If indeed "the secessionist had seceded over STATES RIGHTS", one would supposed that the new Confederate Constitution would contain wording designed to remedy specific abuses. Yet, as you noted. "Except for a few words the Confederate Constitution mirrored the U.S. Constitution."

Although it's not material to this discussion, I'd like to know which of the STATES RIGHTS was violated and abused to the point that citizens of South Carolina and other states were forced to take action. Whatever it was, that issue must have been hotly debated and argued frequently during the course of the presidential election of 1860. It should not be much trouble to produce several articles from New Orleans papers dedicated to the Soutern view of STATES RIGHTS.

The principle you described concerns the Bill of Rights, which in the 19th century was held to apply strictly to the Federal government and not to the states. For example, despite the 2nd ammendment, Southern state laws made it a criminal offense to speak against slavery or publish material opposing the institution. The 14th ammendment undercut that line of legal doctrine and gradually most individual freedoms granted under the Bill of Rights were made applicable to the states.

Incorporation Doctrine -- http://law.jrank.org/pages/7578/Incorporation-Doctrine.html

Without some statement by a Confederate political leader or jurist on this topic, we don't really know how clashes between Congress and the states on limitations described in Article I Section 9 might have been resolved. We do know that the authors of the Confederate Constitution took steps to ensure that the rights of slaveholders were specifically protected, wording which did not appear in the U.S. Constitution. If slavery was an issue of little consequence, the Confederate Constitution would have "mirrored the U.S. Constitution" on that topic, with no change in wording.

In fact there is little change in the Confederate Constitution to elevate the rights of the states in their relation to the national government. If STATES RIGHTS had been a serious issue of that day, the authors of the Constitution would have taken the same steps to remedy specific abuses as they did to provide absolute protection for slave ownership.

I would like to repeat a request for some petition from a free state to join the Confederacy, or a corresponding Congressional resolution inviting a free state to be admitted to the COnfederate states. Without it we are discussing theory, an obscure one at that.