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The New Orleans Daily Crescent expressed the view that the main reason the North didn't want the South to secede was economic in nature:

They [the Northern states] know that the South is the main prop and support of the Federal system. They know that it is Southern productions that constitute the surplus wealth of the nation, and enables us to import so largely from foreign countries. They know that it is their import trade that draws from the people's pockets sixty or seventy millions of dollars per annum, in the shape of duties, to be expended mainly in the North, and in the protection and encouragement of Northern interests. . . . They know that the BULK OF THE DUTIES is paid by the Southern people . . . and that, by the iniquitous operation of the Federal Government, these duties are mainly expended among the Northern people. They know that they can plunder and pillage the South, as long as they are in the same Union with us, by other means, such as fishing bounties, navigation laws, robberies of the public lands, and every other possible mode of injustice and peculation. . . .

These are the reasons these people do not wish the South to secede from the Union. They are enraged at the prospect of being despoiled of the rich feast upon which they have so long fed and fattened, and which they were just getting ready to enjoy with still greater gout and gusto [i.e., by the Morrill Tariff]. (New Orleans Daily Crescent, January 21, 1861, from Stampp, The Causes of the Civil War, p. 75)

They know that the BULK OF THE DUTIES is paid by the Southern people . . .

Yeah, but I don't know that so how about some facts and figures? What was the dollar amount paid by the south? What exactly did they import so much of that caused them to pay all those tariffs? Come on, surely you can do better than a newspaper editorial?

"The New Orleans Daily Crescent expressed..."

That's like the NYTimes and WashPost expressing an opinion on tax cuts and defense spending.

I find it amusing that the editorial staff talked of the North getting fatted off of the South when the South was fattening off the labor of black slaves.

Oh, but the Southern cause was so noble and about fighting the "tyranny' of the North. The irony is heavy.