Civil War Dbq

Over our nation’s history there has been a constant debate regarding the role of the federal government. Between 1865 and 1936, there were undeniably some of the greatest changes made to the federal government that shaped it into the country we know today. The Civil War, which resulted in the consolidation of the American Union due to the North’s victory, was the catalyst to the first major role change the Federal Government saw during this period. Through Reconstruction and by following the path Lincoln and Republicans had laid down, the American Union would be the incarnation of a universal set of ideas based on political democracy and civil liberties. The U.S. involvement in WWI amplified Federal Power during the early 20th century

There were several factors at hand that led to the war between the Northern Union and the Southern Confederate states, but what was most prevalent was the disagreement on civil liberties. The end of the civil war brought in a new age for the country, unifying the states under one centralized government for the first time. Following the groundwork set by the Lincoln, they embraced industrialization and modern ideas of organization. Unfortunately, after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, reintegrating both a former slave population and a former rebellious population back into the country proved to be more of a challenge than previously thought. Though slavery had been abolished, sharecropping helped maintain the pre-civil war serfdom in the agrarian South. Radical Republicans believed the war had been fought for equal rights and wanted to see the power of the national government expanded. Republicans had enough support to pass the Civil Rights Bill in 1866, which defined persons born in the United States as citizens and established nationwide equality before the law, regardless of race. While Andrew Johnson took no time in vetoing the law, Congress made history by overriding a presidential veto for the first time with a 2/3rds majority vote in favor of the Civil Rights Act. Congress also decided to amend the Constitution with the 14th Amendment which

citizen’s lives. While some expansion was seen during the first term of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, 1914 still only saw total federal spending in the U.S. totaling less than 2 percent of the GNP. The highest bracket of the newly enacted income tax was a mere 7 percent for those making over $500,000 and less than 1 percent of the population paid any income tax at all. The Post Office employed the majority of federal civilian employees, around 400,000, making up roughly 1 percent of the labor force and there were less than 166,000 men on active duty in the armed forces. Though the federal government assisted the economy in a few areas, it was out of sight and out of mind for most citizens. With U.S. entry into the Great War, the government extended immensely in size, degree, and force. It nationalized international telegraphic cable, domestic telegraph, telephone and railroad industries. The government began manipulating labor-management relations, international commerce, markets for raw materials and manufactured products, the distribution of coal and oil, securities sales and even agricultural production and marketing. The recently founded Federal Reserve System became a powerful proprietor of monetary inflation to help fulfill the government’s unabashed greed for money and credit. Many would go on to describe the state of the government as “war