Thanks kiry. It would seem that the Union was far more fearful of losing tariff revenues than the southern states were of having to continue to pay them. To the south, it was one of a number of abuses. To Lincoln and the Union, it was everything. The first GIBSMEDATS!
If the U.S. was so completely dependent on the South for tariff revenue then one would think that with the beginning of the war the federal revenue stream would dry up to nothing, wouldn't you? No money coming in? No way to pay for anything? Yet in his State of the Union message to Congress in 1864 Lincoln reported tariff revenues of over $102 million. The year before it had been $70 million. So where did it come from?