The Results of the Civil War
There is a strong and natural tendency on the part of writers to stress the dramatic and heroic aspects of war;but the long judgment of history requires us to include all other significant phases as well.Like every great armed conflict,the Civil War outran the purposes of those who took part in it.Waged over the nature of the union,it made a revolution in the union,changing public policies and constitutional principles and giving a new direction to agriculture and industry.
The Supremacy of the Union.-First and foremost,the war settled for all time the long dispute as to the nature of the federal system.The doctrine of state sovereignty was laid to rest.Men might still speak of the rights of states and think of their commonwealths with affection,but nullification and seces-sion were destroyed.The nation was supreme.
The Destruction of the Slave Power.-Next to the vindication of national supremacy was the destruction of the planting aristocracy of the South-that great power which had furnished leadership of undoubted ability and had solong contested with the industrial and commercial interests of the North.The first paralyzing blow at the planters was struck by the abolition of slavery.The second and third came with the fourteenth （1868）and fifteenth （1870）amend-ments,giving the ballot to freedmen and excluding from public office the Con-federate leaders-driving from the work of reconstruction the finest talents of the South.As if to add bitterness to gall and wormwood,the fourteenth amend-ment forbade the United States or any state to pay any debts incurred in aid of the Confederacy or in the emancipation of the slaves-plunging into utter bankruptcy the Southern financiers who had stripped their section of capital to support their cause.So the Southern planters found themselves excluded from public office and ruled over by their former bondmen under the tutelage of Re-publican leaders.Their labor system was wrecked and their money and bonds were as worthless as waste paper.The South was subject to the North.That which neither the Federalists nor the Whigs had been able to accomplish in the realm of statecraft was accomplished on the field of battle.
The Triumph of Industry.-The wreck of the planting system was accom-panied by a mighty upswing of Northern industry which made the old Whigs of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania stare in wonderment.The demands of the fed-eral government for manufactured goods at unrestricted prices gave a stimulus to business which more than replaced the lost markets of the South.Between 1860and 1870the number of manufacturing establishments increased 79.6per cent as against 14.2for the previous decade;while the number of persons employed almost doubled.There was no doubt about the future of American in-dustry.
The Victory for the Protective Tariff.-Moreover,it was henceforth to be well protected.For many years before the war the friends of protection had been on the defensive.The tariff act of 1857imposed duties so low as to presage a tariff for revenue only.The war changed all that.The extraordinary military expenditures,requiring heavy taxes on all sources,justified tariffs so high that a follower of Clay or Webster might well have gasped with astonishment.After the war was over the debt remained and both interest and principal had to be paid.Protective arguments based on economic reasoning were supported by a plain necessity for revenue which admitted no dispute.
A Liberal Immigration Policy.-Linked with industry was the labor supply.The problem of manning industries became a pressing matter,and Republican leaders grappled with it.In the platform of the Union party adopted in 1864it was declared "that foreign immigration,which in the past has added so much to the wealth,the development of resources,and the increase of power to this nation-the asylum of the oppressed of all nations-should be fostered and en-couraged by a liberal and just policy."In that very year Congress,recognizing the importance of the problem,passed a measure of high significance,creating a bureau of immigration,and authorizing a modified form of indentured labor,by making it legal for immigrants to pledge their wages in advance to pay their passage over.Though the bill was soon repealed,the practice authorized by it was long continued.The cheapness of the passage shortened the term of ser-vice;but the principle was older than the days of William Penn.
The Homestead Act of 1862.-In the immigration measure guaranteeing a continuous and adequate labor supply,the manufacturers saw an offset to the Homestead Act of 1862granting free lands to settlers.The Homestead law they had resisted in a long and bitter congressional battle.Naturally,they had not taken kindly to a scheme which lured men away from the factories or enabled them to make unlimited demands for higher wages as the price of remaining.Southern planters likewise had feared free homesteads for the very good reason that they only promised to add to the overbalancing power of the North.