People’s Contest, Chapter 5, “Congress and the Capitalists” p. 105-126

1.    Identify one fact that reflected the advantage the North held over South in agriculture.

2.    In what way were economies of the North and the South influenced differently by slavery?

3.    What did Republican legislators in Washington have to clear away before they could begin the process of financing the war?

4.    What economic policies established Democratic Party needed to be swept away in order for the North adequately finance the war?

5.    Of what did the nation’s money (currency) primarily consist before the Civil War?

6.    For what reason did the currency situation in the United States before the Civil War make for a counterfeiter’s paradise?

7.    Identify one reason why the national government’s use of an Independent Treasury did NOT make financial transactions quick and easy.

8.    Identify one of two sources of revenue for the national government before the Civil War?

9.    Identify one of three familiar sources of revenue that Salmon Chase tapped to fund the cost of the war?

10. What recommendation did Thaddeus Stevens make in hopes of raising enough money to pay for the war?

11. Senator Fessenden sought the advice of two of the nation’s leading financiers.  What was ironic about the advice they gave the senator?

12. What legislation authorized the Treasury to issue $150 million in notes that would pay no interest and would be legal tender for taxes, internal duties, excises, and personal debts?

13. On what rationale did the leaders in the North go ahead with the plan to make legal tender even though it violated the intentions of the authors of the Constitution?

14. For what reason did Thaddeus Stevens believe that the paying specie to the holders of public debt to be grossly unfair?

15. For what realistic reason was it necessary for Congress pay government bondholders in specie while paying the common man (soldiers and suppliers) in paper currency?

16. What was the largest source of government revenue during the Civil War?

17. Identify one method employed by Jay Cooke to sell government bonds?

18. For what reason was the income tax the most popular of the war?

19. In what way did taxes link the entire population to supporting the war?

20. How did the government manage to collect taxes from government employees without them ever knowing how much they paid?

21. How could a privately employed individual avoid paying additional taxes if an assessor claimed that more was owed?

22. Although the income tax favored the poor in what respect did it obscure the serious imbalances of wartime taxation?

23. In what respect did the excise tax hit consumers more than it did manufacturers?

24. Although the income tax favored the poor in what respect did it obscure the serious imbalances of wartime taxation?

25. In what respect did the excise tax hit consumers more than it did manufacturers?

People’s Contest - Chapter 6, "Congress and the Second American System" 127 150

26. In what way did the life of Abe Lincoln personify the social and economic vision of the North?

27. What did Democrats believe would occur if government meddled in the economy?

28. What did Republicans emphasize as the best means of providing economic opportunity?

29. For what reason did Northern Democrats oppose a partnership between enterprise and government?

30. What was responsible for uniting factions of the Republican party to support raising the tariff walls?

31. In what way did the Land Ordinance of 1785 establish a tradition of using land sales to fund education?

32. In what way did the Morrill College Land Grant Act create political warfare in state legislatures?

33. Identify one example of how the Morrill College Land Grant Act inspired patriotism in the Union’s colleges and universities.

34. What began to occur in the mid-1850s that clouded hopes of western settlement by the poor?

35. What act enabled citizens (or future citizens) to acquire 160 acres of land by simply working on it?

36. In what way did soldiers benefit from the Homestead Act?

37. Identify one example in which the limitations of the Homestead Act balanced its benefits.

38. Identify one example in which the precedent of exchanging land grants for railroad construction yield profitable results for the government?

39. For what reason did the Illinois Central Railroad haul wartime men and supplies for free?

40. In addition to the movement of troops and supplies, in what way did an extensive railroad system benefit the North?

41. In what way did railroads transform the economy from a small-scale local operation into a mass-production, high-volume, well-integrated system?

42. In what way did railroads make the invention of modern business organization necessary?

43. Identify one example in which railroad integration became more than an inconvenience but a matter of national survival.

44. Identify one example in which wartime necessities engendered technological changes in the railroad industry

45. Identify one example of how railroad leaders cooperated and integrated their roads to help bring about Union victory.

46. Into whose hands did Lincoln place the operation of the Union’s railroads?

47. What consequences did the war have on the postwar relationship between railroads and government?

48. In what way was wartime inflation a benefit to debtors?

49. In what way did the war itself demonstrate the wealth and power of the Northern economy?

50. In what way has the United States government repeated the economic policy of the Civil War years in subsequent wars?