Slavery, state's rights, tariffs, etc. were the issues that brought about secession, not the war. There is no constitutional concept of a perpetual or indissoluble union. The Constitution was a contract (not a binding one, mind you) between the member states, which retained the right to withdraw at their discretion. A state that could voluntarily accede could voluntarily secede. (To this day, I will not say "one nation indivisible" when pledging the U.S. flag. That phrase was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance by Francis Bellamy, an American socialist, who wrote the Pledge in 1892 and was an advocate for its adoption nationally. The Constitution's Framers (especially the Anti-Federalists) clearly feared a consolidated national government and never used the word "indivisible" and for that matter, opposed use of the words "nation" or "national.") We know the 10th Amendment: " The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Secession is not mentioned in the Constitution, so it was not a Federal issue. By ignoring the 10th Amendment (ratified in 1791), thereby ignoring the right of the people to secede, Lincoln is responsible for the needless deaths of over 600,000 American lives. That is criminal. Lincoln can burn in hell, for all I care.