University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2010 The Tariff in the Age of Jackson William K Bolt [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Bolt, William K, "The Tariff in the Age of Jackson. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2010. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/679 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by William K Bolt entitled "The Tariff in the Age of Jackson." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in History. Daniel Feller, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by William K. Bolt entitled “The Tariff in the Age of Jackson.” I have examined the final paper copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in History. Daniel Feller, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Stephen V. Ash _________________________________ Ernest Freeberg _________________________________ Michael Fitzgerald _________________________________ Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges _______________________________________ Dean of the Graduate School (Official Signatures are on file with official student records.) THE TARIFF IN THE AGE OF JACKSON A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville William K. Bolt May 2010 Copyright © 2009 William Kevin Bolt. All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my grandfathers, William F. Bolt and Martin C. Miller. Their kind gifts and encouragement helped to make the dream a reality. iii Acknowledgements Completing a research and writing project of this magnitude is a collaborative effort. So many people have taken time out of their busy lives to assist me in this endeavor. I would like to thank Professor Daniel Feller for his guidance and patience. His door was always open. His sharp and insightful comments have strengthened the hand of the novice historian. Professors Steven Ash, Ernest Freeberg, and Mike Fitzgerald offered insightful comments and suggestions. Aaron Crawford had thousands of conversations with me about the tariff during our years at the Polk Project and on our long drives to Tennessee Tech. If any person has become “tariffied” by the tariff it is him. Professor Paul Bergeron retired just before I began my studies at the University of Tennessee, but he always offered to help and graciously read numerous chapters. Professor Wayne Cutler, editor of the James K. Polk Project, introduced me to scholarly editing. Over the course of many lunches I learned much about the politics and economics of the early American republic. Tom Coens of the Andrew Jackson Papers Project generously shared with me portions of his own research on the early Jackson movement. Professor Richard E. Ellis first sparked my interest in the Age of Jackson when I took his Jacksonian Democracy course in 1997 at the University at Buffalo. Ever since, Professor Ellis has been a kind advisor who always reminded me to remember the political and economic battles of the antebellum period. His recent passing will be felt by many scholars. I regret that he did not live to see my work on the tariff in its final form. The secretaries with the History Department of the University of Tennessee—Kim Harrison, Sara Krisko, and Jennifer Ward—all assisted me at different stages of this project. Numerous librarians and archivists have aided me as well. I would like to acknowledge the library staffs at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Duke University, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Maine Historical Society, the Ohio Historical Society, the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission, the University of North Carolina, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Virginia. The Inter-Library Loan staff at the University of Tennessee procured newspapers and other hard to locate microforms for me in a timely manner. My colleagues in the History Department, Cinnamon Brown, Travis Hardy and John Kvach painstakingly read various chapters and offered critical analysis. My friends in East Tennessee, Erin Lawrimore and Steve Davis endured long rants on the tariff but also appraised me of viewpoints that I had not though about. My fiancée, Megan Lawrimore, patiently waited for me to complete this work. My parents, at every step of the way, offered moral and financial support. Finally, both of my grandfathers, William F. Bolt and Martin C. Miller took an active interest in my education. My fondest memories are of listening to them talk about their historical experiences in the great war and in the old neighborhoods of Buffalo, NY and Scranton, PA. It is to them both that I proudly dedicate this work to. iv Abstract In 1903, Edward Stanwood wrote: “The tariff has been the most persistent issue in American politics.” Unfortunately, historians have forgotten about the tariff. The Age of Jackson (1816-1860) begins and ends with tariff legislation. It has rancorous tariff debates recurring throughout the era. After the Treaty of Ghent, the infant American manufacturing establishment believed that it needed protection or European manufacturers would destroy them. Congress responded with the mildly protective tariff of 1816. This measure passed by large margins in both houses of Congress. Few realized the repercussions that this legislation would have in the next forty-five years. When manufacturers tried to raise duties in 1820, the House concurred, but the Senate tabled the bill. Four years later, Congress raised import duties. It did so again in 1828. Branded as the tariff of abominations by southerners, the tariff of 1828 and the tariff of 1832 nearly precipitated a civil war when the state of South Carolina nullified these acts. Congress averted bloodshed by passing a compromise tariff that lowered rates over ten years. With the sharpest cuts set to take place in 1842, Congress enacted the tariff of 1842. Southerners called this protective tariff a betrayal of the compromise of 1833. This victory for protectionists lasted for only four years, however. The Walker tariff of 1846 slashed duties and commenced an era of tariffs for revenue purposes only. Congress would not enact another protective tariff until after the Deep South seceded from the union. This dissertation seeks to show why the tariff is an important part of the national narrative in the antebellum period. The debates in Congress over the tariff were acrimonious. Tariff bills often passed by margins of less than five votes. Manufacturers believed that they could survive and prosper only if the federal government offered them protection. Some of these protectionists contended that they needed protection for only a short period of time. Once they had established their industry, they argued, they would adopt free trade principles. Many sectors of American society rejected these notions. Farmers regarded the tariff as an instrument that granted manufacturers a monopoly. Why should the federal government cater to one sector of society and not others, they demanded? Navigators believed that tariffs hindered the coastal trade. Strict constructionists considered a protective tariff unconstitutional. All foes of the tariff maintained that it inflated prices. The main question that this dissertation will address is why did the tariff issue become so important to Americans? This dissertation argues that the American people felt strongly about this issue. The tariff, throughout the Age of Jackson, helped to spread democracy. This issue galvanized the public and brought more Americans into the political process. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: The Tariff and the American Revolution….………1 Chapter 2: Peace, Prosperity, and the Tariff of 1816………. ..35 Chapter 3: Sectionalism and the Baldwin Tariff……………..81 Chapter 4: Judicious and Injudicious Tariffs………………..125 Chapter 5: The Wolf in Sheep‟s Clothing…………………...177 Chapter 6: A Game of Brag…………………………………227 Chapter 7: “Repeal the Tariff or Repeal the Union”………..276 Chapter 8: The Tariff and the Civil War……………………341 Bibliography………………………………………………...386 Vita………………………………………………………….410 vi Chapter 1—The Tariff and the American Revolution Before the Civil War, most Americans, no matter how far they lived from the seacoast or a manufacturing center, felt that the tariff somehow influenced their lives. Some believed that it kept their wages high and their necessary goods cheap. Others alleged the opposite. The desks in the House and Senate “groaned” under the weight of the petitions that Americans sent to the capital when Congress