So you admit it was Revolution. Good. Now we are getting somewhere. Am I legally obligated to participate in your Revolution? Do I not have a right to refuse to participate and maintain my previous allegiances? When Richmond refused to acknowledge Federal authority it did not revert to being the Royal Colony of Virginia. It became an entirely new entity and had no legal claim to sovereignty over any land or any loyalty from the residents of that land unless those people agreed to it. How could the Revolutionaries in Richmond compel the people of Wheeling to participate in Revolution other than by force of arms?
The people of the Western counties refused to participate in Richmond’s revolution. Congress recognized their loyalty and after the Constitutional requirements for statehood were met, recognized the western counties as a new state. Show me one thing in the Constitution that was violated in the admission of West Virginia. One thing.
Lincoln's contention, and apparently yours, was that the individual states had no right nor power to secede from the Union. To accept yours and his' premise, then YOU find in the Constitution, where Congress has the right/power/duty to override Article 4, Section 3......(l)New states may be admitted by the congress into this Union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state, nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states; or parts of states, without the consent of othe legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the congress.
Again....you are trying to have it both ways....
Okay, Ditto, now deliver your big, melodramatic punch line. Pull out your flask of seltzer water. I'm sure you're just dancing around, waiting for me to say Article IV, Section 3. So YOU can say.......what?