[1] As the 20% level approached in 1842, industrial interests and members of the Whig Party began clamoring for protection by claiming that the reductions left them vulnerable to European competition.
The Black Tariff was signed into law somewhat reluctantly by President John Tyler, following a year of disputes with the Whig leaders in Congress over the restoration of national banking and the government's land disbursement policies.
For the previous year, Whig leaders in Congress had sent bills to Tyler coupling the tariff hike with a public land disbursement package, which had been insisted upon by Henry Clay, prompting a presidential veto.
In the summer of 1842, representatives from the northeastern manufacturing states began feeling electoral pressures for a tariff hike before the elections that fall and abandoned Clay's land disbursement program.
Concerns that the Black Tariff's high rates would suppress future trade and, with it, customs revenue fueled the movement to repeal the act.