, 2011
In Response To: May 14, 2011 ()

"Major Robert Anderson received word from President Lincoln that Kentucky Unionists were to be given aid, despite their state's neutral position."

Here is a question that I have never heard asked or discussed.

How, if a state in 1861, like South Carolina, did not have the sovereignty to seceed, and could not seceed from the United States, How did Kentucky and Missouri have the sovereignty to declare themselves "Neutral" in that war the United States was involved in?

Did Missouri and Kentucky still answer Lincoln's April 17th, 1861 call for 45,000 to 75,000 troops to put down the "rebellion" of South Carolina?

It seems that it has always been assumed that these two states had the right and could "legally" declare themselves to be "neutral" in this matter. But when some of their officials did pass Ordinaces of Secession later that action became "illegal".

What If a state declaring themselves "neutral" in todays United States? What do you think would happen?

I think an examination of this question could shed a light into the thinking process and changes in the interpretation of the Constitutional status between the central Government and the States and the powers of that central Government that occurred in 1861.

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