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.
In context, what they meant by "One People" was the population of British Subjects residing in the colonies. In practice, they treated each colony/state as sovereign within it's own territory, and required representatives from each one of them to agree to the Declaration as well as the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution afterwards.
They always acted as the minimum common denominator was a population's status as a "State."
But you overlook the central thesis of our founding document. It's that people have a right to secede.
I don’t see anything about “states” there.
A man won't see what he refuses to see. If you are going to go with the "ONE PEOPLE" argument, you must include the British population in England as well as Canada, because the way you are drawing the lines for "ONE PEOPLE", it is the entire nation as opposed to a section of it's population divided into colonies.
The founders meant "states." You have to lie to yourself to believe they meant anything other than "states".