What acts of force before secession? The only acts of force before secession that I'm aware of were Anderson's troops charging laborers in Fort Sumter with bayonets and fighting with and overcoming the schooner captain, which is basically piracy. After the passage of secession by state conventions but before the the people of the states involved voted on it, some states did take action to protect themselves by taking possession of forts and arsenals, such as in Texas and Virginia and maybe other places. For example, a show of overwhelming force was used in Texas to force the federal troops there to leave the state after the secession convention voted for secession.
After secession, those properties and troops would no more automatically belong to Southern states than would, for example property owned by a citizen of France.
Seceded states were no longer bound by the Constitution than we were to Great Britain after the Revolutionary War or Texas was subject to the rule of the Mexican Constitution after San Jacinto. As such, the states had ultimate control of who owned what within their boundaries. Look at all the nationalizations of US owned property that have occurred in countries all around the globe, while the US did little or nothing about it.
... no federal reinforcements were sent by President Buchanan
Ignoring the Star of the West, are we?
By the way, to my knowledge there were no Southerners of the time who objected to the term "rebellion."
I imagine there were a great number of people both North and South who thought that the secession of a state was constitutional and not a rebellion. As Union general and later president, Rutherford Hayes said "The truth is, the men of the South believed in their theory of the Constitution. There was plausibility, perhaps more than plausibility, in the States' rights doctrine under the terms and in the history of the Constitution." Let's look at some of that history. From the New York ratification document [Link]:
Ratification of the Constitution by the State of New York; July 26, 1788.
WE the Delegates of the People of the State of New York, duly elected and Met in Convention, having maturely considered the Constitution for the United States of America, agreed to on the seventeenth day of September, in the year One thousand Seven hundred and Eighty seven, by the Convention then assembled at Philadelphia in the Common-wealth of Pennsylvania (a Copy whereof precedes these presents) and having also seriously and deliberately considered the present situation of the United States, Do declare and make known. ...
That the Powers of Government may be reassumed by the People, whensoever it shall become necessary to their Happiness; ...
... Under these impressions and declaring that the rights aforesaid cannot be abridged or violated, and that the Explanations aforesaid are consistent with the said Constitution ... We the said Delegates, in the Name and in the behalf of the People of the State of New York Do by these presents Assent to and Ratify the said Constitution.
Looks like Hayes was right.
Both of which were cases in which the victor in a war was able to dictate terms. As Lincoln said in the 1848 Mexican War speech, "It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines, or old laws; but to break up both, and make new ones." Win your revolution, then you can write your own rules. Until then you're making a "have your cake and secede from it, too" argument.
For the record, the transfer of forts occupied by the British at the Revolutionary War's end was done legally by the Treaty of Paris, not by a mystical invocation followed by prolonged shelling. In fact, the British remained in a number of frontier forts until Jay's Treaty in 1794.
Look at all the nationalizations of US owned property that have occurred in countries all around the globe, while the US did little or nothing about it.
Some things aren't worth going to war over. Others are. I don't see US lives and treasure worth expending to secure some private corporation's banana plantation. Attempting to blockade and seize a US fort, on the other hand, I'd feel differently about. Are you one of those Lost Causers who think that Cuba would be perfectly in the right to blockade and shell Guantanamo, and that the US would have no legal recourse?
Go back and check out your own post #1,128, and then my response on #1,130. We were reviewing those Federal forts seized by Southern states BEFORE secession. Here is the list again:
rustbucket: "Consider that forts and armories were being taken all over the South before the official secession of the states.
"- Jan 3rd - US Ft Pulaski & Ft Jackson, Savannah, seized by Georgia
Georgia seceded on January 19
"- Jan 4th - US Ft Morgan, Mobile, seized by Alabama
Alabama seceded on January 11
"- Jan 5th - Alabama troops seize Forts Morgan & Gaines at Mobile Bay
Alabama seceded on January 11
"- Jan 6th - Florida troops seize Federal arsenal at Apalachicola
Florida seceded on January 10
"- Jan 7th - Florida troops takeover Ft Marion at St Augustine
Florida seceded on January 10
"- Jan 10th - Ft Jackson & Ft Philip are taken over by LA state troops"
Louisiana seceded on January 26
This partial list includes 10 Federal forts, all minimally manned, seized by Southern states BEFORE their secession. So my argument here is as simple as possible: by definition these were acts of "rebellion," "insurrection" and/or "domestic violence," which the US Constitution empowers the Federal Government to defeat.
