Pro-tariff Republicans not only attacked the policies of the free traders, but also made personal attacks on the individuals who wanted lower tariffs. They impugned the loyalty of Democratic free traders, charging that Democrats who backed the Mills Bill were from the states that had supported slavery before the Civil War and could not shake their fondness for the institution. Tariff reformers from the South either wanted to turn white workers into slaves, or were so woefully ignorant that they didn’t understand finance.
