Why wasn't secession about tariffs?

Sandsquid

Cadet
Joined
Feb 11, 2019
I think that same question arrives before the war too. If it was all about tariffs, why were all the compromises NOT about tariffs?

For example the Crittendon Compromise. Not one southern senator voted against it (and not one Republican for it). Had 6 amendments, all about slavery, none about tariffs. And the others... the 3/5 compromise, the Missouri Compromise. the 2nd Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850. The gag rule Compromise, the Kansas Nebraska act... Why were all the compromises both sides would call to at the time of secession as having failed or not doing enough all about slavery and not tariffs?

Why did secession conventions in their resolutions and proposed amendments not make them about tariffs? Instead all we hear is slavery, slavery, slavery thousands of times.

Why did the Confederacy make the guy who wrote the tariff law that was in place when secession began their own Secretary of State? That's an odd one isn't it? Promoting that person to the 3rd highest position in the executive branch.
 
Back
Top