LS: "The disaster at Appomattox showed that you cannot own slaves and profess freedom. CSA Constitution was all about slavery..."
Many of our Lost Causers blame "Ape" Lincoln and his Black Republicans for the unlimited growth we've seen in Federal Government since the Progressive and New Deal era.
But the historical facts are quite different.
Federal government remained, except during times of war, essentially unchanged in overall size from 1792 through the end of President Wilson's first term in 1916:
Federal government spending as percent of US GDP:
So it really wasn't until Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal that we saw a qualitative & quantitative change in Federal government size, scope & powers, when Federal spending doubled & doubled again before WWII, then continued doubling throughout the war until it consumed nearly 50% of US GDP in 1945.
Since the Second World War Federal spending has only occasionally dipped below 20% of GDP and in recent years rose into the mid-20s%, along with deficits which doubled national debt to over 100% of GDP.
Sorry if that doesn't comport with our Lost Causers' mythology, but facts, as they say, are stubborn things.
Very good. Many years ago I had a grad student do a paper on this, as well as per capita spending by government, rise/change in government employees minus military prrsonnel. Steady increase in both, but rising after Van Buren. The point was, NO president since TJ until Harding significantly cut spending.