Republican National Platform Adopted at Chicago 1860 (excerpts)
Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Republican electors of the United States, in Convention assembled, in discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, unite in the following declarations:
3. That to the Union of the States this nation owes its unprecedented increase in population, its surprising development of material resources, its rapid augmentation of wealth, its happiness at home and its honor abroad.
12. That, while providing revenue for the support of the General Government by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such an adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the industrial interest of the whole country; and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the working men liberal wages, to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanics and manufactures an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence.
15. That appropriations by Congress for River and Harbor improvements of a National character, required for the accommodation and security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution, and justified by the obligations of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens.
16. That a Railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interest of the whole country; that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction; and that, as preliminary thereto, a daily Overland Mail should be promptly established.
The internal improvements were to be paid with by public funds. Many of these developments were subsidies for industry. The Republican Party wanted to continue support of protectionist laws to favor the country’s industry, which was primarily located in the Northeast.
Since US Customs tariff revenue supplied more than 90% of the government’s annual revenue, these government-sponsored improvements were underwritten with tariff dollars, which were being paid by those who were buying imported goods.
With Southern supplied goods paying for 70% of the imports that were taxed, Southern productivity was fundamental to Northern infrastructure improvements.
At that time, the average tariff was 18.84%. The previous year Justin Morrill, R-VT, had emerged as the Republican Party’s leading authority on tariffs. After the current Congress convened on December 5, 1859, word spread that Morrill was proposing raising tariffs to the 40% level. Many Southerners realized this would harm the Southern economy and bankrupt many farmers and planters.
The 1860 tariff plank enjoyed a central and prominent place in the party's platform. Delegates at the convention cheered at length for its openly protectionist message when the plank was adopted. Throughout the campaign Republicans carried banners making it known that a vote for them was a vote for protection.
Lincoln himself had already openly admitted his core protectionist beliefs and in February 1861 even pledged to make the tariff his top legislative priority.
The equal protection afforded all the states under the US Constitution was being ignored in favor of the protectionism and largess being given to the Northern states. That preferential treatment and the failure of Constitutional protections caused the secession, but war came for different reasons.
Northern states were given no special protection or largess by the tariffs. Exactly the same was available to any southerner who decided to start a factory and actually make something. Southerners chose not to do so.
Your whole argument strikes me as much like those today who claim that minorities who choose not to study hard and therefore earn less are being disrciminated against.
BTW, I've been looking for some time for the records of the 1860 Congressional election. What would have been the party breakdown in Congress if the South had not seceded?
My expectation is that it was such that opponents of Republicans, all southerners and northern Democrats, would have held a significant majority, making it impossible for the Republicans to vote in the Morill tariff. If I understand correctly, they were unable to pass it as it was until a lot of southern representatives left when their states seceded.
Lincoln could not have done anything to the South against an anti-Republican majority in Congress.
Are you attempting to claim that southerners, less than 1/3 of the country, actually purchased 70% of the imported goods? I find this highly unlikely.
What I suspect you are doing is conflating two very different things. I believe the South produced 70% or so of the country's exports, primarily cotton. This is very different from saying that they paid 70% of the tariffs, which as you noted, were paid by the purchasers of the products themselves.
BTW, large areas of the South produced little for export, notably the mountain sections and border states. Does this mean that these slaveholding areas were also subsidized by the Deep South? Or is the picture far too complex for such ridiculous over-simplifications?
15. That appropriations by Congress for River and Harbor improvements of a National character, required for the accommodation and security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution, and justified by the obligations of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens.
Have you looked at a map recently? Something over 3/4 of the country's coastline was in slaveholding states. Much, if not most, of the money spent on these improvements was spent in, and used to provide benefits for, southern ports. It's interesting that Fort Sumter, where the war started, was built to defend Charleston Harbor and served the Confederacy well in that regard.
BTW, do you think defenses should NOT have been built for southern ports, leaving them easy prey for any European country we got into a dispute with?
16. That a Railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interest of the whole country; that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction; and that, as preliminary thereto, a daily Overland Mail should be promptly established.
Do you seriously argue that a railroad across the continent was NOT in the best interests of the whole country? Or that it could have been built at the time without government subsidy? BTW, most southerners were in favor of such a railroad, they just wanted it built starting in the South. Should mail service to California NOT have been provided?