How a tax increase helped spark the American Civil War

In 1828 Congress passed a tariff that increased the rates on imports into the United States to as much as 50 percent. This was the largest increase in the country’s history. The aim was to protect American manufacturing in the North by making importing foreign goods more expensive. There were strong feelings about the Tariff of 1828. Reactions were divided by geography, and the country split in a way that would later be echoed by the division between the Union and the Confederacy in the Civil War. People in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky generally supported the tariff. Meanwhile, Southerners nicknamed it the “Tariff of Abominations.” Residents of New England mostly opposed it as well, though not nearly as unanimously as in the South. Support of the tariff was one of the issues that helped decide the election of 1828. John Quincy Adams lost to Andrew Jackson. Jackson, however, disappointed his native South Carolina base by supporting the tariff to help pay the national debt. The tariff forced Southerners to buy manufactured goods from businesses in the North—at high prices. On top of this, Britain was importing less cotton because their profits from exports had dropped, which also hurt the Southern economy. The tariff was reduced slightly in 1832, more of a gesture than a fix. By 1833 South Carolina was threatening secession. President Jackson compelled Congress to further reduce the punitive tariff rates—while also granting him the power to use military force against South Carolina if necessary. Congress passed the 1833 Compromise Tariff. This brought the rates back to a reasonable level, but the damage had been done: the reality of the country’s deep economic divisions and disparate concerns had been brought into stark focus, causing tension that would simmer for another few decades and then spill over into the Civil War.