Lincoln also illegally ordered a naval blockade of
the South (which only Congress could do), illegally increased the size
of the army (again, a power reserved only for Congress),
and authorized illegal voting methods in the border
states. Congress generally supported all of these decisions. Lincoln
justified them by claiming that desperate times called for desperate
measures and promised to obey the Constitution once the war was
over.
The Morrill Tariff
The 1862 Congress,
for its part, passed a flurry of progressive new laws as soon as
the South had seceded from the Union. First, Northern congressmen
passed the protective Morrill Tariff , which essentially
doubled the prewar tariff. They passed the tariff not only to win
more support from manufacturers but also because they realized how
important the economy would be during the war.
The Legal Tender Act and National Bank Act
Next, Congress passed the 1862Legal
Tender Act, which authorized the printing of a national currency
of paper money that was not redeemable for gold or silver. The next
year, the National Bank Act provided for the federal
charter of banks and supervision of a system of national banks,
all of which were required to comply with the Legal Tender Act.
The Homestead Act
Congress also passed the Homestead Act, which
gave individual settlers 160 acres
of western land if they promised to live on the land and improve
it by farming and building a house. In addition, Congress passed
the Morrill Land Grant Act, which provided federal lands
to state governments to build new agricultural colleges.
Congress Without Southerners
As one historian put it, Congress was so productive in 1861, 1862, and 1863 precisely
because there were no conservative Southerners to oppose new legislation.
Without any states’ righters, Northern Republicans could pass higher
tariffs, write a wide variety of badly needed reform bills, strengthen
the national economy, and bolster the federal government.
The new laws eliminated countless different currencies
in circulation that had been issued by individual states
or banks and replaced them with a single dollar backed by gold in
the U.S. Treasury. The new greenback dollar (named
for its color) gave the North great economic stability, which eventually
helped it beat the South. Together, the acts gave the federal government
unprecedented power over the economy. The Morrill Land Grant Act
and the Homestead Act, meanwhile boosted settlement and the agricultural
development of the West during the war and for several decades afterward.
