And that is pure Lost Causer mythology on display.
In fact, the Federal Government after the Civil War was basically the same as before -- about 3% of GDP, once the debt was paid down.
And that's roughly the same as the time of President Washington.
It remained at that same level -- circa 3% of GDP -- for another 50+ years, until the "Progressive Era" of Woodrow Wilson (1913 to 1920) and Franklin Roosevelt (1933 to 1945).
Then and only then, with the 16th & 17th Amendments, the Federal Government grew from 3% to 5% and 10% not counting National Defense.
And the Solid South solidly supported this Federal growth, even through the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956, after which it finally began to dawn on white Southerners that they were not necessarily going to be the biggest beneficiaries of Federal redistributionist largess.
Goldwater's campaign in 1964 was the first which brought large numbers of Southerners to vote Republican.
Johnson's resulting land-slide began the latest round of Federal growth from 15% to today's 23%.
Of course, I don't blame the Democrat South for Texas Democrat President Johnson, but the fact is that Texas-Johnson represented the Old South's love of government largess.
It wasn't the Progressive Era that brought a big increase in federal spending as a percentage of GDP. It was WWI. In fact, by this metric spending generally declined from 1900 to 1916.
Found a neat chart. Don't know how to post it directly.
http://www.alhambrapartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Ritholtz-spending-to-GDP-052812.png