Hunter Amendment adopted in Congress

After one day of debate on the Senate floor, the Hunter Amendment, named after Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, was passed by a vote of 32-12. The Hunter Amendment to the Tariff of 1857 included a reduction in all tariff schedules by twenty to twenty-five percent. Hunter's bill, which reduced the duty on iron from thirty to twenty-four percent, caused iron manufacturers in Pennsylvania to join the wool growers in protest. President Pierce signed the newly revised Tariff, complete with the Hunter Amendment, as one of his final official acts as President. The Tariff succeeded in reducing the federal revenues, but hardly won widespread praise from protectionists. Although the Tariff was written by a southern-rights Virginian and adopted with southern votes, many southerners found little to praise about the Tariff.