The Constitutional Politics of Federalism During the Civil War and Reconstruction Era

The Civil War and Reconstruction Era are commonly viewed as a radical turning point in the history of American federalism, whereby the "dual federalism" of the Founding was dismantled and replaced with a far more nationalistic understanding of federal-state relations. However, a careful examination of nineteenth-century legal and political history provides little support for the idea of a dramatic discontinuity in the nature of American federalism. This history indicates that the federal system has never been simply determined by constitutional law as articulated by the judicial branch; rather, its contours are continuously defined by constitutional politics involving all three branches.