Tariffs Forced Southern States to Secede

BigTex

Corporal
Joined
May 19, 2019
More sources:
Tariff of 1816
Tariff of 1824 the "Sectional Tariff"
Tariff of 1828 the "Tariff of Abominations"
Tariff of 1832
Tariff of 1833
John Randolph, on the Tariff of 1816, makes the issue clear:
"It eventuates in this: whether you, as a planter will consent to be taxed, in order to hire another man to go to work in a shoemaker's shop, or to set up a spinning jenny. For my part I will not agree to it, even though they should, by way of return, agree to be taxed to help us to plant tobacco; much less will I agree to pay all, and receive nothing for it. No, I will buy where I can get manufactures cheapest; I will not agree to lay a duty on the cultivators of the soil to encourage exotic manufactures; because, after all, we should only get much worse things at a much higher price, and we, the cultivators of the country, would in the end pay all."

The result of these Tariffs was, in the words of Senator Benton in 1828, in the Senate :
" I feel for the sad changes which have taken place in the South during the last fifty years. Before the Revolution, it was the seat of wealth as well as of hospitality. Money and all it commanded abounded there. But how now?All this is reversed. Wealth has fled from the South and settled in the regions North of the Potomac; and this in the face of the fact that the South in four staples alone has exported produce since the Revolution, to the value of eight hundred millions of dollars; and the North has exported comparatively nothing. Such an export would indicate unparalleled wealth, but what is the fact? In the place of wealth a universal pressure for money was felt---nor enough for current expenses ---the price of all property down ----the country drooping and languishing ---towns and cities decaying ---and the frugal habits of the people pushed to the verge of universal self-denial for the preservation of their family estates. Such a result is a strange and wonderful phenomenon. It calls upon statesmen to enquire into the cause; and if they enquire upon the theatre of this strange metamorphosis they will receive one universal answer from all ranks and ages, that it is Federal legislation which has worked this ruin."......"No Tariff has yet included Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia, except to increase the burdens imposed upon them."

Clearly the historical facts prove out that the South was forced by the North into Secession and thus it is, to this day referred to as the "War of Northern Aggression " by Southerners.
Men behind curtains
 
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