I will second Paul's emphatic NO, and eleborate on the reasoning a bit:
 The "no taxation without representation" line was just one of many
constitutional arguments pursued by American whigs in the 1760s and into
the 1770s.  By the time the colonies felt it necessary to "dissolve the
political bonds," they had endured a "long train of abuses" for more than
10 years.   Only the smallest minority of radicals contemplated
independence before 1776 -- that's even after shots were fired at
Lexington & Concord.  To draw analogies to the decision of South Carolina
and other southern states to secede in 1860-61 from the American
Revolution is always going to result in flimsy facile comparisons.
Fearing "abuses" from the Lincoln administration (which hadn't even been
sworn in much less "evinced a design to reduce them under absolute
despotism" -- all of these quotations are from the Declaration, by the
way) is NOT the same as actually having one's rights abridged by a
tyrannical king.

David Kiracofe
College of Charleston
Department of History
66 George Street
Charleston, SC 29424

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