Great efforts had previously been made by agents of the United States
Government to reflect upon the credit of the Confederate States, by
resuscitating an almost forgotten accusation of repudiation against the
State of Mississippi, and especially by an emissary sent to Great
Britain, than whom no one knew better how false were the attempts to
implicate my name in that charge. The slanderous tongues of Northern
hatred even went so far as to style me "the father of repudiation." How
unjust all such assertions were, will be manifest by a simple statement
of the case.[193]
We should not omit to refer once more to the most prolific source of
sectional strife and alienation, which is believed to have been the
question of the tariff, or duties upon imports. Its influence extended
to and affected subjects with which it was not visibly connected, and
finally assumed a form surely not contemplated in the original formation
of the Union. In the Articles of Confederation, the first Constitution
of the United States, the theory was that of direct taxation, and the
manner was to impose upon the States an amount which each was to furnish
to the common Treasury to defray expenses for the common defense and
general welfare.
During the period of our colonial existence, the policy of the British
Government had been to suppress the growth of manufacturing industry. It
was forcibly expressed by Lord North in the declaration that "not a
hobnail should be made in the American colonies.
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