So how do you think the confederate government would have been funded had there been no war? The new confederate government would have required some source of revenue, probably approaching the same levels as the old Federal government at first since they were creating an army and a navy and a postal system and all the rest from scratch. If they had been a free trade confederacy that would have removed tariffs as a source of revenue. I can't see them sitting still for an income tax - Davis had a hard enough time forced that through even with a war on. Sales taxes were unheard of. Excise taxes had caused rebellions in the U.S. before. How would they have survived?
I really don't want to engage in speculation off subject.
As of January, 1861 the US Treasury's only revenue source, tariffs on imports, was essentially wiped out with the withdrawl of the Southern states. If you want to speculate on how the North was going to pay for the Federal government, go ahead.
Want to admit that Lincoln sent Federal troops to Charleston to coerce their revenue source back into the Union?
Or, are you inclined to now admit that the low-tariff Confederacy was a greater threat to the Union than populist historians are willing to admit?