ordinary acceptation of the meaning of the term, might exist in a
State without this right of secession. We doubt if it would be
held sound doctrine to maintain that any single State had a right
to secede from the German Confederation, for instance; and many
alliances, or mere treaties, are held to be sacred and
indissoluble; they are only broken by an appeal to violence.

Every human contract may be said to possess its distinctive
character. Thus, marriage is to be distinguished from a
partnership in trade, without recurrence to any particular form
of words. Marriage, contracted by any ceremony whatever, is held
to be a contract for life. The same is true of governments: in
their nature they are intended to be indissoluble. We doubt if
there be an instance on record of a government that ever existed,
under conditions, expressed or implied, that the parts of its
territory might separate at will. There are so many controlling
and obvious reasons why such a privilege should not remain in the
hands of sections or districts, that it is unnecessary to advert
to them. But after a country has rounded its territory,
constructed its lines of defence, established its system of
custom-houses, and made all the other provisions for security,
convenience, and concentration, that are necessary to the affairs
of a great nation, it would seem to be very presumptuous to
impute to any particular district the right to destroy or
mutilate a system regulated with so much care.

The only manner in which the right of secession could exist in
one of the American States, would be by an express reservation to
that effect, in the Constitution. There is no such clause; did it
exist it would change the whole character of the Government,