“shake off the existing government” is secession. It is hard to see it through the historical myths the victorious north put forward as history. Perhaps in his heart he knew no state would have the power to exercise their right to secede since the Federal government would unleash all the power of hell to squash the “rebellion” as you see it.
No, leaving the Union through peaceful and legal means is secession. "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better" is rebellion or revolution. Which is what Lincoln was referring to when he termed it "a most valuable - a most sacred right..." It is the right of all people to rebel if and when they believe it justified. But it is not strictly legal.
It is hard to see it through the historical myths the victorious north put forward as history.
It is hard to see it by reading his quote in context, too.
Perhaps in his heart he knew no state would have the power to exercise their right to secede since the Federal government would unleash all the power of hell to squash the “rebellion” as you see it.
Perhaps it was because he was talking about Mexico at the time? Here is the quote in full and in context:
"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable,— most sacred right—a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government, may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so much of the teritory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with, or near about them, who may oppose their movement. Such minority, was precisely the case, of the tories of our own revolution. It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines, or old laws; but to break up both, and make new ones."