How do we separate the effects of the Morrill tariff from the general effects of the secession crisis? Surely the prospect of national collapse could also have effected trade.
And what is the Collector of the Port of New York doing writing to newspapers whether in New York or in Memphis?
Would that be the old collector who was a pro-Breckenridge DNC chairman, or the new one, and abolitionist who was married to Lewis Tappan's daughter?
Anyway, some have said that the country teetered on a fiscal cliff in 1861, not so much due to the Morrill tariff, as to Buchanan's mismanagement. The original rise in tariff rates (lower than what they eventually became) was, perhaps misguidedly, intended to remedy the situation.
FWIW, most of the collectors are biographed on Wikipedia. I did not know that Chester A. Arthur held the post. Rutherford B. Hayes got rid of him and tried to replace him with Theodore Roosevelt's father, but Roscoe Conkling, Arthur's patron, killed the nomination.
With respect to Virginius, didn't the authors of the Federalist Papers and some who wrote opposition papers often called the Anti-Federalist Papers use pseudonyms? And who could forget all the pseudonyms that posters use on FreeRepublic? Virginius could have been a well connected individual, possibly one with ties to Virginia.
Anyway, some have said that the country teetered on a fiscal cliff in 1861, not so much due to the Morrill tariff, as to Buchanan's mismanagement. The original rise in tariff rates (lower than what they eventually became) was, perhaps misguidedly, intended to remedy the situation.
Interesting comment about Buchanan. You've reminded me about a series of FreeRepublic posts about the US public debt under Buchanan and in particular in the 1860-1861 Congress. The posts I remember point out that under Buchanan the tariff revenue dropped due to a recession but the government persisted in spending far more than it took in. Government debt stood at roughly 29 million dollars in 1857. It rose steadily to about 70 million dollars in 1860. But under huge spending increases proposed by Congress in 1860-61, government debt would become 250 million dollars, some 8 to 9 times what the debt was four years earlier. Since they apparently couldn't control spending, they decided to substantially increase taxes.
That somehow sounds familiar. Mismanagement, you call it?
Here is a link to the old posts that testify to Buchanan's and Congress's fiscal mismanagement: See Posts 484, 485, 488, 490
Many posts recently have referred to the Morrill Tariff. Here is a link for everyone to the terms of that tariff: Morrill Tariff