Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
Before that, they used things like horses and wind-power.
And wharves and piers and flatboars.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Well, yes. But what I meant and should have said was that there actually were RRs before there were steam locomotives. Although the Tom Thumb wasn't running until 1830, the Baltimore & Ohio was chartered in 1827. They tried sails and horses to power their trains, including one ingenious arrangement where the horse was on a treadmill and the power was transmitted directly to the wheels. Must have been darn happy to see their first locomotives .
No, I meant exporting. The West wanted better access to world markets with their agricultural products. The West could produce abundantly more than the home market could support, but the cost of transportation was preventing the export of the surplus. As transportation means improved and became more cost effective the West was able to take her place in the world market.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ole
The South did, apparently get the short end of the stick in 1830. With 4 ports to maintain, and a lack of interest in anything beyond a railroad from the nearest city to that port, the South didn't seem to much care. It was fat and happy with things as they were. And, it did have effective control of the disbursement of those monies.
When the North and West both stood together in opposition to the South, the South didn't have control over the disbursement of the internal spending. In the early years the West often exchanged votes with the North over high tariffs for transportation improvements.
"...the South bitterly opposed both high tariffs and spending on internal improvements. The South did not see how it stood to gain from the American System. High tariffs were directly counter to its economic interests because it exported most of its produce, and the South was not geographically positioned to benefit from federal spending on internal improvements."
"In the view of the South, the tariff was not just an indirect tax on its exports and a direct tax on the manufactured goods that it consumed, but the revenues generated by the duties were spent in other regions of the country. Southern politicians assailed the tariff for siphoning off resources
from the South, leading to impassioned cries that it was being oppressed and exploited by the other regions of the country." http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dirwin/internal2.pdf
Regards,
Rose
__________________ "Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names".--J.F.K.
The War Between the States established... This principle that the Federal Government is, through its courts, this final judge of its own powers.
-- Woodrow Wilson
When the North and West both stood together in opposition to the South, the South didn't have control over the disbursement of the internal spending. In the early years the West often exchanged votes with the North over high tariffs for transportation improvements.
"...the South bitterly opposed both high tariffs and spending on internal improvements. The South did not see how it stood to gain from the American System. High tariffs were directly counter to its economic interests because it exported most of its produce, and the South was not geographically positioned to benefit from federal spending on internal improvements."
"In the view of the South, the tariff was not just an indirect tax on its exports and a direct tax on the manufactured goods that it consumed, but the revenues generated by the duties were spent in other regions of the country. Southern politicians assailed the tariff for siphoning off resources
from the South, leading to impassioned cries that it was being oppressed and exploited by the other regions of the country." http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dirwin/internal2.pdf
True enough, but men like Calhoun of SC were early supporters of the American System of Clay of Kentucky. By the late 1820s they were not, and in 1830 President Andrew Jackson broke the connection bewteen tariffs and internal improvements starting with his veto of the Maysville Road Bill (see http://www.pinzler.com/ushistory/vetoofmaysupp.html).
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