[lentulusgracchus]

You assume that it was the North which broke the constitution when it was the South trying to weasel out from underneath it

The South didn't weasel -- the States' acts were public and sovereign, taken in broad daylight. What's weaseling about that?

I don't assume the North broke the Constitution, although Lincoln may have a few times -- in pursuit of a higher good no doubt. What I've written several times is that the North rewrote the Constitution and inserted what we may happily call the unwritten Blood Clause, which I will summarize for you:

Amendment XIIIb
1. The States shall no longer be Sovereign, nor their Peoples have rights except those stipulated in the Constitution. They may not agree to any Thing unless the Congress or the President set it before them. The Congress may legislate at will on any subject whatsoever, and the Executive make Orders on discretion, and all shall have the force of law.

2. The subjugated people of the South shall be subordinate and their rights subject to modification or abrogation by public law, executive order, or the decree of any Federal Court.

stupidity doesn't run on my side of the argument.

Are you sure? You just made that post above about "weaseling".

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

For a state to be sovereign, it has to have the ability to make treaties, declare war, regulate foreign commerce, etc.  These (and other sovereign powers) were specifically withheld from the individual states.

Your interesting rewriting of the XIII is typical and totally FUD.  Because of the fact that slavery existed at the start of the Union, an amendment was needed to end it, because of the 10th amendment and the fact that slavery was one of those "reserved rights" that you are so proud of.  You might note that the XIII was ratified with the help of the *real* legislatures of many of the southern states - unlike the IX which was only ratified after these same legislatures were removed by the federal government.