Tariff costs were added to the sales price of imports. Therefore, import buying consumers paid the tariffs. Most imports ended up being sold in the South. They were, in fact, ultimately paying the tariff taxes by buying imports.
Morrill tariff was about to double the tariffs.....big inflation for Southern yeoman farmers, and a primary reason for secession.
More importantly, who had the power to initiate war in April of 1861?
Lincoln was informed that since secession, tariff revenue had dropped substantially.
He then sent the Navy to Charleston and Pensacola to force compliance.
“Morrill tariff was about to double the tariffs.”
Had the Senators from the seceding Southern States remained in Congress, along with some of the Northern Democrat Senators, they would have been able to block the Morrill tariff legislation.
In 1860 Howell Cobb, the Secretary of Treasury, reported the U.S. Treasury had only 500,000 dollars. With several million dollars of debts to be paid, the U.S. was technically bankrupt. This was the impetus for the Morrill tariff legislation.
The population of the North in 1860 was 22 million. The population of the South was 9 million, including 3.5 million slaves. 5.5 million free people weren't going to outspend 22 million free people, especially if those 5.5 million were mostly rural and the 22 million lived together in cities. There was more industry in the North and business also imported machinery necessary for production. There were only so many crystal chandeliers and Paris gowns that plantation owners could buy. So no, most imports weren't sold in the South.