“The Confederate slavemasters were the worst kind of statists. “
Well that’s a new one; the proponents of State’s Rights and secession were the big ‘statists’- and the proponents of compulsory union and a vastly more powerful central government were what, exactly?
Yes, the slavemasters were the worst kind of statists because they wanted to use the brute force of government to enforce human slavery.
All of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington, believed the Union to be perpetual. They did not favor a “vastly more powerful central government.” The Federal government was comparatively tiny until the 20th century.
BTW, the term “State’s Rights” was not much used until the segregation controversy of the 1950’s. The slavemasters were certainly not in favor of states rights. In fact, they wanted to forbid the states from outlawing slavery.