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There has not been since then another attempt to overthrow the government of the people.

How can a government be constituted "of the people" when half of its very existence is predicated upon holding a bayonet to the chests of the people living there?

The inhumane institution of human slavery was, in this country, snuffed out because of it.

Once again, you've forfeited your right to pass moral judgment on that institution by giving your sanction and endorsement to a far more grievous sin: murder by torture. Your position is thus akin to the abortionist who crusades against capital punishment.

The vital principle of constitutional rule was upheld, rather than be allowed to degenerate into despotism and anarchy.

Tearing down a constitution in a professed attempt to save it still leaves you with a violated and thus voided document. As to despotism, one cannot degenerate into what is already established in the policies of Lincoln, most notably his wanton abuses of the judicial branch of the government.

A "balkanized" North America, without a strong and free United States, would have become the devil's playground in misery, oppression, and endless war.

Exactly how would an agreement to separate in peace, or even the successful reaching of a separation by war in which definitive boundaries were decided, produce "balkanization," a tendency that occurs only in locations where (1) two or more historically conflicted peoples share the same land or (2) the same historically conflicted people live in different locations but are forced against their will to unite under a common political boundary and government.

Because the founding principles of "all men are created equal," and that they have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" actually continued to mean something.

How can life mean something when it is wantonly deprived to almost a million men? How can liberty mean something when it is trumped by military convenience? How can the pursuit of happiness mean something when a despot employs force to prevent men from exercising that pursuit?

"Once again, you've forfeited your right to pass moral judgment on that institution by giving your sanction and endorsement to a far more grievous sin: murder by torture. Your position is thus akin to the abortionist who crusades against capital punishment."

Once again you have put yourself into a God-like role to avoid the truth. Your premise is utterly without substantiation ("murder by torture" in more grievous than the torture, murder, and inhumanity of slavery). You are a piece of work, and not a particularly courageous one at that.