IMPORTANT INTELLIGENCE: LATEST REPORTS FROM FORT SUMPTER; FROM CHARLESTON: Affairs at Fort Sumpter; Editorial-The Tariff and Secession (3/26/1861)

Col. LAMON had an interview with Gov. PICKENS and Gen. BEAUREGARD, this morning, and left in company with Col. DURYEA for Fort Sumpter.

The opinion is prevalent that Major ANDERSON will evacuate Fort Sumpter on Wednesday of this week. However, the time is to be determined.

Col. LAMON visited Fort Sumpter to-day, but nothing definite is known as to the result. He returned to-night, and says he hopes to return to Washington immediately. He was well received by Gov. PICKENS, and this afternoon he is to have an interview with Gen. BEAUREGARD.

Several gentlemen have arrived here from Texas within a day or two. One of them states that in conversation with Gov. HOUSTON, a few days since, he stated that civil war in Texas was inevitable, and Alabama would soon be involved in the same dilemma as Texas now is. The Southern Commissioners are much troubled by the recent news from Texas.

The New-York fight is still pending, and likely to reopen with new vigor after the adjournment of the Senate, which is expected to take place on Wednesday next.

There is little doubt to-night, that, to-morrow, nominations will be sent in of Gen. SHERMAN, to be Appraiser-General of New-York, and WM. CURTIS NOYES as District-Attorney. These offices, being vacant, must be filled immediately. No other New-York appointments will be made until after the Senate adjourns.

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

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Link to previous New York Times thread

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"Editorial: The Tariff and Secession – 5-6"

Again the Times editors address the question of the new Morrill Tariff versus the Confederates' lower tariffs.
The editors remind us the Times opposed the higher Morrill Tariff and imply: so did President Lincoln, though that could certainly be debated.
Regardless, the Times now urges the higher tariff be lowered so that foreign countries are not tempted to ship their products through Confederate ports.

The Times is, of course, right to be concerned, but let's remember some basic facts:

Confederates never had, or planned to have, "free trade" meaning no tariffs whatsoever.
The original Confederate tariffs were simply the old Union Tariff of 1857, with some small changes.
This tariff allowed some raw materials to be imported duty-free, others taxed at modest rates and still others -- i.e., luxury items -- taxed at much higher rates.
The new Morrill Tariff also had some materials duty-free, some with modest taxes and still others at quite high rates.
Each tariff listed hundreds of items, each item with its own higher or lower rate and what, exactly, was to be the rate for any given shipment might even be debated at the time, depending on its exact configuration.
Items arriving in one form had a set rate, but in a slightly different form, a different rate.
Point is: it was not a simple matter of 10% vs 20% tariffs -- each item had its own rate and shippers would need to study carefully which cargoes to land where.

But being a more cosmopolitan paper from globalist New York City, the Times cared nothing about the one thing which did motivate the vast majority of Republicans -- putting American manufacturing first, to make America both great and independent of foreign manufactures.

So, should push come to shove and Civil War break out, the Union's manufacturing self-sufficiency -- helped by the Morrill Tariff -- will give it a decided advantage over Confederates' more agricultural economy.

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