Now, these are what I found, I also found that Chase ruled secession illegal in 1869, four years after the War, two years after releasing Jefferson Davi. So now lets put the monkey on your back and you prove to us that secession wasn't legal in 1860,,,,or 1833 for that matter.

Author Burke Davis also wrote, in "The Long Retreat" on page 204 about the radical Northern politicians and their plans. He noted a quote by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase telling Stanton "If you bring these leaders to trial, it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution, secession is not rebellion...His (Jeff Davis') capture was a mistake. His trial will be a greater one...We cannot convict him of treason." Right from the horse's mouth! On page 214 of his book Burke Davis observed that a congressinal committee proposed a special court for Davis' trial, headed up by Judge Franz Lieber. Davis noted: "After studying more than 270,000 Confederate documents, seeking evidence against Davis, this court discouraged the War Department: 'Davis will be found not guilty,' Lieber reported, 'and we shall stand there completely beaten'."

http://www.catholicism.org/catholicism-south.html

Following the War Between the States (1861-65), Jefferson Davis, President of the defeated Confederate States of America, was imprisoned with a view to his being tried for treason on account of his leadership role in the South's effort to make of itself an independent nation. Two years later, however, he was released and went into exile in Montreal (in Catholic Quebec) and then wandered in Europe before returning to these shores to spend his final days in his home state of Mississippi. His release came after a finding by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Salmon P. Chase, that there was nothing in the U.S. Constitution that prohibited the secession of states. If secession was not illegal, neither Davis nor any other Confederate leaders could be guilty of treason