Legal nor moral.

Despite what the revisionists say, the Civil War was about slavery, as the sectional tension of the time was always centered around. 3/5ths Compromise, Bloody Kansas, Compromise of 1850, Missouri Compromise, the birth of the Republican Party, Fugitive Slave Act, etc...all of that was centered on the fact that not only did the South want to make sure that slavery existed everywhere in the Union as possible, and through a pro-slavery consensus in new territories continued their influence on American politics.

Secession in and of itself was legal, as a number of Framers stated at the time. But secession through slavery wasn't, as it was akin to kidnapping. Although slaves weren't considered full citizens, they were still residents of the U.S., which meant they had a right to decide whether or not they wanted to stay with the Union. Of course, Southerners were not going to give them that option.

Hence, the South was completely in the wrong, and Lincoln was right to characterize it as an illegal rebellion.
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