The marriage Metaphor does NOT work. Our forefathers never entered into this union with the idea that it was till death do we part. The propose of the union was to help protect & preserve our rights from primarily foreign aggressors. It was quite implosive as was just demonstrated in the American revolution that should it become destructive to these ends we would get rid of it.
The Federal union is NOT like a marriage.
I’m not exactly sure where you get the notion that it was until “death do us part” from the Founders? Especially when you read the NY, Rhode Island and Virginia ratification documents. It’s quite clear that in their minds, if the new “general government” exceeded it’s authority, they intended to resume governance to themselves. Also, VERY few of the Ratifiers would have ever ratified the new federal government had they not understood that the States we’re sovereign and could withdraw from the Union if they so thought.
Lincoln’s arguments in his 1st Inaugural Address, if that’s what you are using for you source material, are complete balderdash. This was certainly NOT a perpetual Union and the only reason it was held together in 1860 was for the unconstitutional notion of “preserving the Union” at the cost of slaughtering 600,000 fellow citizens. Is that what you mean by “til death do us part?” Would you be willing to shoot your fellow citizens in say Texas if they decide to go their own way? This is very serious talk folks, not some Smithsonian movie about our history.