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On the flip side, several counties in Alabama wanted to remain with the Union and attempted to "secede" from Alabama. The Confederacy sent in troops to prevent it.

That the Confederacy may have done something hypocritical does not justify the Union doing something hypocritical, especially when you consider the disparate scale involved.

Was Alabama founded on the principle that Counties have a right to leave the state? I know the Union was.

I and others have long argued what constitutes a "critical mass" sufficient to assert independence. My standard answer is that the population of the 13 colonies is axiomatically enough, else we would not be a nation.

Given that the population of the Southern States was more than three times that number, I deem them as having had sufficient population to subsequently assert the same right as did the original thirteen colonies.

"I and others have long argued what constitutes a "critical mass" sufficient to assert independence. My standard answer is that the population of the 13 colonies is axiomatically enough, else we would not be a nation."

Well, with regards to the "critical mass", yes, there is probably a critical mass necessary to SUCCESSFULLY assert independence. However, to the critical mass of colonists living in the 13 Colonies at the time of the Revolution, it seems to me that you would have to add the population of France. Without the French on our side, assisting us both here in the Colonies and elsewhere in the world, independence would probably have been a much dicier prospect.

Which also fits right in with the Confederate belief that, to successful achieve independence, alliances with (or at least support from) either Britain or France or both were a necessity for achieving that goal. Since neither did, I would postulate that your "critical mass" was not achieved in the case of the 1861-1865 War.

Besides which, there are numerous other things that would affect such a "critical mass": for example, the Federal States were a lot closer .. and had a land-link .. to the battlefields against the Confederacy. The 13 Colonies enjoyed the great distance of the Atlantic between them and the British and, when France entered the war, put their ally and a British enemy right on the English doorstep.

Another would be that the Federal States were able to replace their losses and increase their population and industry during the war because of immigrants coming from overseas. So the "critical mass" was in constant flux and running not to the advantage of the Confederacy.

I don't want to write a thesis on the potential critical mass adjustments that existed between the two wars, but I'm sure that you can come up with others.