The repeal of the tariff, by the Confederate Congress . . .

. . . amounts to nothing. As it don’t produce any revenue, its repeal was accomplished without sacrifice. It is a desperate bid for foreign interference, but foreign nations would have respected it much more if the Confederates had first raised the blockade and then thrown open their ports. As long as our fleets seal up their ports, it cannot be of the slightest importance whether the Confederates have a tariff duty or not, and their trade is not likely to be of such value as to induce any foreign power to interfere at the risk of incurring a war with a Government just now vindicating its ability to crush out the rebellion effectually.

- Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862, p. 3