April is designated Confederate History Month in Alabama by the Governor and State Board of Education. Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. Congress repeatedly stated the war was caused by taxes only and not slavery.

In his message to Congress, Lincoln explained: “My policy sought only to hold the public places and property, not already wrested from the Government, and to collect the revenue.”

Lincoln declared war in two proclamations, writing: “Whereas, the laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue cannot be effectually executed,” he had ordered 75,000 troops to invade the Confederate States and their ports blockaded.

Under the newly enacted Morrill Tariff Act, everyone who bought even a frying pan or axe paid 40 percent federal sales tax on the item, if imported from Europe, or 40 percent more in price, if bought from Northern manufacturers.

Southerners paid 80 percent of all federal taxes, and the North received 80 percent of the tax revenue.

Lincoln proclaimed in his First Inaugural Speech: “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”

Even the Emancipation Proclamation enacted half way through Lincoln’s Tax War, did not free slaves in the North, like Gen. U. S. Grant’s four slaves he owned throughout the War, and did not free almost a million slaves owned by the U.S. government as contraband in the Southern states under federal military occupation.

The most divisive lie ever shoved down the throats of the American people is that Lincoln’s Tax War was fought to end slavery.

On April 8, 1861 Lincoln started his tax war, like the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, by a surprise attack on Charleston Harbor, S.C., with 11 armed warships to occupy Ft. Sumter, a federal tax collection fort.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis described the surprise attack by Lincoln’s fleet in his Message To The Confederate States Congress:

“That this maneuver failed in its purpose was not the fault of those who contrived it. A heavy tempest delayed the arrival of the expedition and gave time to the commander of our forces at Charleston to ask and receive the instructions of this Government. I directed a proposal to be made to the commander of Ft. Sumter that we would abstain from directing our fire on Ft. Sumter if he would promise not to open fire on our forces unless first attacked. This proposal was refused and the conclusion was reached that the design of the United States was to place the besieging (Confederate) force at Charleston between the simultaneous fire of the (U.S.) fleet and the fort. There remained, therefore, no alternative but to direct that the fort (Sumter) should at once be reduced.”

Roger Broxton

Andalusia