...Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should...perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. "M The Constitution, then, was the culmination of a long process of consolidation that had been going...

...perfect union" that Lincoln defined in his First Inaugural Address to be "perpetual" by definition: "if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, then Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity."...

...Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should...Constitution, was "to form a more perfect union. " But if destruction of the Union, by one, or by apart only, of the States, be lawfully possible, the Union...