Beep. Circle takes the square. The United States would have gone on even if the Confederacy had been allowed to go its merry way. This writer is being purposefully disingenuous, which is par for the course for certain hateful Yankees.
It's hard to imagine what sort of thinking could produce such nonsense.
Had the north acquiesced in allowing the secession of 11 states, those 11 states could have passed laws precluding even the entry of an American citizen to the new country. The United States would not have "gone on." It would have been gone.
President Lincoln called it; if unilateral secession were allowed, it would prove that men cannot govern themselves. It had to be shown that they -could- govern themselves, and the loyal Union men that "no partisan cause could make false to the nation's life" proved it.
Walt