Ahh, but my post discussed moral right to revolution, not legality.
Revolutions are by definition illegal, the violent overthrow of law in the service, at least in theory, of a higher good. The Founders never claimed their revolt was legal, since they knew it wasn’t.
They just claimed that when an existing government is using law to oppress the people, they have a moral right to overthrow that government and its laws and replace them with one that more effectively protects their inalienable rights.
Revolutions are by definition illegal, the violent overthrow of law in the service, at least in theory, of a higher good. The Founders never claimed their revolt was legal, since they knew it wasn’t.
They just claimed that when an existing government is using law to oppress the people, they have a moral right to overthrow that government and its laws and replace them with one that more effectively protects their inalienable rights.
Well, I guess I'm having trouble finding any "higher good" (even in theory) that "secessionists" were pursuing. As I've said, I think that the slaveholders, like all parasites, were with each generation becoming more and more dependent upon their slaves to care and provide for them and in that sense, weaker and less capable. I believe that they correctly foresaw that the United States government might soon represent a threat to their addictive lifestyle. They knew that without the assistance of government, they faced rejection by their host in the form of slave revolts. "Secession" was designed to eliminate that federal threat and to increase the power of the more local state governments which could be counted upon to protect their addictive, parasitic relationship.
These addicts were sick people. I can't find any "higher good" (even in theory) that was associated with their desperate desire/effort to perpetuate their addiction, their parasitic behavior, their increasing dependence and their physical, moral and mental deterioration.
What slaveholders needed was outside help and that's what Lincoln and the Union wound up giving to them. Addicts never like forced abstinence and rehab and the slaveholders didn't all like abolition and reconstruction. But, the South is much the better for it. And, most Southerners know that.
Southern slavery is gone, gone for good. It's not coming back, and I think it's important for everyone to know and accept that.