Augusta, Proof that the C.S.A. was a country legally accepted by the U.S.A.

In April 17,1861 Virginia seceded from the Union of the United States. President Lincoln's main goal for the war was to "preserve the union"(1). Lincoln and the U.S.A. saw the southern states as "treasonous"(2) and did not except the idea of secession as our founding fathers did with England but maintained the south was part of the Union after secession(3). Therefore Lincoln never excepted the idea of the Confederate States of America (C.S.A.) as their own country.

The problem as I see it is that Lincoln and the North either goes against the U.S. Constitution by allowing Virginia to divide into Virginia and Augusta (West Virginia) or the C.S.A was legally accepted as a legitimate country(4). Since the U.S.A has legally accepted West Virginia is a legitimate state then it follows that the secession of the southern states into the C.S.A was finally legally accepted by the U.S.A.

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(1.) "If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also so that" August, 1862 Lincoln - letter to Horace Greeley (editor of the New York Tribune)
(2)"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...The States have their status in the Union, and they have no other legal status. If they break from us, they can only do so against law and by revolution..."Abraham Lincoln, "Special Session Message, July 4, 1861," in A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. 7, ed. James D. Richardson (New York: Bureau of National Literature, 1897), pp. 3227-29, 3231-32.
(3) "One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it." Abraham Lincoln Second Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4, 1865
(4)"New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress." U.S. Constitution states in Article IV - Section 3 - New States 1776