The Lowell compromise was politically savvy in that it proposed a tariff structure that balanced the interest of southern cotton exporters and New England textile manufactures facing foreign competition. The tariff was designed to be high enough to keep out inexpensive Indian fabrics that did not use American cotton but competed with domestic producers, but not so high as to keep out higher-priced, higher-quality British goods that used American cotton, something southern export interests would have found objectionable.
