More on the Lowry Scandal

Well, it’s been just over a day since the news broke that the National Archives accused Thomas P. Lowry of altering a document in order to claim that Abraham Lincoln composed the endorsement on the day John Wilkes Booth shot him.  Where are we now, and what have we learned?

First, Lowry claims that he’s innocent.  He asserts that the confession he signed was coerced, and that NARA officials assured him that it would not be made public.  His wife claims that a former NARA employee committed the act (said employee is unnamed in reports).

Tariffs, Government Policy, and Secession

(fourth in a series)

One of the reasons offered to explain secession is that secessionists were opposed to the possible passage of a protective tariff that would favor northern economic interests.  According to some people, tariffs, along with state rights — and not slavery — explain secession.

Exhibit A in this discussion is the Morrill Tariff of 1861, which passed Congress after the first seven states seceded to form the Confederacy.  Like the Corwin amendment, it reached President James Buchanan’s desk on March 2, 1861.  It replaced the Tariff of 1857, a tariff with far lower rates that southerners had supported.