Why did northerners like higher tarrifs?

Answer 1

Higher tariffs meant imported goods - which were usually of better quality and also usually less expensive - would be more costly than the goods made in the new industries growing in the north. It was an effort to force people to buy the goods made in the US, as opposed to the cheaper, better goods made elsewhere, mainly in England. This is called "protectionism", because it uses tax policy to protect American industries. Southerners objected because they preferred the better, cheaper goods, and also because it was hard to get the goods made up north in America. There were no roads to speak of, and certainly no freight traffic from north to south by road. There was a small amount of coastwise shipping trade along the eastern seaboard, but this only reached the southern port cities and maybe inland up the navigable rivers. There were few railroads to carry goods to the south. Additionally, southerners had always done their trading with England. The prevailing winds made it much easier to cross the Atlantic by sailing ship than to try to beat your way along the American coast, running across the wind. Every plantation had its own dock, and its produce was loaded right there for shipment to England. Each plantation had a "factor" in England, who was their representative, and would take care of selling their crops for the best price obtainable, and would also use the money received to buy and ship back whatever goods the Americans wanted. This was the way the southerners had always done business, and the high tariff was an attempt to make them instead do business with the northern firms, for more expensive, lower quality goods, which were hard to obtain due to the lack of infrastructure allowing the movement of freight. Before the Civil War, with one fifth of the white population, the south paid two-thirds of the taxes received by the Federal government, almost all through these high tariffs.