When you hold a revolution, such an act is always extra-legal, and often illegal, unless of course you win.
The 13 colonies met that standard. The slaveocrats did not.
Well since the formula requires a victory, let us forgo any discussion of principle. We should just resign all that flowery talk about the rights of the people to the garbage heap where it belongs. If you have the power to enforce your will, then you are in the right. Eh, but isn't that a bit like slavery?
The 13 colonies met that standard. The slaveocrats did not.
England could have won. They chose not to continue killing their former countrymen. Had an obsessed man sat on the English Throne, the Colonies would have fared as badly as did the Confederates.