History of the United States I / Unit 15 USH1 2138 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
What Outlasts the War
The idea
Three of the Union's wartime measures outlast the war entirely and reshape the country: the Homestead Act, the transcontinental railroad charters, and the land-grant colleges. None of them is a war measure in any direct sense. All three passed a Congress in which the southern delegations were absent, having withdrawn with their states, leaving the Republican Party in unopposed control of both chambers for the first time.
In practice
A national land policy, a national rail network and a national university system enacted in a single session by a Congress missing a third of its members.
Where people slip
This is the entry to remember for the changing role of government. The modern federal government is built during the war and under cover of it, by the party the South's departure left unopposed. Secession removed the standing obstacle to every one of these programmes, which had been blocked for a decade. The South's withdrawal from Congress did more to enlarge federal power than any Republican argument had managed.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
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