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The south was denied the right to self-government because they agreed to be bound permanently into a perpetual federal Union.

Nonsense. The word "perpetual" does not appear in the Constitution, nor does permanent or any other derivation of the word/meaning. The founders DROPPED the word "perpetual" from the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union [which appeared FIVE times] in their move to make a more perfect union, which required less consent than did the UNANIMOUS consent required by the Articles. Additionally, there is no prohibition against secession, and the Tenth Amendment still exists, and federal laws are subservient to the Constitution (see the tagline). Their does exist a requirement in the Full Faith & Credit Clause that the State Acts be recognized, but the union reneged on that one as well.

And the south couldn't bring military power because slave labor couldn't produce the power needed to compete with a free labor economy.

Nonsense. Remove the union military blockade, and have the union forces conduct civilized warfare - not against civilians and civilian property, and the South easily would have survived. The South was starved into submission, not defeated honourably on the battlefield.

The south was denied the right to self-government because they agreed to be bound permanently into a perpetual federal Union.

Nonsense. The word "perpetual" does not appear in the Constitution, nor does permanent or any other derivation of the word/meaning.

It's been perpetual so far.

You're telling a big 'un any way, as the Preamble surely states that the Union is to be made more perfect. And what could be more permanent than a petpetual Union made more perfect?

That's what the Chief Justice of the United States thought, any way. And what about:

"The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom and forebearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It was intended for 'perpetual union' so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession."

Robert E. Lee, January 23, 1861

Walt