re: If secession was legal then what right did the North have to keep the South in the USA?

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The South could have won a quick war, and almost did due to such low public support in the North at the beginning.

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Not really.

4/15/61:

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS the laws of the United States have been, for some time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law.

Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed.

The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department.

I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union; and in every event, the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country.

And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse, and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date.
Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are therefore summoned to assemble at their respective chambers, at twelve o'clock, noon, on Thursdays the fourth day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand.

By the President:ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Secretary of State WILLIAM H. SEWARD

Reaction and Resistance[edit]

Rather than a call for 75,000 military volunteers from any American state or territory, the two proclamations called for a specific number of volunteers from each state, including slave states in the South that had not yet declared their secession.

Several Northern states communicated enthusiasm, with states such as Indiana offering twice as many volunteers as requested.

Massachusetts volunteers reached Washington DC as early as April 19.[4]

-wiki

I don't read any of your copy pasta.

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Walt, if a group of states or people want to secede from the Union of the USA, I don't believe that they will be controlled by the question of whether or not it is "legal" to do so.

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"It might seem at first thought to be of little difference whether the present movement at the South be called "secession" or "rebellion." The movers, however, well understand the difference. At the beginning they knew they could never raise their treason to any respectable magnitude by any name which implies violation of law. They knew their people possessed as much of moral sense, as much of devotion to law and order, and as much pride in and reverence for the history and Government of their common country as any other civilized and patriotic people. They knew they could make no advancement directly in the teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. Accordingly, they commenced by an insidious debauching of the public mind. They invented an ingenious sophism, which, if conceded, was followed by perfectly logical steps through all the incidents to the complete destruction of the Union. The sophism itself is that any State of the Union may consistently with the National Constitution, and therefore lawfully and peacefully , withdraw from the Union without the consent of the Union or of any other State. The little disguise that the supposed right is to be exercised only for just cause, themselves to be the sole judge of its justice, is too thin to merit any notice."

- A. Lincoln 7/4/61

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If secession was legal then what right did the North have to keep the South in the USA?

And think before you say 'slavery' because 1) that wasn't the focus of the war

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Melt days since Appomattox: 55,648

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If secession was legal then what right did the North have to keep the South in the USA?

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FIRST, the war was absolutely fought over slavery.

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Nonresponsive to the question.

Was secession legal?

If so, what right did the North have to keep the South in the USA?

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It was not legal.

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False.

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This is borne out in the Prize Cases from 1863 and Texas v. White in 1869

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False.

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Lee for one disdained staff work which is why his army was usually half starved.

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I can't agree with any of that, Walt, No sir, I cannot.

Neither side fielded really effective military staffs. The reason has more to do with the fact that we had not fully developed our Warfighting systems, components and mechanisms back then. There was no Chief of Staff supervising a Chief of Operations, a Chief of Logistics and a Chief of Intelligence back then like we had later on and we have today.

Lee had no ability to go to his G-4 and say, "Hey, Loggie, my rations distribution chain is all fricked up. We're out of Schlitz. Fix this shite now."

You really need to read Turtledoves "Southern Victory" Series.

I think his portrayl of how things would go down is very accurate. And in the end, the South is better off united with the Union.

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The neo-reb apologists to this day want to say secession was legal under U.S. law.

It was not legal. This is borne out in the Prize Cases from 1863 and Texas v. White in 1869.

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The people do not have to wait for the SCOTUS to read for us.

From the DoI (1776)

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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.

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It would seem to me that Virginia, NC, SC and Georgia had already seceded or left the British Empire and elected to join the US. Could they have left the US in the same fashion? Why not?

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This is an interesting and compelling argument.