A rebellion is defined as "open, armed, and usually unsuccessful defiance of or resistance to an established government." Can we agree that the southern actions were a rebellion?
NO! The Southerners were not in rebellion, as their State governments remained completely intact, and the legislatures thereof continued to seat the same lawfully-elected representatives which were in-seat before the secession.
Prior to the Civil War, the Federal government would call troops in when residents of the state rebelled against the State government, or when residents of the state rioted against Federal tax-collection efforts. How can either situation be compared to the open vote for secession, carried out by a long and Constitutional process?
Furthermore, the lawful citizens of each state, who had absolute authority over their sovereignty, voted in large proportion to allow the secession. Is this vote not the highest form of the representation of individuals?
After all, is not the lawful representation of the People, embodied in their republican-in-form State governments, the absolute height of the ideals of American government?
The same could not be said of the West Virginians which came up with the ridiculous notion that somehow, the lawfully-elected Legislature of Virginia was suddenly completely unstaffed, and then proceeded, with the collusion of the Federal government, to elect a small minority of the residents of that region to fill (and thus, jury-pack) the supposed legislature of the Commonwealth, which then began to pass laws which supposedly affected regions of the state completely unrepresented in such Legislature?
The question is, if the citizens of the South remained loyal to their States -in the terms of the day, the only government which had full jurisdiction over them- how was it that they were "threatening" the Federal government with rebellion?
(Of course, the entire form of American government changed as a result of the Civil War, so none of my statements could even remotely be construed to apply to our situation today. In order to understand what I'm asking you, it is critically important that you go back and consider primary sources from before 1865 in the matter.)
secession was LAWFUL. lincoln started an UNJUST war to compel the FREE southern nation back into the union. as a result of the UNJUST war, a MILLION people died NEEDLESSLY.
free dixie,sw