ah hell.  I'll let this guy make the argument for me - he does it so well:

"Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.  This is a most valuable, a most sacred right - a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world.  Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it.  Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit.” Abraham Lincoln January 12, 1848

The idea of the 20th century without the United States as the super power we know it is a pretty terrifying notion.

I respect your appreciation for southern history and agree it is worthy of our rememberance, but when you talk about Lincoln and the Union as if they are still an enemy, it's a bit out there and over the top.