the specific arguments made by different factions of secessionists, it is useful to examine the major justification for secession put forward by most of them. This is a doctrine (which has been informally expanded to include a number of barely related concepts) referred to as states' rights. The right of secession was in general regarded by seceding states as one of their sovereign powers, as the United States Constitution contained no prohibition in this respect nor did it confer any power on the federal government to compel a state to remain in the Union against its wishes. Lincoln's administration always contested the right of the states
...