Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was President of the US from 1861 to 1865. His presidency spanned the Civil War and he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. The author explained how Lincoln had done several unconstitutional actions during the War, justified as necessary for saving the Union. However, the additional presidential power survived and became entrenched. Regarding the economy, Lincoln established greenbacks as the national currency. The author criticized this move as being the first serious abuse of fiat money. He also argued that the Emancipation Proclamation was not done out of humanitarian motives to free the slaves, but to drum up support for the War. The cause of the Civil War was attributed to economics, with the North charging tariffs on imported European goods. This forced the South to buy manufactured goods from the North at higher prices than the European goods before the tariffs. The author also argued that...