[Ditto]

The Morrill Act passed the House well before even one single southerner had left congress. The vote fell precisely on sectional lines, perhaps more than any other vote before the war.

My research says the Morril Act passed congress in 1862, not 1861 or 1860 as one of your posts said. There was an "income tax" bill that passed in 1861 that was never enforced and a new "graduated" income tax bill was passed in 1863.

[WhiskeyPapa]

My research says the Morril Act passed congress in 1862, not 1861 or 1860 as one of your posts said.

Seems like Old Buck signed the Morrill tariff on March 2, 1861.

Walt

[GOPcapitalist]

My research says the Morril Act passed congress in 1862, not 1861 or 1860 as one of your posts said.

Your research is in error. It passed the House on May 10, 1860. It passed the Senate in early March 1861 and was signed into law on March 2nd. Prior to that, Lincoln had pledged to make it a top priority in the next session if it did not pass by his inauguration on the 4th.

[Non-Sequitur]

If the Morill Tariff was such a big bone of contention for the southern political leadership then why didn't they secede in May 1860 when it passed the House? Why wait for almost a year? Unless, of course, they are fixing on the Morill Tariff as a lame attempt to deny that defense of slavery was the single most important reason for the rebellion?