But Lincoln’s policy was not emancipation. It was to returnrnthe South to the Union, even if it meant appeasing the Southrnon slaery. As Lincoln wrote Greeley in his famous letter of Augustrn22, 1862, “My paramount object in this struggle is to saernthe Union, and is not eitlicr to sa e or destroy slaver’. If I couldrnsave the Union without freeing any slave I would do it.”rnLincoln, however, had already settled on his decision to issuernthe Emancipation Proclamation, and had so informed hisrnCabinet.rnDid Tariffs Cause the War?rnIn For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes Upon the Course ofrnCivihzation, historian Charles Adams refers back to John C.rnCalhoun’s 1832 warning about the great sectional division Calhounrnhad seen on the horizon:rnFederal import tax laws were, in Callioun’s view, classrnlegislation against the South. Heavy taxation on thernSouth raised funds that were spent in the North. Thisrnwas unfair. Calhoun argued further that high importrntaxes forced Southerners to pay either excessive prices forrnNorthern goods or excessive taxes. Competition fromrnEurope yvas crushed, thereby giving Northerners arnmonopoly over Southern markets. Federal taxation hadrnthe economic effect of shifting wealth from the South tornthe North—not unlike what the OPEC nations havernbeen doing to the oil-consuming nations since 1973.rnAfter Lincoln’s election. South Carolina, Ceorgia, Florida,rnAlabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas did not wait to seernhow he would govern. All seceded before his inauguration.rnThey knew yvhat lay ahead. For, even before Lincoln took hisrnoath in early March, the first of the Morrill tariffs had beenrnpassed and signed by Buchanan, raising tariff rates to levels notrnseen in decades.rnConsider the situation of the South: as the South purchasedrntwo-thirds of the nation’s imports, and tariffs were the primernsource of tax revenue, the South was alread- carrying a hugelyrndisproportionate share of the federal tax load. By raising tariffs.rnCongress, in Southern ees, was looting the South. Southernrnimports would cost more, while the rising tariff recnue wouldrnbe sent north to be spent b Republicans who reviled thernSouth. The South’s alternatixe: buy Northern manufacturesrninstead of British. Either way, more of the South’s wealth wasrnheaded north.rnDixie was unwilling to sit by and watch Lincoln’s customs officersrnhaul their fattening satchels of duty re’cnuc out ofrnSouthern ports, up to Washington, to be spent somewhere else,rnby a President who had not won a single Southern electoralrnvote. As the historian Adams writes.rnThe Morrill Tariff. . . was the highest tariff in U.S. history.rnIt doubled the rates of the 1857 tariff to about 47 percentrnof the value of the imported products. This wasrnLincoln’s big victory. I lis supporters were jubilant. 1 lernhad fulfilled his campaign and lOUs to the Northern industrialists.rnBy this act he had closed the door for anyrnreconciliation with the South. In his inaugural addressrnhe had also committed himself to collect customs in thernSouth even if there were a secession. With slaver}, hernwas conciliatory; with the import taxes he was threatening.rnFort Sumter was at the entrance to the CharicstonrnHarbor, filled with federal troops to support U.S.rnCustoms ofheers. It wasn’t too difficult for angry SouthrnCarolinians to fire the first shot.rnBelie’ing herself an exploited region in a country yvhere thernnewly empowered Republicans despised her, Dixie decided tornleae. But there was a powerful reason the industrialized Northrncould not let her go. The free-trade Confederacy had writtenrninto its Constitution a permanent prohibition against all protectirne tariffs: “nor shall any duties or taxes on importationsrnfrom foreign nations be laid to promote or foster any branch ofrnindustry.”rnTo Northern manufacturers a free-trade South spelled ruin.rnImports would be diverted from Baltimore, New York, andrnBoston where they faced the Morrill Tariff to Charleston, Sa-rn’annah, and New Orleans where thev would enter duty-free.rnWestern states would use tariff-free Southern ports to bring inrngoods from Europe. So would man Northerners. On the veryrnee of war, March 18, 1861, the Boston Transcript wrote:rnIf the Southern Confederation is allowed to carry out arnpolicy by which only a nominal duty is laid upon imports,rnno doubt the business of the chief Northern cities will bernseriously injured thereby.rnThe difference is so great between the tariff of thernIfnion and that of the Confederated States, that the entirernNorthwest must find it to their advantage to purchaserntheir imported goods at New Odeans rather thanrnNew York. In addition to this, the manufacturing interestrnof the country will suffer from the increased importationsrnresulting from low duties. . . . The .. . [government]rnwould be false to all its obligations, if this state of thingsrnwere not provided against.rnAdams describes the political and economic crisis the Northrnwould ha’e confronted, living side-by-side with a free-tradernConfederacy:rnThis would compel the North to set up a chain of customsrnstations and border patrols from the Atlantic Oceanrnto the Missouri River, and then some. Northernersrnwould clamor to buy duty-free goods from the South.rnThis would spell disaster for Northern industrialists. Secessionrnoffered the South not only freedom from Northernrntax bondage but also an opportunity to turn from thernoppressed into the oppressor. The Yinkees were going tornscjuirm now!rnNor was Lincoln unayvarc of the dread prospect. In his First InauguralrnAddress, where he had been a portrait in compromisernon slaer, promising “no bloodshed or iolence” against secedingrnstates, he had made an exception:rnThe power confided to me, will be used to hold, occupy,rnand possess the property, and places belonging to therngovernment, and to collect the duties and imposts; hut beyondrnwhat may he necessary for these objects, there will bernno invasion—no using of force against, or among thernpeople anywhere. [Emphasis added. |rnMessage to the Confederacy from Abraham Lincoln: yourn20/CHRONICLESrnrnrn