The last time I went round and round with him, maybe two years ago, I brought up the Free State of Jones. As I recall he dismissed that little awkwardness because that was a rag tag group of local yokels and not an approved cadre of fine Southern gentlemen like Jeff Davis and his ilk.
You are misrepresenting the conversation in the same manner you deliberately misrepresent the causes and beginning of the war.
I pointed out that the "Free State of Jones" was not formerly a state, and so therefore it was unclear whether the Declaration of Independence should be applied to it, but what was quite clear was that the Declaration of Independence absolutely applies to states, and so about the seceded Southern states there is no ambiguity and no question of this principle applying to them.
But you "dismissed that little awkwardness because" it does not suit the narrative you wish to believe.
The Declaration unquestioningly applies to states. Whether it applies to little rump areas of a state is a matter not worth pursuing in the context of a larger discussion.
But I will also point out that as an advocate of the US Constitution, you cannot support the creation of a "state" from the territory of another state without the approval of that's state's legislature. Therefore your position on the "Free State of Jones" is that it is illegal and contrary to constitutional law.
But that is not why you brought it up. You brought it up in an effort to either portray the Confederates as "hypocrites" (which doesn't matter) or to undermine the principle that *STATES* have a right to secede.