The Tariff as a Motive For Secession

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The Tariff as a Motive For Secession

By Rod O'BarrAugust 16, 2023

Pious Cause apologists often dispute the claim that the South generated most of the federal revenue in the antebellum period. Yet a prominent Northern paper certainly believed that the South generated more than half of the tariff revenue that funded the federal gov’t. If the South was allowed to secede, the Daily Chicago Times, December 10, 1860, lamented: “In one single blow our foreign commerce must be reduced to less than one-half what it now is.” It was foreign commerce that generated the tariff revenue that funded the general government. Obviously, the Daily Chicago Times believed more than half of that revenue was generated by the South.

 So did Southern statesman William Yancey who placed the Southern contribution to the general treasury as being between fifty and seventy five percent: “Revenues have been raised at the rate of two or three dollars in the South to one from any other section for the support of this great Government…” (Equal Rights in a Common Government, William Yancey)

 Adding fuel to the fire, Southerners believed that 75% of the revenue collected was being disproportionately spent in the North: https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/the-tariff-as-a-motive-for-secession/