To: Non-Sequitur
If you are correct, & 95% of the tariff was collected in northern ports in 1860, then the north paid the lion's share - in 1860 (would you conflate a single year's stats with the general situation?). But this would be news to me...Taussig's volume, "Tariff History of the U.S.", as far as I know, is considered seminal, and is my source. If you have another source, please share it. As to the second point, if you are referring to the period of time when the south was seriously outmanned, outsupplied, in desperate need of everything, her civilian population under seige, ports blockaded (just what is it you think was being imported, I wonder?) -and still kicking hell out of the yankee invaders - any & all means of raising revenue makes sense to me: it was life or death. Reread my post re: the drastic lowering - virtual elimination - of tariffs that wass written INTO the CSA constitution & the efffect that bit of info had on the northern appetite for invasion.
174 posted on
06/25/2002 11:01:30 PM PDT by
budo
To: budo
My source for the tariff information was "Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade running during the Civil War" by Stephen Wise. He references a government document, the "Statement Showing the Amount of Revenue Collected Annually", Executive Document No.33, 36th Congress, 1st Session, 1860. What source does your book use?
As for your second point, I'm referring to May 1861 when the south passed their tariff bill. A time when the south was not outmanned. A time when the south was not desperate. A time when the blockade had not been established, so the south wasn't in desperate need of everthing. And a time when the south had not kicked the hell out of anything, except civil liberties and their own constitution (but that is a topic for another post). In short, the tariff was the first thing the south turned to for revenue. Why would that be if the tariff was such a bone of contention prior to the war? Why wouldn't they try other sources before turning to something as hateful as a tariff?
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