As they ruled after the fact in 1867 or later. Up until the War of Northern Aggression there was no limit on how many states could secede. By your reasoning and reliance on a kangaroo court's (as it was back then) ruling, the original thirteen colonies had no right to secede from Great Britain. That, Bubba Gump, goes against everything the Founders' believed and laid out in the Declaration of Independence! And while you're yakking about Southern States talking secession in 1830, lets journey back down memory lane a few years earlier shall we?! I seem to recall that the New England States were talking about seceding from the Union if the Louisiana purchase went through.
Lincoln's view that the "Union was perpetual and in existence since the founding of the country" was WRONG.
Because you say so?
NO, because the facts of the Paris Treaty of 1787, and the recognition of the original 13 Colonies being "Free, Sovereign, and INDEPENDENT States." Also each State going through a ratification process prior to adoption of the Constitution. In other words, for you who are too simple minded to figure it out, the People of each State had to agree that they would cede certain limited power to the central government prior to joining the Union. Thereby the Union did in fact NOT exist prior to the ratification of the Constitution! AND as has been stated before, it was not a (key word here bubba gump) national constitution, but a federal (meaning shared power) constitution among the thirteen free, sovereign and independent states; and that was when the "Union" was born. Any state that was admitted to the Union thereafter was also deemed to be sovereign with all the whistles and bells that went along with the admission to the Republic.
Like it or not, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and not the ratification documents. Where the two conflict, the Constitution is supreme. It says so right there in Article VI.
And the Constitution was trumped by the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence (like it or not). So if real power was supposed to rest with the People, then the People were exercising their God Given right and DUTY (which ALSO trumps the Constitution) "to alter or abolish it".
Perhaps early American history isn't your game. I know! Lets have a spelling contest!
Actually, as the Constitution states, it was the people of the United States that ratified it. It says so right there in the Preamble, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union..."