It’s not boilerplate. It’s the natural law of the right to secede. Why talk about the details of secession if you first don’t establish the right to secede? This statement of the natural law right to secede establishes what follows - the specific application of the valid and justifiable secession of the colonies.
The statement that establishes the right to secede and the specific application are not in conflict. They fit together very well.
You need both the rationale of the right to secede and the application for justifiable cession to make a case. The D of I does just that, probably better than any document every created.
“The statement that establishes the right to secede and the specific application are not in conflict.”
The DOI does not “establish” the right to secede. It recognizes the right to secede.
And the government does not give us our rights. When operating properly the government protects our rights.
Hopefully, we agree on those points.
I disagree with you on at least one point in post 365: “I believe the North had a constitutional right to fight them and get them back into the Union.”
The North fought a war of aggression over money and empire. That war stood the DOI and the U.S. constitution on their heads and killed over 600,000 people to boot.
But it did give us the government we have today, if that is a good thing.