"Sorry, don’t remember that phrase in the DOI or U.S. Constitution.
It sounds like something you made up; or maybe the fulminations of A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant . . ."
Naw...
But by leaving out the key words, "at pleasure", you've misquoted both me and our Founders' original intentions.
Those Founders' intentions can be found in many quotes, most completely spelled out by our Father of the Constitution, James Madison in his now famous letter to Nicholas Trist, with which I'm certain you are familiar.
I'm also certain you well understand that the entire Lost Cause ideology is built on a foundational claim that 1860 Fire Eating Secessionists were inheritors of our 1776 and 1787 Founders' Original Intentions.
They weren't, and one way we can know that is to realize your compulsion to misquote and leave out Founders' key distinction between disunion for a just cause, as in 1776 versus secession "at pleasure" as in 1860.
Reading the Declaration of Independence:
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
Hmm. I don't see the words "at pleasure". I do see consent of the governed and whenever the people of a state decide that the government becomes destructive of these ends (meaning consent) it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. So the power to decide what is "destructive of these ends" rests with the people of each state according to the Declaration of Independence.
"at pleasure" is a term you have invented which is nowhere to be found in the Declaration of Independence.
Also it is laughable to claim the 1860-61 secessionists were not inheritors of the 1776 secessionists original intentions. Of course they were. They were the children and grandchildren of those 1776 secessionists. Robert E. Lee's father was Light Horse Harry Lee - Washington's best cavalry commander. Jefferson Davis' father served in the Continental Army. My own Great Great Grandfather (Thomas Jefferson ....then the family name) who was born in 1815 in Petersburg, Virginia was the grandson of a man who served in the Virginia Militia and fought against the Redcoats in the War of Secession from the British Empire. His son, James Monroe (then the family name) who was the great grandson of that Virginia Militia man served in the Confederate Army in the War for Southern Independence. OF COURSE they were the inheritors of the Founding Fathers.