"Memoirs of service afloat: during the war between the states By Raphael Semmes"
It sounds like the Admiral was paraphrasing something he read somewhere.
An interview with Lincoln in Dec. 1860, Chicago....
"If it be true, as reported, that the South Carolinians do not intend to resist the collection of the revenue, after they ordain secession, there need be no collision with the Federal Government. The Union may still be maintained."
------------------
I must confess I did not realize the intense debate in the papers between Sept. 1860 and April 1861 on the subject of the collection of revenue. Lincoln's plan was to station Revenue Cutters off every southern port and seize payment on imports, to support the new tariff.
"Feb. 20, 1861- Mr. Lincoln's private secretary then read section 12th of the Chicago platform, as follows:
That while providing for a revenue for the support of the general government by duties upon the imports, sound policy requires such an adjustment of those imports as encourage the development of the industrial interests of the whole country, and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the working men liberal wages, to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor and enterprise, and the nation commercial prosperity and independence."
With this policy who was to benefit from the revenues taken on the imports to the South and paid for by the South? The papers of the day are full of the expectation of federally funded [piracy at sea]* upon ships trading with the seceding states. The Constitution does not give the federal government the power to collect taxes on ships at sea.
*my words
__________________________
David Upton