Preface Summary

The Congress of the years of the Civil War was more active than any other time in history. It allowed the federal government to become a progressive leader, socially and economically. It was during this time that the federal government instituted national taxation, national currency, public universities and completed the transcontinental railroad.

The Republican Party dominated the houses and was the champion of business. For the thirty years following the war, the federal government protected, and at times, promoted industrial capitalism, which introduced society to a new modern life.

The Civil War had caused the beliefs of the previous times to be discredited. It gave the American Experiment of democracy validity. The war ended slavery and changed the views of the intellectual north. The next fifty years was the creation of a "new American culture."

There were four men that had more to...