Civil War Dbq

The United States of America has always disputed over the amount power the federal government had in regards to what the federal government could control through laws. Federalist and Anti-Federalist argued for years because they could not agree if the United States should or should not have a powerful central government (Kennedy). Even after those parties transformed into different parties, the continuous debate over the amount of power the federal government should have continued. The Civil War was fought over slavery and Southern States seceded from the nation to display dominance over the federal government and eradicate laws made by the federal government the South did not support, such as those regarding slavery (Causes of the Civil War).

The United States’ history revolves around the issue of slavery and how the nation should deal with slavery and its aftermath. In response to the Civil War, the federal government increased its power and presence in order to ensure that Blacks kept their freedom, were given rights, and that those rights were protected. The federal government also wanted to ensure that the South would not rebel and attempt to start a new nation again. The federal government attempted to protect the rights of Blacks and preserve the union through reconstruction. With the newly emancipated slaves and damages from the war, the federal government needed to increase power in an restless south, to create new las and to unify a separate nation.
Before the Civil War the South was independent and proud. The South bartered, as one of their large means of currency, further isolating them from the rest of the United States, thus the South seceding from the United States was not unexpected (Foner, 11). Since the secession from the union was not abburt, and stemmed from long term problems, this reveals that the federal government was too weak to resolve the issues in the nation in order to keep it intact. There was were issues within the federal government because even with President Lincoln's attempts to preserve the union, nothing the federal government did worked. Long before the Civil War, the nation had a weak federal government. In 1808 Congress outlawed the African slave trade, yet the South still smuggled in slaves regardless of the death penalty that accompanied breaking the law (Kennedy, 247). People ignored the threat of the death penalty, displaying the lack of law abiding citizens, thus showing disrespect to the federal government in the South.
During the Civil War, the federal government struggled to have the union agree about the war.

President Lincoln had many objecters of the draft during the civil war (Kennedy, 328). The union was not fully united during the war, and people had issues with the government. Lincoln did not want fight a war, and attempted to unify the union with his ten percent plan. 1863 he issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction which would pardon Confederates who would swear to the union, and states only needed ten percent of their voting population to take an oath of loyalty to the union in order to rejoin (Alchin). This lenient plan shows the federal government did not want to increase their power over the states during the civil war, but that would change later on in the war and after the war ended. Attempting to fund the war Lincoln tried to raise taxes twice, but the people resisted, and in response Lincoln had to authorize legal tender called “greenbacks” which no one could refuse since the currency was standardized for the nation (Flaherty, Edward). Lincoln did have to exert some of his power over the people in the union, during the war, revealing how the federal government had little power before, since Lincoln had to increase it. President Lincoln also signed a bill in 1861 that implemented the first Federal income tax (History the First Income Tax). Lincoln signing the bill caused the federal government to increase in size and power it yielded over the people, in order

to help pay for the Civil War.
Near the final end of the war the federal government changed their motive for fighting the war thus changing the federal government's stance and laws about slavery. General Benjamin Butler found a productive use fugitive slaves. He claimed that fugitive slaves were “contraband of war”, not free and were not to be returned to their master, but employed as a laborers for the Union Army's (Fonner, 5). The North not only found a way to help stop African Americans from becoming enslaved again, the North used them for their own advantage against the South, increasing their chances of winning the war. Around 1862 was when President Lincoln came to the conclusion that it would be best for the union military that slavery was abolished and the fight was no longer about preserving the union, but abolishing slavery (Thirteenth Amendment). Then Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation, where he said that people held as slaves in the South are free and the federal government, including the military will maintain the freedom of the newly freed slaves, yet since the Confederacy was not part of the Union, he did not have the power to free the slaves (Reconstruction). President Lincoln did not have the authority or power to free the slaves in the South, but he bestowed the power to himself, thus increasing the power of the federal government of the Union, even if the power was not legitimate. The slave legitimized the power by believing it. Lincoln’s actions helped the Union win the war, and the free slaves, who totaled in 180,000 in the Union Army. The freed slaves helped the success of the North (Fonner, 8), which increased the North’s power.
After the Civil War the nation had a lot of work to do in order to fix the damages from the war.

Economic historians think the war costed the United States 6.6 billion dollars in 1860, without inflation (Ross, Michael). The large loss after the Civil War was from all of the damages, since the war was fought on United States Soil. As well as the cost of the war, the South’s economy was in ruins because of devastating military damages, and the economy previously relied on slavery for free labor, thus the economy plummeted after the war ended leading to poverty in the upcountry (Fonner, 17). By reason of Lincoln freeing slaves in the South, and the South now being under Lincoln’s control, African American women and children were not required to work (American's Reconstruction). This eventually lead to less labor, meaning less profit in the southern economy, harming the economy even more making the South

weaker.
The federal government also made an amendment to the constitution stating the United States would not pay for any debt or any claim for the loss or emancipation of slaves, or damages done in rebellion against the United States. The federal government did not want to help nor tried to help the South with their economic struggles, because it would keep the South weak and thus less likely to rebel again. (US Constitution). The federal government did not directly increase their power through laws, the federal government flaunted their power by withholding assistance, which is another way of exerting power over the South.
The Union had to solve the issue of reinstating the states back into the country and with that came the threat of former slaveholders trying to have slavery returned. President Lincoln knew that his emancipation proclamation would not be honored after the war, thus he created the thirteenth amendment to permanently outlaw slavery and resolve the issue of slavery being legal in the constitution (Thirteenth Amendment). The federal government finally seized power and made slavery illegal after years of having the constitution legalize slavery, thus they ensured Black people in the South would not be re-enslaved. While Lincoln was adamant on keeping Blacks free, he and President Andrew Johnson were not strict on their stance of readmitting the South.