12/10/1860 The Daily Chicago Times openly admitted that the tariff was indeed a tool used by Northern manufacturers for the purpose of plundering the South, and the editor warned that that valuable mechanism for this plunder was threatened by the existence of free-trade ports in the South.
“The South has furnished near three-fourths of the entire exports of the country. Last year she furnished seventy-two percent of the whole…we have a tariff that protects our manufacturers from thirty to fifty percent, and enables us to consume large quantities of Southern cotton, and to compete in our whole home market with the skilled labor of Europe. This operates to compel the South to pay an indirect bounty to our skilled labor of millions annually.”
“Let the South adopt the free-trade system, and the North’s commerce must be reduced to less than half what it now is….Our labor could not compete…with the labor of Europe,…a large portion of our shipping interest would pass into the hands of the South…these revulsions will bring in their train very general bankruptcy and ruin”.
The Northern Tariffocracy was to have its war to protect its revenue stream.
“Northern Tariffocracy”?! Really pea, you’ve worked yourself into a lather again.
Oh, yeah we can rely on the DEMOCRAT newspapers particularly pro-slavery ones for an understanding of reality. That rag still kisses RAT ass on a daily basis.
The tariff had been the principle funding mechanism of the federal government basically since the Constitution went into effect. So we were a tyranny since 1789?
Prior to that STATES with ports received the revenue. There was no free trade (which is kinda impossible under slavery in any case.)
Not only is that true but only one utterly ignorant of what a tariff is would claim that it effected Southern importers more than Northern ones.
“The South has furnished near three-fourths of the entire exports of the country....” Dear Dumbass Editor, perhaps you are unaware that tariffs are NOT on exports but on imports so it would not matter if ONE HUNDRED PER CENT of exports came from the South. Tariffs on exports is EXPLICITLY forbidden in the Constitution.
Now I am no fan of tariffs but there are still many around this site who are, most of the Cornpone Brigade included, and they want our tax system to rely more on tariffs than it does.
And these tariffs prior to the Wah were the products of governments almost entirely dominated by Slaver and Pro-Slaver politicians.
It should be noted that under the Tariff of Abominations the “Nullification Crisis” erupted. Strongly Pro-Union President Andrew Jackson (who was born in S.C.) promptly warned the South Carolina Slavers that if they persisted in their folly he would HANG their leaders. Jackson understood that the Union was NOT to be destroyed.
Surely you can do better than this stupidity to make a case for federal tyranny in 1860. Just admit there was NO tyranny and save your fingers the typing of falsehoods.