David --

Well, yes. But if I may approach the tariff issue as a broader question, tariffs were the sine que non of Henry Clay's 'American System' adopted by Abraham Lincoln and the Republic Party --

http://www.tax.org/Museum/1816-1860.htm

http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=92

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/setliff4.html

Protectionists didn't set out to damage or destroy the economic health of Southern states -- at least I don't believe most did --, but trade and taxation policies under Republican government did much towards that end. For nearly a century after the war, states in the Northeast and Midwest prospered at the expense of the South. A minor example -- Southern tax revenues were used to pay pensions for tens of thousands of Federal soldiers in service during the 'War of the Rebellion'. I'll allow the reader to imagine the different ways that might have been viewed by Southern citizens.

Hoping to do something about the downwards spiral of Southern poverty and economic hardship, FDR created a commission in 1938 to identify and correct some of the most harmful Federal policies still in effect.

Never been a Roosevelt fan, but I'm slowly beginning to understand why older Southerners who lived through the Depression still idolize him. Whenever I offer something critical about FDR or the Democratic Party, my ninety-three year-old mother-in-law still reaches for something heavy to throw at me.