The Increase In Federal Power

James_tiberous

Corporal
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
I'm reading Bruce Catton's Glory Road and he did this neat little analysis of the changes that occurred in the country following the defeat at Fredericksburg. Pretty interesting take on the increase of Federal power during this very short period from Fredericksburg and the summer of 1863. He looks at several seemingly unrelated incidents and connects them together to show how they all, as he says, related to the increased power of the Federal government.

* The Democratic victories in the mid-term elections forced Washington take measures that basically usurped state sovereignty in Indian as Governor Oliver Morgan (Republican) faced a Democratic legislature determined to impede--at the very least--the states contribution to the war effort. The Republicans simply went away and there was no quorum so the state could not pay its bills, but the Dems could not vote any anti-war measures either. Stanton then found funds for the state and Washington basically was funding the state

* The Draft was federalized. No longer would the states hold drafts and the Federal government would draft citizens.

* There was also a move to federalize the army itself away from State units. I'm not clear about this part.

* Catton interestingly links the court martial of Fitz John Porter to this increased federal power. This trial has been sort of a mystery to me but Catton makes a convincing argument that though Porter was innocent he was a sacrificial lamb to the move of getting ahold of the army and letting it know who was in charge, that being the federal government.

* Though Catton did not mention this fact in this section, it also fits in with his argument, that being the Emancipation Proclamation was also going into effect which had the feds freeing four million people.
 
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