[x]

I see the Confederacy as little different from the Colonies who fought King George for the right to self determination.

The colonists in the 1700s weren't about "self-determination." They had specific grievances with the crown and wanted a voice in making the laws and setting the taxes they'd have to live under. Only after fighting had started did independence become an issue.

The slave states were represented in Congress in the 1800s. They did have a voice in the government and a say in forming the laws they'd have to live under. They could have used that voice in Congress to renegotiate or to dissolve the union. Instead they decided to break away on their own and form a new country opposed to the US.

That was a spectacularly bad decision and different from what the colonists were doing during the Revolutionary War era.

[onedoug]

The US Senate finally passed the Morrill Tariff on March 2, 1861, on an outrageously partisan vote. Not a single Southern Senator voted for it. It was immediately signed into law by President James Buchanan, a Pennsylvania Democrat. Lincoln endorsed the Tariff in his March 4 inaugural speech and promised to enforce it even on seceding states. The South was filled with righteous indignation. -- Scruggs, "An Un-Civil War"

You might want to look up the Morrill Tariff.