AMER.TRADE: Incidental Protection: An Examination of the Morrill Tariff

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                ABSTRACTS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
                     (c) 2001 EH.Net
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Name: Jane Flaherty
Email: jflaherty@tamu.edu
Institution: Department of History, Texas A&M University

Co-author: none

Title: Incidental Protection: An Examination of the Morrill Tariff

Internet Address of abstracted work: not available

By mail:
Jane Flaherty
Department of History
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4236

Language: English

Abstract:
The Morrill Tariff was implemented as a direct response to the fiscal
crisis created by the Buchanan administration. Both President James
Buchanan and many of his Democratic colleagues in Congress urged
revising the Tariff of 1857 to arrest the growth of the federal
deficit. However, the bitter rhetoric that accompanied the secession
crisis has obscured the true nature of this short-lived, but
important, revenue measure. An examination of the Morrill Tariff and
the circumstances surrounding its passage demonstrate that it
re-established the rates introduced by the "free trade" Tariff of
1846 while providing incidental protection for select industries, a
practice advocated by the Democratic party for over a decade. The
author concludes that the historiography describing the Morrill
Tariff as the first statement of the nascent Republican party's
protectionist agenda, needs revision.

Bibliography: Flaherty, Jane. "Incidental Protection: An Examination
of the Morrill Tariff," Essay in Economic and Business History, vol.
Xix, 2001: 103-118.

Subject: I
Geographical Area: 7
Country/Region: United States
Time Period: 7

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