This will probably be the longest thing I post.

“..That that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.” This famous closing line of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address echo’s in classrooms of schools all over the United States as children recite the famous speech commemorating those who lost their lives in the battle of Gettysburg.   Mr.  Lincoln’s sentiment is certainly shared by all, but the federal government did not take appropriate action during the civil war or in reconstructing the country.

    To know why the Federal Government acted inappropriately, it stands to reason that a demonstration of appropriate action must be provided. Four score and four years before fighting even broke out, the founding fathers crowded into a hall in Philadelphia and penned out the high law that would keep the new nation running smoothly.  They called this high law the Constitution.   The Constitution divided powers among Federal and State and placed ways for either government to keep the other from overstepping into the powers of the other.   To ensure their intentions would not be misunderstood, two years later the Founding Fathers passed ten amendments call the Bill of Rights.   The final of these amendments states as follows, “ the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  This means the powers not given to the Federal Government belong to the States.  Among the powers reserved to the States by the Constitution is the power to  choose whether to allow slavery.   The States of the South chose to allow slavery, while the North decided to outlaw slavery in their borders.  For the Southern States the decision was economical, because their export were raw materials from plantations and farming.  The North, being industrialized, had no need for slavery and felt slavery an issue of the conscience.  In congress there was equal representation of slave and free states, but both sides adopted different manners of coping with the other.  Southern States had no desire to convert the North to allow slavery, the Southern States simply wished to exercise their Stately rights.  The North, on the other hand, felt that to allow slavery anywhere within the nations borders would be a contradiction to the independence the nation had fought to gain from Britain and almost began trying to push laws through congress to outlaw slavery in Southern States as well.  While the North was acting from good intentions, to pass such a law would take power from the States that was not a power given to the Federal Government and would violate the Constitution.  Under the Constitution the Southern States were able to keep the North from gaining the two thirds majority needed to pass an amendment.  The North and Southern States were working within the means allotted to them, the North by trying to introduce an amendment, and the Southern States by keeping the other side from taking power that was not theirs to take.  The point of the matter remains that to make a federal law ruling one way or the other on the subject of slavery would be a violation of the States powers.  To act appropriately is to operate within the powers given under the Constitution.

     It was a short period of time before the Federal Government began to act outside their powers. The Federalist party in the North and the Democratic party in the South continued their dance of States rights versus Federal Sovereignty for a greater part of eighty years.  Neither party gained an upper hand until the issue was brought into review for the new territories in the west seeking to join these United States.  After much deliberation and several violent demonstrations by both parties, it was decided that the entering state choose their status of slave of free, regardless of geographical location or whether another state would be joining to maintain the  Congressional balance.  When California joined these United States in 1850, the scales tipped in favour of the North and the Federalist party.  The Southern States knew it would not be long before their Stately powers began to disappear all together.   The Election of 1860 confirmed their suspicion that the end of State’s equality was neigh.  Rather than allow their Stately powers to be removed, the Southern States exercised their final right: secession. Several of the Southern States had specifically listed in their state constitutions that leaving the Union was their right, and the 10th Amendment protected this right since it was not removed from the states under the constitution. Even though the North had approved all these state constitutions upon the states’ admittance into the Union, those in the North was indignant that the Southern States would leave.  The Federal Government refused the former states’ request to remove federal troops from their land and a fire-fight ensued, after which Congress declared war on the now Confederate States of America.  Since the Southern States were no longer in the Union to serve as a counter balance to the pull of the Federalists, the Federal Government seized sovereignty. The action taken by the Federal Government to retrieve it’s lost territory was a violation of the same territory’s constitutional right to leave.  During the Civil War the Federal Government kicked the Constitution aside to act on their emotional impulses to regain the territory they lost. If a government does not regard the very foundation that established it’s authority, it becomes accountable to nothing, and unaccountable action is never appropriate action.
     After the war ended, it was time to patch up the nation.  At first ,President Johnson took over Reconstruction.  Being sympathetic to the South,  he only required an apology from the state leaders before allowing them re-admittance into the Union. When Congress returned to session, they correctly assessed that it was not within the powers of the Executive office to admit Sates and declared everyone Johnson had admitted to be in fact not part of the Union until they met new congressional requirements for statehood. This new list of requirements removed the states right to secede, and declared states entering The United States could not allow slavery.  The states no longer had equality with the Federal Government and the South begrudgingly complied with the new criteria.  Even though the 13th Amendment was Ratified, it was not enforced well enough to do any benefit. For example, many of the Southern States had “Black Codes” that controlled the movements of slaves, and upon re-entering the United States, these states simply changed their codes to read “Freedman,” leaving the former slaves to smart under oppression.  Another two amendments were ratified, stating that the Former slaves were in fact citizens and entitled to the rights to vote, and would not be deprived of their right to life, liberty or property by law.  These amendments did not stop radical groups from often successfully dissuading the new freedmen from exercising these rights through use of violence.  Even though the Federal Government was attempting to do right, their actions were not just outside their powers, but also ineffective. 
     In both instances the federal Government has seized powers previously reserved to the states, and in both instances the action taken had disastrous side effects, making room for the Federal Government to further extend into the States’ powers.  Since the Federal Government seized sovereignty under the Lincoln  and Johnson Administrations,  the economic and educational standing of the country have only suffered. Our Country is far below the standard it once was so close to grasping, yet can we say that all our country has lost is justified by our strong national unity that has led to the defeat of tyrants such as Adolf Hitler and Sadam Hussain? Without a doubt a divided nation would have brought a less-free earth at the close of the World Wars. As a citizen of a once great nation, I cannot help feeling torn between pride for the freedom we’ve helped bring to other nations, and yet sadness for our own careless treatment of the very freedoms we fought to share with other nations. The Federal Government may have acted inappropriately during and after the Civil War, but it is a greater crime committed by we the people who take our rights and freedom for granted.