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We are too divided for either side to be happy in any election result.

It's not about being "happy"; it's about having one's voice heard and being part of the process. Indeed, the fact that neither side is completely happy is often a good sign; it means that neither succeeded in totally dominating the other.

Being unhappy with the government doesn't entitled one to simply exempt oneself from its laws and institutions.

The 3/5th's compromise was made by the South, resulting in them has less representation in Congress.

Less than if every slave had counted as a citizen, but considerably more than if the slaves hadn't counted at all.

And since the South (generally) didn't consider slaves citizens and southern politicians certainly didn't go to Congress to represent the interests of slaves, it seems entirely unjust that they were counted at all.

Consent does not have ANYTHING to do with representation.

I didn't say it did. I said that the presence of a representative system, of a legal way of altering government, separated the American Revolution from Southern Secession.

And for what it's worth, I'm half inclined to doubt the moral legitimacy of America's continuing the War of Independence past 1778; the Carlisle Commission would likely have granted Americans all the representation, liberties and self-government they had demanded in 1774, everything short of independence, perhaps. A lot of people died over the next six years.