It did more than that.
Between the Revolution and the Civil War, the argument was about federalism. The Hamiltonian impulse toward centralization was pushed by Hamilton, the two Adamses, Webster, Clay and Lincoln. The Jeffersonian impulse toward decentralization was pushed by Jefferson, Jackson and Calhoun. The Civil War ended that argument with a military victory by the Hamiltonians.
Whether intended or not, the Civil War bequeathed us an early and primitive form of corporate fascism. The country was run by Big Business in general and Big Rail in particular. The federal government had become the central government, and the sphere of the states was diminished. Where would the Jeffersonian impulse go?
The Jeffersonians decided to take that powerful central government and turn its energy into helping the people, not Big Business. Thus were born the Progressives, who came out of the Republican Party in the Northeast and Midwest in the decade of the 1870's. They had a Protestant view of the world, no doubt because their roots were in Northeastern Episcopalianism and Midwest Lutheranism. They wanted to regulate Big Business before more radical folk, like the Populists, could nationalize everything.
Like most American political movements, the Progressives spent 30 years wandering in the political desert before they achieved power with Theodore Roosevelt, who imparted legitimacy to the movement. Since then, the debate between Hamiltonians and Jeffersonians has been all about who will control that all-powerful central government and how its power will be used.
After World War II, the attempt by Southern segregationists to use states’ rights as the means of preserving the “Southern way of life” discredited federalism further.
It is only now that federalism is emerging once again as a potent philosophy. We are hearing arguments once made by Calhoun coming from Andrew Napolitano, among others. We are in for some interesting times.
Mr. Lincolns war fundamentally changed the character of the United States and not for the better I might add.
I suspected that my terse remarks would provide an opportunity for you to eloquently respond.
Many thanks for the text to my headline.