# What's wrong with being a traitor?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-being-a-traitor/912501>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 23, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-being-a-traitor/912501 "2020-06-23T18:57:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 44

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**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-being-a-traitor/912501/44 "2020-06-25T20:37:23Z")

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> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> (And when somebody asked James Madison - a man who should be assumed to know what the Constitution meant - if there was a right to secede in the Constitution, he said there was not.)

That’s one man’s opinion. The constitution was written by a committee – how do you know the rest of them would have agreed with him?

> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Your interpretation is not in the text.

How is it not in the text? “ **Each state retains** its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and **every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.** ”

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