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The link you gave was misleading as well as an insinuation that the Confederacy announced its tariff rates in May, after Lincoln's invasion of Charleston harbor.

The first announcement of the Confederate tariff happened just after March 11, 1861, the date of ratification of the first Confederate Constitution, and ten days after the Morrill tariff was ratified by the US Senate.

Your posting of the second tariff schedule in May is misleading in that its date of publication leads the casual reader to think it was not an issue, when it was much more.

Your comment about the Morrill tariff: “As to the Morrell (sic) Tariff of 1861, which only had a chance of passing after the Southern delegation left Congress, I don't see your point.”

You speak as if you don't know that the Morrill bill had passed the week before. Any source will tell you that. More importantly, the comparative rates were: Confederacy 13.3%, Morrill 26 to 37%.

You need to familiarize yourself with the dynamics of the tariff issue because it will expand your understanding of the influences on Lincoln at the time he initiated the war.

New Haven Daily Register said,

“There was never a more ill-timed, injudicious and destructive measure proposed, than the Morrill tariff bill, because while Congress is raising the duties for the Northern ports, the Southern Constitutional Convention is doing away with all import duties for the Southern ports, leaving more than three-fifths of the seafront of the Atlantic States…beyond the reach of our tariff…Southern ports would then invite the free trade of the world.”