To: nihil who wrote (58528 ) 2/15/2001 10:43:46 PM From: JF Quinnelly Respond to You certainly know much of the context of the events leading up to the War, but you sleight the longstanding anger in the South over a tax burden they carried to the North's sole benefit. This issue alone nearly caused civil war during Jackson's administration in 1832: South Carolina refused to allow tax collectors to enforce Jackson's "tariff of abominations", "Nullifying" the tariff act. Jackson asked for a "Force Bill" so he could send Federal troops to South Carolina when the issue became moot-- I believe the tariff was repealed by Congress. Both Jackson and South Carolina declared "victory" without the issue being sent to the Supreme Court, and the balance between States Rights and Federal power was left unexamined. Arator , which is why it is a historically valuable work. He wrote it before 1818, and it was already a very sore issue by that time. Taylor argued that the agrarian south was paying as much as 40% in tariffs, that went solely to protect the manufacturing industries of New England. Farms were being abandoned, the soil was being depleted because of overuse, as planters attempted to grow enough tobacco to pay their tax burden. Sectional anger was already present before 1820, and slavery wasn't the driving issue. It was the unequal burden of taxes, and the fact that the benefit of those taxes went primarily to "internal improvements" in the North: the National Road, canal building, seaports, etc. The Abolitionists of 30 years later (not the nonviolent Anti-slavery parties), who backed Lincoln, threw gasoline on a long simmering fire and assured a terrible war. Which is exactly what the Abolitionists said they wanted. There's an evil group for you.
