Kill for money

President Lincoln said in a letter to Horace Greely (August 22, 1862) that his paramount objective was to “save the Union.” But why did the Union need to be saved? Economic destruction to the North is the quick answer. The disastrous Morrill tariff was going to cause imported goods to pay twice the tariff rates in Northern Ports from what it would be in Southern ports. Please read the following excerpts below: Many more examples can be found in Foner, P. S. Business & Slavery: The New York Merchants & the Irrepressible Conflict; Russell & Russell: New York, 1968. It just sounds better to say to “free the slaves” rather than “fight for economic purposes”. That is kill people over money. Can’t really take the moral high ground on that one.

“The whole city of New York, you many rely upon it, is on the verge of bankruptcy. Not five dry goods houses will be able to stand. There is no business to be done. The number of hands discharged is immense. The Morrill tariff will bring the commercial crisis here . . . to an explosion next month. The greater part of the foreign trade will be diverted southward, and in a short time pauperism and general distress will be so great that uprisings and riots will take place.” Pages 281-282 Mercury. March 21, 1861, in Tribune, March 25, 1861, See also Charleston Courier,, March 19, 1861

“It was also exceedingly logical that when all efforts to save the Union peacefully had failed, the merchants, regardless of political views, should have endorsed the recourse to an armed policy. They had conducted their long struggle to prevent the dissolution of the Union because they knew that their very existence as business men depended upon the outcome. When they finally became aware of the economic chaos secession was causing, when they saw the entire business system crumbling before their very eves, they knew that there was no choice left. The Union must be preserved. Any other outcome meant economic suicide.” Page 322 Foner, P. S. Business & Slavery: The New York Merchants & the Irrepressible Conflict; Russell & Russell: New York, 1968.