I see your point, but look at the numbers. What are you going to do with places like New York? I just don’t see that as realistic. You would be ensuring a war that killed millions. Secession could be peacefully achieved. Over time more states might join the break-aways as their model proved superior.
Exactly.
Start with Texas. We'd already be surrounded by sympathetic neighbors. If the Union chooses to go to war with the RoT, it will fracture what's left of the U.S.