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.
It’s been a while since that last trip on the merry-go-round, but my response accurately portrays your viewpoint- you dismiss it.
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for ONE PEOPLE to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.“
I don’t see anything about “states” there. The point is not about hypocrisy, but rather the Confederates themselves did not really believe their own rhetoric. Rebellion just suited their purpose to fight for the preservation of slavery, that’s all.
To recap:
The reason for secession was the South’s desire to preserve slavery.
The trigger for secession was the election of Abraham Lincoln, which fed fear of the abolitionist foundation of the Republican Party.
The American Civil War began when units of the South Carolina Militia fired upon a Union fort in Charleston harbor.