“If they had preferred dissolution, the British would have quickly scooped up the dissident colonies, and that would be that.”
Or dissident States. Hartford Convention nearly gave Britain that chance during the War of 1812.
New England states opposed to “Mr Madison’s War” were considering secession and an alliance with Great Britain.
This is exactly correct, but many of the Confederacy bashers refuse to take any note of this fact.
There is a lot of evidence to support secession being regarded as accepted in 1787, and very little which shows otherwise.