"President Lincoln in his First Inaugural address made very clear, paying the duties of these tariffs was the only way to avoid war, and the southern States had already rejected such payments. War was the result and the southern States were invaded by northern States."
War with who? The British? The South?
I'm not saying that tariffs weren't a contributing reason behind the Civil War--it would also make a certain kind of sense given the ensuing Union blockade of the Confederacy... but...
It was Confederate soldiers at Ft. Sumter, South Carolina who fired the first shots in the Civil War. Maybe there still would have been a civil war no matter what, but--they really did take the whole disagreement to another level.
Also, FWIW: Americans are already suffering financially because of other countries placing tariffs on many imported goods from the U.S. In many cases, those tariffs are incredibly high. I've had conversations with friends and acquaintances about this in Canada. Canadian tariffs on certain U.S. exports to Canada are the stuff of legends.
Also, there are hidden tariffs, like the super cheap shipping costs for snail mail from China and other Asian countries to the U.S. and the sadly so-NOT-reciprocal and extremely expensive snail mail shipping costs going the other way.
Those shipping costs for Chinese mail allow small Chinese wholesalers to undercut large swaths of the U.S. domestic market for manufactured goods. For instance, we used to have a fairly robust domestic crafting industry selling jewelry and other small items.
Now, not only are the American crafters struggling because Chinese wholesalers gained access to American-based platforms like Amazon and Etzy and flooded them with super-cheap junk, but they also cut the legs out from under those crafters making specialized jewelry. There's even an company showing up at craft fairs that imports all of its merchandise direct from China. How can American jewelry-makers compete when their customers can buy surgical steel* earrings for under $5, and a full set of surgical steel jewelry (earrings, necklace, bracelet, etc) for around $15?
*Surgical steel is high quality and supposed to be hypo-allergenic, and it's accordingly more expensive.
"President Lincoln in his First Inaugural address made very clear, paying the duties of these tariffs was the only way to avoid war, and the southern States had already rejected such payments. War was the result and the southern States were invaded by northern States."
War with who? The British? The South?
I'm not saying that tariffs weren't a contributing reason behind the Civil War--it would also make a certain kind of sense given the ensuing Union blockade of the Confederacy... but...
It was Confederate soldiers at Ft. Sumter, South Carolina who fired the first shots in the Civil War. Maybe there still would have been a civil war no matter what, but--they really did take the whole disagreement to another level.
Also, FWIW: Americans are already suffering financially because of other countries placing tariffs on many imported goods from the U.S. In many cases, those tariffs are incredibly high. I've had conversations with friends and acquaintances about this in Canada. Canadian tariffs on certain U.S. exports to Canada are the stuff of legends.
Also, there are hidden tariffs, like the super cheap shipping costs for snail mail from China and other Asian countries to the U.S. and the sadly so-NOT-reciprocal and extremely expensive snail mail shipping costs going the other way.
Those shipping costs for Chinese mail allow small Chinese wholesalers to undercut large swaths of the U.S. domestic market for manufactured goods. For instance, we used to have a fairly robust domestic crafting industry selling jewelry and other small items.
Now, not only are the American crafters struggling because Chinese wholesalers gained access to American-based platforms like Amazon and Etzy and flooded them with super-cheap junk, but they also cut the legs out from under those crafters making specialized jewelry. There's even an company showing up at craft fairs that imports all of its merchandise direct from China. How can American jewelry-makers compete when their customers can buy surgical steel* earrings for under $5, and a full set of surgical steel jewelry (earrings, necklace, bracelet, etc) for around $15?
*Surgical steel is high quality and supposed to be hypo-allergenic, and it's accordingly more expensive.