Perhaps the first theme that emerged was that the Confederacy was in its inception—and could still stand for us today—as an embodiment of the Jeffersonian vision of an America, in which states' rights would predominate, the powers of the central government were prescribed and proscribed, and political and economic life would remain closer to the human scale. This stood in sharp contrast to the Lincolnian vision just then being thrust on the nation by the Republican Party, which stood for the consolidation of central power, the use of that power to the ends of the industrial and financial interests of the North, and the accession of the states to the increasing reach of Washington, particularly over "internal improvements," especially transportation infrastructure.
-Kirkpatrick Sale
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http://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/what-was-the-confederacy-after-all/