ABSTRACT
Farmers, specifically the elite among farmers—the gentry living near Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston—learned as early as the seventeen eighties that by organizing they could achieve progress unattainable otherwise. Many farmers and their representatives in Congress regarded the central government as one of limited and, indeed, closely circumscribed authority, they rarely permitted limitations to concern them when they sought favors. In 1859 and 1860, agitation against the high duties levied on American tobacco abroad led to the introduction of a resolution in Congress protesting against discriminatory duties and limitations on importation and urging the government to take steps to secure their abatement. While southern rice, tobacco, and cotton producers expressed anxiety about their status in foreign markets, sugar, hemp, and flax producers sought to preserve the American market for themselves by government action and were ardent supporters of protection. Interference in Peruvian government matters did not stop, however, for the Peruvian monopoly was creating great indignation.
