A Fatal Mistake in the Supreme Law

    The Constitution was written to hold a strong union between various sections of a nation, all the while preventing despotism and ensuring the rights that all people deserve.  The writers of the Constitution intentionally skirted around touchy areas, so as not to rile the North and South into refusing to ratify the document.  Three of the most sensitive topics were what free states should do with slaves that escaped into their soil, the slave status of newly formed states, and if a state could legally secede from the Union.  Because of the vagueness in these areas, the Constitution became a source of sectional discord by the 1850s and ultimately contributed to the failure of the union it had created.

    In 1850, the south was very well off.  It...