J, your post 29 says exactly what I said it did.
G, your post 50 says that states seceded because of Lincoln unconstitutionally using force to keep them in the union. While this is somewhat defensible, though debatably, for the second round of secession, it has zero bearing on the first round. The 7 states that seceded in 1860 did so long before Lincoln took office. They objected simply to his being elected, not to any actions, unconstitutional or not, that he took while in office.
Sorry if I was unclear. I didn’t say that states seceded because Lincoln used force. I was saying the reverse of that. In other words, Lincoln used force to prevent secession and to coerce a conclusion to the longstanding controversy between the states. He “preserved the Union” against the will of the seceding states and forever changed the nature of the United States by elevating the federal government to a position of supremacy over the states.
No. You assumed. Where do I "specifically" mention the Southern states?