rong support in the Charleston convention for the
Presidency, securing a vote almost equal to that given to Douglas.
This was an additional tie binding him to the South, and he responded
to the wishes of that section by preventing all action on the tariff
bill of the House pending the Presidential struggle of 1860.

SENATE VOTES ON THE MORRILL TARIFF.

But the whole aspect of the question was changed when at the ensuing
session of Congress the senators and representatives from the Cotton
States withdrew, and betook themselves to the business of establishing
a Southern Confederacy. Mr. Hunter's opposition was not relaxed,
but his supporters were gone. Opposition was thus rendered powerless,
and the first important step towards changing the tariff system
from low duties to high duties, from free-trade to protection, was
taken by the passage of the Morrill Bill on the second day of March,
1861. Mr. Buchanan was within forty-eight hours of the close of
his term and he promptly and cheerfully signed the bill. He had
by this time become not only emancipated from Southern thraldom
but in some degree embittered against Southern men, and could
therefore readily disregard objections from that source. His early
instincts and declarations in favor of a protective policy doubtless
aided him in a conclusion which a year before he could not have
reached without a conflict in his Cabinet that would probably have
ended in its disruption.

The passage of the Morrill Tariff was an event which would almost
have marked an era in the history of the government if public
attention had not been at once absorbed in struggles which were
far more engrossing than those of legislative halls. It was however
the beginning of a series of enactments which deeply affected the
interests of the country, and which exerted no small influence upon
the financial ability of the government to endure the heavy
expenditure entailed by the war which immediately followed. Theories
were put aside in the presence of a great necessity, and the belief
became general that in the impending strain on the resources of
the country, protection to home industry would be a constant and
increasing strength to the government.

On the passage of the bill in the Senate, on the 20th of February,
the yeas were 25 and the nays 14. No Democratic senator voted in
the affirmative and no Republican senator in the negative. It was
not o