Stories of Later American HistoryGordy, Wilbur F. (Wilbur Fisk)
History
Stories of Later American History
Gordy, Wilbur F. (Wilbur Fisk)
United States -- History; United States -- History -- Juvenile literature
Many people then believed that slavery would by degrees die out of the
land, and perhaps this would have happened if the growing of cotton had
not been made profitable by Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin.
After that invention came into use, instead of slavery's dying out, it
took a much stronger hold upon the planters of the South than it had ever
done before.
This fact became very evident when Missouri applied for admission into the
Union. The South, of course, wished it to come into the Union as a slave
State; the North, fearing the extension of slavery into the Louisiana
Purchase, was equally set upon its coming in as a free State.
The struggle over the question was a long and bitter one, but finally both
the North and the South agreed to give up a part of what they wanted; that
is, they agreed upon a compromise. It was this: Missouri was to enter the
Union as a slave State, but slavery was not to be allowed in any part of
the Louisiana Purchase which lay north or west of Missouri. This was
called the Missouri Compromise (1820).
It was brought about largely through the eloquence and power of Henry
Clay, and because of his part in it he was called "the Great Peacemaker."
But Calhoun was one of the men who did not think the Missouri Compromise
was a good thing for the country. He therefore strongly opposed it.
The next clash between the free States and the slave States was caused by
the question of the tariff, or tax upon goods brought from foreign
countries. Not long after the Missouri Compromise was agreed upon,
Northern manufacturers were urging Congress to pass a high-tariff law.
They said that, inasmuch as factory labor in England was so much cheaper
than in this country, goods made in England could be sold for less money
here than our own factory-made goods, unless a law was passed requiring a
tax, or duty, to be paid upon the goods brought over. Such a tax was
called a protective tariff.
Calhoun, who voiced the feeling of the Southern planters, said: "This high
tariff is unfair, for, while it protects the Northern man, it makes us of
the South poorer, because we have to pay so high for the things we do not
make."
You understand, there were no factories in the South, for the people were
mostly planters. With the cheap slave labor, a Southern man could make
more money by raising rice, cotton, sugar, or tobacco than he could by
manufacturing. Also, it was thought that the soil and climate of the South
made that section better fitted for agriculture than for anything else.
"So the South should be allowed," said Calhoun, "to buy the manufactured
goods--such as cheap clothing for her slaves, and household tools and
farming implements--where she can buy them at the lowest prices."
[Illustration: The Home of Daniel Webster, Marshfield, Mass.]
But in spite of this bitter opposition in the South, Congress passed the
high-tariff law in 1828, and another in 1832.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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