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Federal Government Expansion

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The role of the federal government in the lives of the American people changed dramatically from the time of the countryâ??s founding to the present. Initially, the federal government maintained a limited presence in the daily lives of most people. Often, state and local governments were far more prominent and exercised greater autonomy then exercised today. As time progressed, the role and influence of the federal government became more prominent. Examples of expansion in federal authority are evident in events surrounding the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Era.

â?¢Identify and describe 4 examples of U.S. federal government expansion of authority between the beginning of the U.S. Civil War and the end of the Civil Right Era.
â?¢These examples must be placed in the context of the importance of the following developments in the United States:
â?¦Political structures
â?¦Social structures
â?¦Economic structures

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Solution Summary

The solution discusses the examples of federal government expansion from the time of Abraham Lincoln/Civil War, the Reconstruction, the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Era. References are provided.

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The four examples can be chosen from Abraham Lincoln, The Reconstruction Acts of Congress, the Anti-monopoly legislation of the Progressive Era, and the New Deal.

The Civil War had put the federal government on a war relationship with the Southern states and created a paranoia of which citizens or soldiers were loyal to the Union cause. Because of the war emergency and the
need to prevent treason or sedition, the President's power was expanded so that he could suspend habeus corpus in the federal courts. This means that the president could bring to trial anyone that he suspected to be
treasonous without evidence or even charges(Kelly, 1991). Of course there was continual debate of the extent of the law by Congress, who passed the Habeus Corpus Act that limited the extent of the act to not cover federal employees.s However,t he President could suspend constitutional priveleges especially when he declared
martial law in questionable states, whose loyalty was suspected. Moreover, Lincoln was fighting for the ...

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