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@n8nrgmi
My family did not immigrate through the south. I don't really have much interest in the statues people have erected in the southern states, or any real say in the matter. I have never seen the confederate memorabilia being used for educational purposes except on the news.
All of the states did have discretion over slavery until the emancipation proclamation, which was only a wartime initiative that applied to the rebels. That's how it was. Ironically, the Union States had slavery longer as a legal institution than the southern states, and the fire eaters contributed greatly to the abolitionist cause when they decided not to show up at all for their constituents. Republican abolitionists were considered "radical" by many prior to the civil war, which proved correct when they gained control Post-War. They radically changed the constitution of the United States that you take for granted today.
1. The 13th amendment is the reason states do not have discretion over slavery.
2. The 14th amendment is the reason that the supreme court considers states differently than it did prior to the civil war through the Incorporation Doctrine.
3. It is still not established by what means a State may secede from the Union, but if the Civil War settled anything it is that unilateral secession is unconstitutional.
You have a different relationship with the government than the people who fought in the civil war did. Obviously state "rights" are at the heart of secession. In this day, all 50 states may demand extradition from one another, and the federal law applies equally to all of them, more or less. That was not necessarily the reality prior to the civil war. To be honest I've never put much thought into justifications for secession so I haven't read any confederate declarations. Considering myself a citizen of the United States I'm more concerned with avoiding such ambitions.
Once the rebels declared independence, the militia of South Carolina fired on Fort Sumpter, one thing lead to another and Abraham Lincoln proceeded to invade each state. We had the bloodiest war in American history until General Lee surrendered the army of Virginia.