Lincoln's political attempts failed when the confederacy chose to start a war.
Furthermore, I would maintain that the union was severed for longer than the period between when the Southern states seceded and Appomattox. I would also include the military occupation following the war, ignobly known as 'Reconstruction'.
Rebellion or no, Reconstruction or no, legally the Southern states were not out of the union for a single day, for a single moment. Or so the Supreme Court found.
secession - the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or political entity.
When your act of withdrawing is illegal then your claims of secession are invalid.
Two.
We'll get nowhere with this argument; reached that stalemate a long time ago.
Rebellion or no, Reconstruction or no, legally the Southern states were not out of the union for a single day, for a single moment. Or so the Supreme Court found.
A stacked SC, full of Lincolnites that found in favor of the victor, i.e. their comrades. Any reasonable individual would dismiss any decision by that court out of hand based on the sheer weight of the unmitigated bias. But, as above, we'll get nowhere with this argument; reached that stalemate a long time ago.
When your act of withdrawing is illegal then your claims of secession are invalid.
We'll get nowhere with this argument, either; reached that stalemate a long time ago, also.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Or: Insanity: having the same argument with NS over and over again and expecting him to admit that he's WRONG.
Good day.