Thomas DiLorenzo on the role of tariffs in the troubles of 1861.
. . . when the Republican Party gained power in the late 1850s the top item on its agenda was to increase the average tariff rate from 15% [in 1857] to 32% and then to over 47% [in May 1860]. . . .
Abraham Lincoln was a lifelong protectionist and . . . at the 1860 Republican Party convention . . . won the support of the Pennsylvania and New York delegations (the two largest) by convincing them that no other candidate was more devoted to protectionism than he was.
There’s more, and it’s rather better written than DiLorenzo’s own book.