What could they do in the Confederacy that they couldn't do in the US? And why was separation so urgent that they couldn't work it out in advance with the rest of the country?
And being the heir of John and John Quincy Adams, as well as a Union officer he can hardly be dismissed as a Confederate apologist.
CFA Jr. led an African-American cavalry regiment in the war and his experiences and reactions turned him against any notions of racial equality. He wasn't the only New Englander to repudiate his earlier idealism after the war. It wasn't any surprise that Adams became such an admirer of Robert E. Lee and such a critic of African-Americans and the Union cause later on.
“CFA Jr. led an African-American cavalry regiment in the war and his experiences and reactions turned him against any notions of racial equality. “
I take it that you have never read the essay in question since it never once mentions African Americans, racial equality, or anything resembling the subject.
It’s entirely about the legality of secession and treason. In the original understanding of the American union as held by the South, versus the evolved understanding as popular in the North, and in regards to the United States own birth in the secession of 1776.
“What could they do in the Confederacy that they couldn’t do in the US?”
Avoid confiscatory import taxes.