Without a well thought out rationale they have no hopes for international legitimacy short of defeating the other side handily on a battlefield, and the opposing side has all the ammunition to expose it as being a farce perpetuated by nutcases.
The DoI of 1776 was a beautiful document that laid out clear reasons (some more legit than others) for the break with the U.K., and wasn’t done as the first order of business unlike with the south in 1860 before Abe was even sworn in. It was the absolute last thing many of the founders wanted and only done so when they pretty much found out that George III was going to have them all killed. The secessionists wanted to “institute new Government” without actually stipulating what was wrong with the existing, and didnt even care to try to iron out misunderstandings.
Yes, they definitely made a muck of it. I do not see this as obviating their rights though.
The secessionists wanted to “institute new Government” without actually stipulating what was wrong with the existing, and didnt even care to try to iron out misunderstandings.
I think the Southern states had witnessed a constant and ever expanding advancement of the cause of abolition threatening their interests since the 1790s. I think throughout the entire period of History after 1787 there were efforts to reconcile the existing circumstances of an economy heavily dependent upon slavery with a conflicting but growing political opposition to it.
The movement was growing and it became impossible to believe it would not eventually destroy much of the South's financial underpinnings if it could not be stopped through separation. I think they saw Lincoln as the writing on the wall, and he was. And it turned out to be much sooner than they thought.