[Da Bilge Troll]

I am still puzzling whether the seceding states were still part of the Union or not. If not, then what authority did Lincoln have there? If they were, then how did he achieve quorum in Congress with all those sentators and representatives walking out? Can someone help me on this?

LOL! Now you begin to understand the southern viewpoint!

[NJ Neocon]

“Secession is nothing but revolution.

The framers of our constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It was intended for "perpetual union" so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession. Anarchy would have been established, and not a government, by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and the other patriots of the Revolution.”

– Robert E. Lee, January 21, 1861