He seemed to me to have a pretty good grasp of the situation, naming names as being pro-South.
I'll similarly make note of the fact that you did not bother to respond to anything else that I said about the Morrill Tariff. May I take that as a concession of your error?
The Morrill Tarriff had nothing to do with the reason the South attempted to leave the Union.
Tarriff's are often the product of various groups that cross party lines.
He named names that were leaving. To take Stephens as an authority on the 1860 Congress over incumbent participants such as Hunter, Toombs, and Wigfall would be akin to citing Bob Dole's opinion of a bill before the Senate today over Bill Frist.
The Morrill Tarriff had nothing to do with the reason the South attempted to leave the Union.
The address adopted by the South Carolina Secession Convention:
And so with the Southern States, towards the Northern States, in the vital matter of taxation. They are in a minority in Congress. Their representation in Congress, is useless to protect them against unjust taxation; and they are taxed by the people of the North for their benefit, exactly as the people of Great Britain taxed our ancestors in the British parliament for their benefit. For the last forty years, the taxes laid by the Congress of the United States have been laid with a view of subserving the interests of the North. The people of the South have been taxed by duties on imports, not for revenue, but for an object inconsistent with revenue— to promote, by prohibitions, Northern interests in the productions of their mines and manufactures.
and the Georgia Secession Convention's Declaration of Causes:
The material prosperity of the North was greatly dependent on the Federal Government; that of the the South not at all. In the first years of the Republic the navigating, commercial, and manufacturing interests of the North began to seek profit and aggrandizement at the expense of the agricultural interests. Even the owners of fishing smacks sought and obtained bounties for pursuing their own business (which yet continue), and $500,000 is now paid them annually out of the Treasury. The navigating interests begged for protection against foreign shipbuilders and against competition in the coasting trade. Congress granted both requests, and by prohibitory acts gave an absolute monopoly of this business to each of their interests, which they enjoy without diminution to this day. Not content with these great and unjust advantages, they have sought to throw the legitimate burden of their business as much as possible upon the public; they have succeeded in throwing the cost of light-houses, buoys, and the maintenance of their seamen upon the Treasury, and the Government now pays above $2,000,000 annually for the support of these objects. Theses interests, in connection with the commercial and manufacturing classes, have also succeeded, by means of subventions to mail steamers and the reduction in postage, in relieving their business from the payment of about $7,000,000 annually, throwing it upon the public Treasury under the name of postal deficiency. The manufacturing interests entered into the same struggle early, and has clamored steadily for Government bounties and special favors. This interest was confined mainly to the Eastern and Middle non-slave-holding States. Wielding these great States it held great power and influence, and its demands were in full proportion to its power. The manufacturers and miners wisely based their demands upon special facts and reasons rather than upon general principles, and thereby mollified much of the opposition of the opposing interest. They pleaded in their favor the infancy of their business in this country, the scarcity of labor and capital, the hostile legislation of other countries toward them, the great necessity of their fabrics in the time of war, and the necessity of high duties to pay the debt incurred in our war for independence. These reasons prevailed, and they received for many years enormous bounties by the general acquiescence of the whole country.
...both say otherwise. To deny that Morrill Tariff played a major role in instigating secession is to deny history.
Tarriff's are often the product of various groups that cross party lines.
In the case of 1860 the lines were firmly defined on a north-south basis with the north supporting the tariff and the south opposing it.