216
Senate; Vice President Calhoun cast the deciding vote
against the woolen tariff.
Redoubling their efforts, the manufacturers convened at
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They called for far higher duties on
woolens and many other products. Their duties would double
the price of most woolen goods. Once Congress got hold of the
bill, however, it was transformed. Southerners, to ensure its
defeat, attempted to drive a wedge between western farmers
and northeastern manufacturers. The Southerners added high
taxes on imports of raw materials, such as wool, hemp, and
molasses; such measures pleased the sheep farmers and hemp
growers of the Mid-Atlantic states and the Midwest, but harmed
woolen manufacturers in New England as well as those
engaged in shipping. When the final vote came, congressmen
from the South voted against the Tariff of Abominations,Origins of the “Tariff of
Abominations”
After the Napoleonic wars, the “infant industries” of the
United States sought and received “protection” against for-
eign competition in the form of high tariffs on imports.
A protective tariff was enacted in 1816 without serious
controversy. But manufacturers in Massachusetts, New York,
and Pennsylvania wanted still higher tariffs. In 1827 Daniel
Webster of Massachusetts proposed a law to add an eighty-
three-cent tax to every dollar’s worth of imported woolen
cloth. This would ensure that American woolen manufac-
turers, many of them located in Massachusetts, would dom-
inate the market; it would also raise the price of woolen
cloth to American consumers. The measure was tied in the
MAPPING THE PAST
North–South
Sectionalism Intensifies
ATLANTICOCEANGulf of MexicoL.Superio
rL.MichiganL.
Hu
ro
nL. ErieL.
OntarioMiss
issippiR.BaltimoreHarrisburgNew YorkBostonMontréalWashingtonSavannahCharlestonWilliamsburgSt. AugustineMARYLANDCONN.DELAWAREALABAMA GEORGIAUNORGANIZED
TERRITORYBRITISH POSSESSIONSUPPER
CANADAUNORGANIZED
TERRITORYMAINEMASS.MISSOURIILLINOIS INDIANAFLORIDANEW
HAMPSHIRENEW
JERSEYNEW
YO R KPENNSYLVANIAOHIOR.I.SOUTH
CAROLINANORTH CAROLINAVIRGINIAKENTUCKYTENNESSEEMICHIGAN
TERRITORYARKANSAS
TERRITORYLOUISIANAMISSISSIPPI
SPANISH
POSSESSIONSIn favor
Opposed
Unsettled or not votingVote in the House
of RepresentativesPassage of the "Tariff of Abominations," 1828Note that the North–South split on the 1828 tariff paralleled the division
between free and slave states; an exception was Kentucky, a slave state that endorsed the high tariff of 1828.