Not true. The issue emerged in the wake of the 1857-59 recession, which economists tend to blame on world financial disruptions caused in the wake of the Crimean war, but which protectionists at the time blamed on low tariff prices.
By 1860 the protectionists were advancing new tariffs in Congress with full force. By May the House had passed the Morrill Act on a strictly sectional vote. The GOP platform adopted protectionism as a major plank and their candidate, The Lincoln, advocated a new tariff hike, all of this before a single state seceded.
And as Alexander Stephens pointed out so clearly in his December 1860 speech to the Georgia Secession Convention, Lincoln did not have to power to pass any legislation or even name his cabinet without southern support. The Republicans were a minority in congress. The Morrill Act only passed congress because 11 southern states had withdrawn their deligations.