“Meaning what?”
The states are the parents. They have offspring. One is the federal government. Other offspring are cities. Other offspring are counties.
The states are the parents. They were supposed to be in charge.
“The states are the parents.”
In your post 80 you wrote that the States create new States. Wouldn’t that make the newer States the offspring of the older States too?
Anyhow, I don’t see that it matters. The words in the DOI, which you quoted in post 66, are “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them...”
And I wrote in post 76 “To expand on that a little, it could be said there is a God given right to secede (to dissolve the political bands) when it’s necessary and when the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle assumption of separate and equal station among the powers of the earth.”
Neither quote notes an offspring relationship as a limiting factor. And if it were a limiting factor, would that not have been a problem for the signers of the DOI due to colonies being offspring of England based on Grants, Charters and so forth?