AFTER secession, then possibly certain claims could be made about the rights of states to defend themselves. However, Federal property and people should no more become automatically Confederate than, say, the property of citizens of France. Negotiations are required, compensation needs to be agreed to etc., etc.
Do I take it then that you are comparing the CSA to the world's Banana Republics or Communist dictatorships, and whatever they do is just OK by you?
Illegal seizures are illegal regardless of who does them. When committed by Americans against Federal property and people, they are rebellion, insurrection or "domestic violence."
BroJoeK: "nearly all had no troops to speak of, and no federal reinforcements were sent by President Buchanan."
The operative term here being "nearly all," the major exception being Fort Sumter. Here, again, is a partial listing of those seizures:
1860:
Dec 20: South Carolina secedes
Dec 27: Fort Moultree & Castle Pinckney, Charleston Harbor
Dec 27: US revenue cutter William Aiken in Charleston Harbor
Dec 30: US arsenal at Charleston
1861:
Jan 2: Fort Johnson, Charleston Harbor
Jan 3: Fort Pulaski, Georgia
Jan 4: US arsenal at Mount Vernon, Mobile Alabama
Jan 5: Forts Morgan and Gaines, Mobile Bay, Alabama
Jan 6: US arsenal at Apalachicola, Florida
Jan 7: Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida
Jan 9: Mississippi secedes
Jan 9: Fort Johnson, North Carolina
Jan 9: Star of the West with reinforcements and supplies for Fort Sumter fired on by South Carolina artilery.
Jan 10: Florida secedes
Jan 10: Fort Caswell, North Carolina
Jan 10: US arsenal at Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Jan 11: Alabama secedes
Jan 11: US Marine Hospital, New Orleans
Jan 12: Fort Barrancas, Fort McCree, and the Pensacola Navy Yard, Florida.
Jan 14: Fort Pike, New Orleans
Jan 18: Alabama state forces seize the lighthouse tender USS Alert at Mobile.
Jan 19: Georgia secedes
Jan 20: Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island, Mississippi
Jan 24: US arsenal at Augusta, Georgia
Jan 26: Louisiana secedes
Jan 26: Fort Jackson, Georgia
Jan 28: Fort Macomb, New Orleans, Louisiana
Jan 29: US revenue cutter Robert McClelland at New Orleans
Jan 30: US revenue cutter Lewis Cass at Mobile Bay, Alabama
Jan 31: US Mint & Customs House at New Orleans
Jan 31: US revenue schooner Washington at New Orleans
Feb 1: Texas secedes
Feb 8: US arsenal at Little Rock, Arkansas
Feb 12: US Army munitions at Napoleon, Arkansas
Feb 16: US arsenal at San Antonio, Texas
Feb 18: US Army installations in Texas "surrendered"
Feb 21: Camp Cooper, Texas
March 2: US revenue schooner Henry Dodge at Galvaston, Texas
March 7: Ringgold Barracks and Camp Verde, Texas
March 12: Fort McIntosh, Texas
March 15: Camp Wood, Texas
March 17: Camp Hudson, Texas
March 19: Forts Clark, Inge, and Lancaster, Texas
March 20: Forts Brown and Duncan, Texas
March 20: Sloop USS Isabella at Mobile, Alabama
March 28: Fort Mason, Texas
March 31: Fort Bliss, Texas
April 3: Confederate artillery on Morris Island, Charleston Harbor, fires on Union vessel Rhoda H. Shannon
April 5: Fort Quitman, Texas
April 12: Major Anderson at Fort Sumter tells Confederates he will abandon his post on April 15. At 4:30 AM the shoreline erupts from the flames of 18 mortars and 30 heavy cannon, backed by 7,000 troops, firing on Fort Sumter. Anderson with 85 men and 43 civilian engineers fires back with six cannon. Four thousand rounds hit Fort Sumter, 1,000 rounds fired back, no one killed by bombardment.