Skip to main content

tariffs and trade

A federal tariff in 1828 that favored northern industry infuriated southerners and played a role in eventual secession.

On December 19, 1828, South Carolina’s legislature issued a set of resolutions vigorously opposing a tariff that Congress had enacted earlier in the year.
We hear a lot about America’s soaring trade deficit. That deficit has zoomed past $150 billion, and the United States Commerce Department estimates that every billion dollars costs the country 25,000 thousand jobs.

Can a nice, sensitive, schizophrenic young dominion of only one hundred find happiness on the border of a rich, overbearing old republic nearly twice her age?

Enjoy our work? Help us keep going.

Now in its 75th year, American Heritage relies on contributions from readers like you to survive. You can support this magazine of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it by donating today.

Donate