150 years ago this morning

On this date in 1861, at 4:30 in the morning, South Carolina forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor.

It was the beginning of the Civil War and a 150-year argument over the Constitutional right of states to secede from the Union. Some say the matter was settled at Appomattox, but many Constitutional scholars hold that since the states created the Federal government, they have an implicit right to withdraw from participation in it.

My four years in one of the western Confederate states and the growing perversion of the Interstate Commerce clause have piqued my interest in ways to curb the power of the Federal government and restore the proper authority to the states.

Coincidentally, Dick Morris has some thoughts on the matter that I find interesting and hopeful.