[Illbay]

Does the Constitution somehow eliminate the "Right of the People to alter or to abolish it"?

In the case of the slaveholders' rebellion, "the People" had nothing to do with it. It was all done by the will of a few powerful and influential slaveholders and their political cronies.

Hardly a popular revolt.

[The Green Goblin]

In the case of the slaveholders' rebellion, "the People" had nothing to do with it. It was all done by the will of a few powerful and influential slaveholders and their political cronies. Hardly a popular revolt.

Wrong. It was done by the duly-elected governments of the respective states. That's as close to 'the will of the people" as you can get in this world.

[babyface00]

Are you saying that a couple of slaveholders and their cronies were able to get more than half the United States of the time to seceed, and were able to marshal an army that was able to push the Union all the way back to Pennsylvania without the consent of the governed? If all those people fighting on the side of the confederacy didn't agree, they were all armed, why didn't they rebel against that government instead of the union?

Or are you referring to a different "slaveholder's rebellion"?