Sorry, but that's just total nonsense -- mythology invented after the fact to explain the inexplicable.
In fact, when the first seven Deep South states declared secession, none of them said anything about "centralizing power in DC".
All said they thought Northerners were aiming a "blow" at their "peculiar institution", slavery.
Specifically, that "blow" was restricting the expansion of slavery in the western territories.
But secessionists imagined "Black Republicans" would do far worse and that made secession important in their minds.
Bulwyf: " You can cherry pick quotes all day, but at the end of it all, state’s rights went straight downhill after that.
You fast forward to today, and look at the federal behemoth now.
That was all born in 1865."
More mythology, not historical facts.
In fact, after Civil War reconstruction "states rights" remained as before, excepting the 13th, 14th & 15th Amendments.
You may remember the presidential election of 1876 was so close Democrats were able to extract the new President's promise to remove Federal troops from former Confederate states, allowing Southerners to become what they most wanted to be: Jim Crow, black laws & KKK enforcement squads.
So the South had all the "states rights" they wanted, and what did they do with them?
Well, among others they lead the charge to ratify the 16th Amendment.
Sure, the South was more reluctant with the 17th Amendment, but in the end only four Deep South and one each Upper South and Border State refused to ratify it.
So you just can't claim the South has been this conservative bastion against Big Government, because it just hasn't.
What's much more true is that the South has acted just like Democrats -- always looking to extract more out of Big Government than they contribute to it.
That's not conservative, that's just the swamp doing its swampy thang.
