Who said Despotic? You must be listening to BroJoeK's mischaracterization of what I say.
I mean if it was all about money shouldn’t they have seceded regardless?
Have you ever heard the expression "Straw that breaks the Camel's back?" I think they saw the election of Lincoln as proof that they were never going to get what they considered a fair shake, so added to other complaints about their relationship with the USA, they had had enough.
But you still mischaracterize the point about money. The North went to war to stop the loss of the money. Their monetary incentive was far more desperate than that of the South. For the South, increased profits was only part of it, but for the North, massive and serious losses was far more significant.
The South left because they had had enough of the lopsided deal they had been living with, and the constant vituperation directed at them from big city Liberals.
The North saw the direct losses of the Southern trade, and future losses caused by European direct trade with the South and the Midwest.
The problem with this idea is that the Southrons had already threatened to leave the Union should Fremont be elected in 1856. It was the Republican Party that the Confederates could not abide. And what was it that set the Republicans part from the Whigs? I mean, the Southern Democrats never called them “black Whigs, did they?” Nope, it was the paranoia of the abolitionist movement that struck fear into the heart of Johnny Reb.