Mike -
mises.org
"...
By 1857 the level of tariffs had been reduced to the lowest level since 1815, according to Frank Taussig in his classic Tariff History of the United States.(28) But when the Republicans controlled the White House and the Southern Democrats left the Congress the Republicans did what, as former Whigs, they had been itching to do for decades: go on a protectionist frenzy. In his First Inaugural Address Lincoln stated that he had no intention to disturb slavery in the Southern states and, even if he did, there would be no constitutional basis for doing so. But when it came to the tariff, he promised a military invasion if tariff revenues were not collected. Unlike Andrew Jackson, he would not back down to the South Carolinian tariff nullifiers.
By 1862 the average tariff rate had crept up to 47.06 percent, the highest level ever, even higher than the 1828 Tariff of Abominations. These high rates lasted for decades after the war.
In the nineteenth century newspapers were formally associated with one political party or another, and many of the Republican party newspapers in 1860 were openly calling for a military invasion of Southern ports to keep the South from adopting free trade, which was written into the Confederate Constitution of 1861. On March 12, 1861, for example, the New York Post advocated that the U.S. Navy "abolish all ports of entry" in the South.(29) On April 2, 1861 the Newark (NJ) Daily Advertiser warned ominously that Southerners had "apparently taken to their bosoms the liberal and popular doctrine of free trade" and that free trade "must operate to the serious disadvantage of the North" as "commerce will be largely diverted to Southern cities." The "chief instigator" of "the present troubles," South Carolina, has all along been "preparing the way for the adoption of free trade" and must be stopped by "the closing of the ports" by military force.(30)..."
Regards, Don |
