If you have not already, I highly recommend Thomas DiLorenzo's *The Real Lincoln*, where he documents how "Father Abraham" destroyed the voluntary Union of the founders and birthed the leviathan welfare-warfare empire that now enslaves us at gunpoint.

He makes a compelling argument that the generally accepted and understood antebellum right of the States to nullify and secede stood as a bulwark against Federal usurpation.

I find it hopeful that even the blue totalitarians toyed with the idea during the reign of the Orange Menace, even if they quickly reverted to the "rebel slavers" rhetoric once the sceptre passed to Comrade Brandon.