[lentulusgracchus]

....economic boom or not, the only reason why imports should have gone through the roof is if the Northern states had had to replace products that they no longer got from the south.

Or hadn't needed -- like war materiel.

What might those have been, do you think?

You have something in mind? Spit it out.

[Non-Sequitur]

Or hadn't needed -- like war materiel.

Oh, do you're saying that the government levied a tax on itself by placing a tariff on war materials? I've read the original Morrill Tariff bill and I must have missed that part. How high was the tariff of cannons, rifles, gunpowder, and the like?

You have something in mind? Spit it out.

Sure. I think that is further evidence that rather than providing the bulk of tariff revenue, the southern states actually imported very little and probably provided a disproportionately small percentage of total federal receipts, and that claims that the southern rebellion was primarily about tariffs is a smokescreen put up by those who can't admit that it was primarily about slavery. How's that?