The Declaration announces that it is the right of the people to abolish their government. It doesn’t say that they People must first clear it with a court of competent jurisdiction.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.”
The Declaration gave the colonies a reason to fight the Revolutionary War for their independence. The Declaration gave the States a reason to form a limited and federal government. It is the reason why our Founders and the States placed such an emphasis on the Compact Theory.
Back in 1860, the states still remembered why they fought for their independence from Britain and why they joined together in a Union (as Ben Franklin advised, for mutual benefit – “Join or Die”). They joined for security and on the basis that each state would be on equal footing. They would enjoy the protections and benefits of the Constitution – EQUALLY. The issue of slavery aside, the Southern States dissolved their association with the Northern States because the association had become hostile and had become destructive of the very reasons they joined together in the first place. They seceded for the same right of self-determination and self-government that our earlier Americans asserted for our independence from Great Britain”.
Nor does it guarantee success, and it also doesn't make the rebelling side right and the remaining side wrong.
The Declaration gave the colonies a reason to fight the Revolutionary War for their independence.
I imagine the Southern Declarations of the Causes of Secession were meant to do the same for the Confederate cause.
The Declaration gave the States a reason to form a limited and federal government.
Which the Southern states certainly did not do in 1861.
It is the reason why our Founders and the States placed such an emphasis on the Compact Theory.
There were multiple parties, but two basic sides to the Compact. Why did those leaving the compact have all the rights and those remaining have none?
The issue of slavery aside, the Southern States dissolved their association with the Northern States because the association had become hostile and had become destructive of the very reasons they joined together in the first place.
In what way?
They seceded for the same right of self-determination and self-government that our earlier Americans asserted for our independence from Great Britain”.
And they promptly lost their rebellion. Are we supposed to feel sorry for them?