Your boy Lincoln had another view when he was a young politician. It seems our founding fathers, most politicians, and citizens of the United States of America were well award of the right to secede. Lincoln changed that with his war. Often quoted on the subject of secession....
Abraham Lincoln endorsed secession: "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable -- a most sacred right -- a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world." (1848)
So our boy Lincoln (if he's my boy merely because I mentioned his name, he's yours for the same reason) changed his views over a period of a dozen years.
How many people in Colonial America wanted to separate from England in 1763 as opposed to 1775?