I'm not certain of the historiography here, but certainly Lincoln would at some point have spoken words similar to "what about the tariff" -- for example, when talking about Federal revenues with his Secretary of Treasury, Chase.
However, since the vast majority of Federal revenues came from tariffs collected in Union ports, they could not have an immediate impact on Lincoln's actions of March & April 1861.
PeaRidge: "In 1860, the tariff supplied the Treasury with 94.5% of its total revenue base."
A tariff collected almost entirely from Union ports.
Huge wartime demands for money were addressed by Congress when it met, starting on July 4, 1861.
In the mean time, Washington's financial belts were tightened as never before, or since.
Why does the thought of overweight bureaucrats getting a financial haircut somehow not disturb me?
For Lincoln the looming problem was greater than Charleston and Ft Sumter. The rump Confederacy was essentially a free trade zone with dramatically lower tariffs and it was right on his doorstep. Trade that could divert would skip US ports and go to CSA ports, draining more than just the usual traffic that those ports normally received.
One of the largest problems would be the Port of New Orleans where all the interior trade headed down the Mississippi River. The USA already had had experience with this when New Orleans was controlled by Spain prior to the Louisiana Purchase. Some western states had flirted with joining Spain because of the close trade ties. They might similarly be lured into the CSA orbit for the same reason.
So, exactly what were the circumstances facing Linooln as he took office in March?
The finances of the Federal Government had been in a very disordered condition due to business downturns beginning with the massive recession in 1857. Northern business interests were in a downturn resulting from the political disturbances, and which by reducing the imports of overseas goods, had reduced the customs income, the chief source of revenue for the Treasury.
In June, 1860, a loan of twenty million dollars had been authorized by Congress. Of this amount, ten million was offered in October in a five per cent stock, and it had been taken by investors at a small premium.
Before any installments were paid up, the panic that attended the election had affected credit, and many bids were withdrawn.
This so seriously affected the Treasury Department, that as the New Year approached, it seemed likely there would be no funds with which to meet the interest on the National debt.
By the Act of December 17th, 1860, an issue of ten million dollars, in treasury notes, was authorized, to bear such a rate of interest as might be offered by the lowest bidders, but so shaken was credit, few bids were made, and some of them at a rate of thirty six per cent interest per annum.
The investors interested in the Government credit finally took one million five hundred thousand dollars of one year treasury notes, at twelve per cent per annum (the amount was subsequently raised to five million dollars), on condition that the money should be applied to paying the interest on the national debt.
This was certainly a dark day in the Capitol, when the Federal Government, which had earned the honor of being the only nation that had ever paid its debts in full—principal and interest—and which in 1856, with an overflowing treasury, had paid twenty-two per cent premium for its own stock, was now reduced to give twelve per cent interest, for a few millions, and to engage to protect its credit with the money.
This, combined with the specter that as soon as the primary cotton and tobacco producing states seceded with the subsequent massive loss in exportable products, that the US Treasury was in great jeopardy.
Brojoke, let's think clearly here for a moment.
You said: “...since the vast majority of Federal revenues came from tariffs collected in Union ports, they could not have an immediate impact on Lincoln's actions of March & April 1861.”
You persist in quoting the tariff revenues coming from New York. Do you think money was being printed there and handed over to Treasury?
Of course not. That money had been collected from the importers on the goods they had purchased from Great Britain.
And remember that the “currency” they used to buy their goods was Southern grown and produced goods. You have been shown dozens of times that the value of this “currency” was almost 70% of total exports.
Would the tariff revenue be anywhere the same if the Northern exporters only brought in 30% of previous years’ taxable goods?
And don't you believe that Northern business interests would NOT wait for Congress to convene?
Do you?