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Economy

House Budget Blueprint Boosts Military, Cuts Food Stamps

House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a budget that makes deep cuts in food stamps and other social safety net programs while boosting military spending by billions, a blueprint that pleases …

World

Key N. Korean Websites Back Online After Shutdown

Key North Korean websites were back online Tuesday after a nearly 10-hour shutdown that followed a U.S. vow to respond to a crippling cyberattack on Sony Pictures that Washington blames …

Cover

A National (and State) Housecleaning?

It is long overdue, but the nation is talking about slavery now and what the Confederate flag really stands for, what should be renamed and what should come down.

City & County

10 Local Stories of the Week

There's never a slow news week in Jackson, Miss., and last week was no exception. Here are the local stories JFP reporters brought you in case you missed them.

Film

Big Change on the Big Screen

While some focus only on the opportunities ahead, Edward Saint Pe', founder and director of the Mississippi International Film Festival, is paving the way for emerging moviemakers right now.

National

US Appeals Court: NSA Phone Record Collection is Excessive

The bulk collection of Americans' phone records by the government exceeds what Congress has allowed, a federal appeals court said Thursday as it asked Congress to step in and decide …

National

Obama's Senate Allies Hope to Endorse His Trade Bill Friday

Supporters of President Barack Obama's trade agenda hope to fend off hostile Senate amendments Friday and send a major trade bill to the House, where another fierce debate awaits.

Health Care

Supreme Court Upholds Nationwide Health Care Law Subsidies

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nationwide tax subsidies under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, in a ruling that preserves health insurance for millions of Americans.

LGBT

Analysis: LGBT Group Faces Miss. Political Hurdles

A national civil rights group called Human Rights Campaign faces significant challenges as it tries to make Mississippi's legal climate more open for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

Music

Say Anything Wanders with ‘Hebrews’

The ever-changing, ever-acerbic rock act Say Anything subverts expectation on a regular basis.

City & County

10 Local Stories of the Week

There's never a slow news week in Jackson, Miss., and last week was no exception. Here are the local stories JFP reporters brought you in case you missed them.

Education

JSU NSF Grant, MSU CYBERCOM Partnership and USM Center for Digital Humanities

The National Science Foundation recently gave Jackson State University political science professor D’Andra Orey a $509,000 multi-year grant for research exploring the intersection of race, exposure to trauma and politics …

July 10, 2015

#FlagMyths: 'The Civil War Was Fought Over... Tariffs'

By Todd Stauffer

In an occasional blog series I'm inaugurating here, I'd like to pull forward some debate that's happening in the comments and examine a variety of the myths and legends that surround the South's participation in the civil war.

From the comments section came this one from Claude Shannon:

The war was fought over money and power. In 1860, 80% of all federal taxes were paid for by the south. 95% of that money was spent on improving the north.

Now I'm not a history scholar, but I do get curious when things just kinda sound wrong.

First... even if we assume that's true (which, as you'll see later, I can't) I think the construct is disingenuous, as it suggests that "the South" had very little say in the matter and no recourse but secession given the rapacious chokehold that the North apparently had on the South in terms of political power and usurious taxation.

It's a dramatic picture, but there are a few caveats:

1.) Democrats (the party that included most all Southern politicians) controlled Congress leading up to the Civil War (they lost the House in 1859) and had a Democratic president in the "doughface" Buchanan. (The term being one that suggests a Northern with Southern sympathies.)

2.) The Tariff of 1857 was authored and supported by Southern legislators (the primary author was Virginia Senator Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, who would later be pictured on the Confederate $10 bill) and it lowered tariffs to a level they hadn't hit in 50 years.

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2015/jul/10/22076/

Remember that through most of 1800-1860 there was no income tax on individuals and businesses or other taxes (sales, property) as we define them today -- Federal taxes were almost exclusively tariffs on imports. (The Nullification Crisis had come when tariffs were considerably higher in order to pay down debts from the War of 1812.)

So, "taxes" were considerably lower leading up to the war.

But then... if there's evidence that "The South" paid "80 percent" of those tariffs they'd managed to lower, I can't find it.

As noted here, about 63% of Federal revenue was collected as tariffs on shipments that went through just the Port of New York alone. And those tariffs were collected from the merchants who imported them.

Aside from New York, there were certainly other ports in the North; so an argument that "The South" paid 80% of tariffs -- e.g. that 80% of imported and taxed goods went through Southern ports where the taxes were paid by Southern importers -- isn't correct.

(The tariffs were also protectionist in nature, and likely benefitted both the North and South as they made locally produced goods more attractive.)

If there's a more esoteric argument that says somehow the South ultimately bought 80% of those goods and therefore experienced the markup that came from them being taxes, I haven't seen it, but it would be interesting to read and parse.

One other point to make on tariffs -- the Southern states …

Justice

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