The New Tariff → .
The new Black Republican ← Tariff, which has passed the House, and is about to pass the Senate, is worse than the old bill of abominations which drew South Carolina originally into Nullification. It not only raises the rates of duty enormously, but proposes an entire change in the whole Revenue system of the country. It is oppressive to the poor, burdensome to all classes, and is calculated to involve the foreign trade of the country in hopeless ruin. It would array one section of the country against the other, even if there were no other cause of offence, and set all Europe against the United States. Verity, the "madness which goeth before destruction," hath seized upon the Black Republicans]
Contribution and distribution are always a bit unbalanced in almost anything but this was blatant. It would hit anyone. Even the simple purchase of lace or candy. Tea parties would become a drain on the household budget.
The dawn of the 'new' assistant for the crop growers was upon them. While they'd need people to work the land, slavery was on it's way out. It was too expensive but what to do with that many people who had no means of support, no home, no nothing was a huge question mark. The problem had been solved by King William in England years before when he had his hands full of Religious refugees he sent them to Virginia. Georgia got the convict population. Those in New York and Boston were trying to be quiet about it (that's a joke, they've never been quiet) but they were wanting the Irish who were arriving in large numbers to move on out of their area.
Hmm, what to do? The West was being expanded at a fast pace. More forts, soldiers, safer routes for trade and travel were needed and the railroads were coming and they only slowed down when the war began. Horace Greeley was the one given credit for saying what was already happening. While reading the Killing of Crazy Horse the other night is when it hit me. We've been tossing North vs South around and both have valid arguments at times. The one thing I hadn't really thought out was the role the Westward expansion was playing and how much money the government was putting into it. That's the bugabear. No way could the South get enough to even bother to replant if the Fed was not going to let them get a return worth their effort. With new cotton markets abroad opening up, it was a downward spiral no matter what they did. Yes, they planted other things and most were food crops.
The South was boxed in. Why not try something new? Ok, so it backfired but at least they tried.
Pam