Not so. From a 2003 post by former poster GOPcapitalist
"The Northern Democrats had no problem whatsoever with the Morrill Act and in fact they voted for it in near unanimity in the House back in 1860. It was also signed by a Northern Democrat president. As for the Senate, a simple calculation of votes indicates without dispute that under the very best case scenario with every single southern senator voting against it, the Morrill Act would have STILL passed the Senate. Here is that calculation as it was outlined on December 12, 1860 before any state had seceded by Sen. Louis Wigfall:"
"Tell me not that we have got the legislative department of this Government, for I say we have not. As to this body, where do we stand? Why, sir, there are now eighteen non-slaveholding States. In a few weeks we shall have the nineteenth, for Kansas will be brought in. Then arithmetic which settles our position is simple and easy. Thirty-eight northern Senators you will have upon this floor. We shall have thirty to your thirty-eight. After the 4th of March, the Senator from California, the Senator from Indiana, the Senator from New Jersey, and the Senator from Minnesota will be here. That reduces the northern phalanx to thirty-four...There are four of the northern Senators upon whom we can rely, whom we know to be friends, whom we have trusted in our days of trial heretofore, and in whom, as Constitution-loving men, we will trust. Then we stand thirty-four to thirty-four, and your Black Republican Vice President to give the casting vote. Mr. Lincoln can make his own nominations with perfect security that they will be confirmed by this body, even if every slaveholding State should remain in the Union, which, thank God, they will not do."
The page in the Congressional Globe where Senator Wigfall made those comments that GOPcapitalist cited can be found in the Library of Congress ([American Memory]A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875 Congressional Globe, Senate, 36th Congress, 2nd Session Page 75 of 992)
The Senate vote to pass the bill was on February 20, 1861. Before Southerners started dropping out, there were 66 senators total. The vote to pass the Morrill Tariff was 25-14, with 12 abstentions. That’s means 9 did not vote. These were Senators from secessionist states. Their no votes would have meant the bill would have failed 33-25.
Of course had they’d stayed the Democrats wouldn’t have lost control of the Finance Committee and the bill would have never hit the floor.
BTW only one Northern Democrat voted yes.