Well I guess I’m in that group in the sense that my opinion of Lincoln and the Civil War has changed.
IMO, the South jumped the gun when they ceded from the Union without first going through certain necessary steps as outlined persuasively and authoritatively in the Declaration of Independence. The South should have first notified the feds of why certain acts were unconstitutional. But instead, the South ceded in anticipation of acts of the feds that hadn’t even taken place yet. I believe Lincoln was right to put down the unconstitutional rebellion of the South.
From my understanding of the document, the only step necessary is to decide you no longer wish to be part of the existing government.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
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The South should have first notified the feds of why certain acts were unconstitutional.
That is not a requirement as mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration states that the listing of grievances is just a courtesy.
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
But instead, the South ceded in anticipation of acts of the feds that hadn’t even taken place yet.
Yeah, like who could predict that a Race-Obsessed Liberal Lawyer/Politician from Illinois might use powers of "executive orders" to impose his own political agenda on the states?
I believe Lincoln was right to put down the unconstitutional rebellion of the South.
And why do you think the United States had a better right to put down an independence movement than did the United Kingdom?
What makes Lincoln more correct than King George III?