In principle, it's a little worse than childish. As for this, I would make a few adjustments. I would say the slave states asserted a right they deemed to be in their own self interest, and based it as best as they could on republican principles. In my opinion, which is different from yours, I think they utterly fail to make their case, and are rightfully shunned by history. Back then, some of these folks made stuff up as they went along, run it up the flagpole, see who salutes it. Like Jefferson and his specious Kentucky Resolutions.
Specious IYO - it seems unlikely to me that a people distrustful of centralized government would allow power to determine constitutionality to rest within the federal government itself.