Many Southerners believed that the states had a right to leave the United States if they so desired. This is called the principle of secession. While nothing is said about the right of secession in the U.S. Constitution, this right is inferred from the wording of the Declaration of Independence which says in part, "When a long train of abuses and usurpations evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."