DiogenesLamp: "And here is another bit of idiocy. NO ONE SAID THAT!
He attacked Charleston to PREVENT them from taking away New York's business by charging lower tariffs than did the Union."
BJK: "Oh, but they did..."
All through this thread you see quotes & arguments made that "the South" was "paying for" 75% or more of US tariffs and that's the reason Lincoln sent his "war fleet" to Charleston.
Apparently, some people are not so clear in their minds about exactly what role Charleston played.
For example, in post #609, FLT-bird explains about Jefferson Davis:
- "He would have been perfectly happy to go along on his merry way without ever firing a shot had Lincoln not sent a heavily armed fleet into the CSA's sovereign territory in an effort to collect taxes from them."
- post #706: "If I do that, what would become of my revenue?
I might as well shut up housekeeping at once!”
~ Lincoln, in response to the suggestion by the Virginian Commissioners to abandon the custom house of Fort Sumter. (Housekeeping is a euphemism for federal spending.)
“But what am I to do in the meantime with those men at Montgomery [meaning the Confederate constitutional convention]?
Am I to let them go on... [a]nd open Charleston, etc., as ports of entry, with their ten-percent tariff.
What, then, would become of my tariff?”
~ Lincoln to Colonel John B. Baldwin, deputized by the Virginian Commissioners to determine whether Lincoln would use force, April 4, 1861."
These two quotes are from Confederate Col. John Baldwin's 1866 report on his April 1861 meeting, alone, with Lincoln.
Lincoln himself at the time told John Botts a different version of the meeting.
- "That either revenue from these duties must be collected in the ports of the rebel states, or the ports must be closed to importations from abroad.
If neither of these things be done, our revenue laws are substantially repealed, the sources which supply our treasury will be dried up.
We shall have no money to carry on the government, the nation will become bankrupt before the next crop of corn is ripe....
allow railroad iron to be entered at Savannah with the low duty of ten percent which is all that the Southern Confederacy think of laying on imported goods, and not an ounce more would be imported at New York.
The Railways would be supplied from the southern ports.”
New York Evening Post March 12, 1861 article 'What Shall be Done for a Revenue?' "
So clearly our Lost Cause meme that it was "all about the tariffs" in Charleston did not originate with DiogenesLamp or FLT-bird.
It goes back to Confederate eyewitness testimony about what Lincoln himself thought in April 1861.
Confederate Col. John Baldwin claimed in 1866 that Lincoln said Fort Sumter was "all about revenues":
- "Baldwin told Lincoln repeatedly that Virginia would not fight over the free-soil issue.
As a basic point of fact, only about six percent of Southerners were slave owners, affecting perhaps twenty-five to thirty percent of Southern families.
Fighting over slavery made little sense, especially given the fact slavery was already constitutionally legal.
However, Baldwin emphasized that coercion would undoubtedly lead to further separation and likely war.
"Baldwin probed for the primary sticking point, leading Lincoln to ask, 'Well…what about the revenue?
What would I do about the collection of duties.' [12]
In response, Baldwin asked how much import revenue would be lost per year.
Lincoln responded 'fifty or sixty millions.' [13]"
In 1861 Lincoln himself told a different version:
- "President Lincoln met separately with Baldwin and [John M.] Botts, who later published different accounts of their meetings, neither of which stopped Virginia from seceding.
Botts blamed Baldwin for keeping Lincoln's peace offer secret while his native state moved toward secession.[2] "
Bottom line: Baldwin himself claimed that Lincoln believed $50 or 60 million in Federal revenues was at stake in Charleston, SC.
So is it any wonder if today's Lost Causers repeat such nonsense?