During the Civil War the federal government had levied an income tax, which had accounted for about 20 percent of its revenues. With various domestic manufacturers' and sales taxes adding another 23 percent, internal revenues exceeded tariffs, or taxes on imported goods, as a source of federal funds. After the war most domestic taxes were phased out, and the income tax expired in 1872. The primary means of financing the federal government became tariffs. American producers and manufacturers had long relied on the government to use tariffs as a way to block foreign competition with their products on the domestic market. For example, Louisiana beet growers, Pennsylvania iron and steel manufacturers, West Virginia coal-mine owners, and Ohio and Texas wool growers all feared that low-priced imports would drive them out of the American market. High tariffs imposed on such foreign goods priced them above domestic...