Jefferson and Madison were the authors of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 which held that "where powers were assumed by the national government which had not been granted by the states, nullification is the rightful remedy," and that every state has a right to "nullify of its own authority all assumptions of power by others. . ." Nullification of unconstitutional federal actions was a means of effectively seceding.The founders understood that democracy would inevitably evolve into a system of legalized plunder unless the plundered were given numerous escape routes and constitutional protections such as the separation of powers, the Bill of Rights, election of senators by state legislators, the electoral college, no income taxation, most governmental functions performed at the state levels, and other constitutional limitations on the powers of the central government. The most important protection was the right of secession. The so-called "civil war" did not strip our sovereign states of the right of secession, it simply proved that a larger, more industrial Nation is capable of subduing a smaller agricultural one. The demographics have changed, & the "red states" are certainly in a better position to assert their rights at present.