LAWLzoR

Before you click away, just hear me out. I know what you're thinking because I can read minds "LAWLzoR is going to say the US government needs to back out of our lives!" Or "LAWLzoR is going to say the US government needs to do more!" Well I'll actually be talking about none of that. Instead I'm going to talk about the role of the US government through its history, how and why it changed, and why asking the question "What should the role of the government be?" is not too easy to answer.

Firstly, what was and is the role of the American government? To understand this we need to go back all the way to the 1660s or so when America was but a colony in the pocket of the British empire. During this time period, Britain was having problems at home so they had their colony of America govern itself for a while until Britain got its act back together an then had stricter control over the colony. This is important because the autonomy of the colony was born in this period, causing the tradition of individual government we can still see in America today.

This "laissez faire" policy of the government having its paws off was also seen in the first government of the United States under the Articles of Confederation. The federal government was very weak and was functionally only a representative body of the 13 individual states. But that's where the interesting part happens: things start changing.

Due to the inefficiency of the AoC, the Constitution of the US was adopted but not after much debate. The Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton wanted a stronger more autonomous federal government, but the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson wanted the laissez faire style of government the AoC provided. Long story short, both sides saw that the AoC had many flaws and thus made a whole new government.

And for the longest time, the federal government kept a hands-off approach. While yes the strength of the federal government grew, the federal gov't still kept off. But then a period from the 1820s to 1865 happened that shook the nation: sectionalism. This specific type of sectionalism happened to be between the north and south (I bet you can guess why). But it goes beyond slavery and goes to the fight between the national and state governments. Who had the right? The national government to rule over the states? Or the states to fight back against what they feel is an oppressive government? This got so bad that before Civil War happened to keep the south in the Union, President Andrew Jackson actually sent an ultimatum to South Carolina saying they must abide the law or face the national army. The issue? A tariff was put on certain product that the south couldn't manufacture themselves, making that product more expensive. So South Carolina refused to put the tariff the good. This was seen as a personal challenge to President Jackson and threatened South Carolina to abide or else. They eventually did, but this was only the beginning.

Fast forward to the man with a plan Abraham Lincoln, the wartime president of the Civil War. Amongst the plethora of reasons the south even left the Union was that they felt the federal government was being oppressive and that their rights to property were being infringed by the "Yankees". The war was first about getting the south back into the Union but changed to a war against slavery, even though Lincoln didn't care if the south kept it or not. But the important thing is that the Union won the war. It's important because it gave the final answer that the federal government is (generally) stronger than the states. Even though today the issue of states vs fed is still seen (i.e. legalization of marijuana in Washington (state) and Colorado, and the legal status of same-sex couples).

But that's not all folks, the next big step was in the 1880s into the early 20th century. You might recognize this as the time of "robber barons" or "Captains of Industry" depending on how you look at it. With the growth of companies and factories during this time the US saw a boom in inventions and new fangled ideas such as electricities, the washing machine, artificial light, the vacuum, credit, and all those things we think are boring. However there needed to be companies and factories to make these things. Enter stage left the Captains of Industries and workers.

For those who don't know, the working conditions for the workers in a lot of factories were horrible. Long hours, low pay, no worker's compensation for on-the-job accidents or deaths. It was a complete and udder mess. It was so bad that it got to the point that two things came to be: government regulations of companies, and unions. Let's start with the former. As people began to complain about the working conditions and fraud is some cases (i.e. sand or salt in sugar sacks and literally watered down milk) the government decided it needed to protect the workers and consumers. Regulations included but was not limited to: shorter hours (8 hour work day), safer working conditions, no child laborers, lights, and other essentials that your class will talk about later.

Next the unions. I'll only touch on this topic as the government's role was changed with unions but not completely. Unions formed by the workers had a tough battle with the government, making it seem like the government was going to protect its companies. However as we know the government also sided with the workers, deciding to protect its workers as well. And this problem was not solved with no bloodshed. Several riots of workers happened all around the country, including train companies and steel companies. Explosions, death, and bloodshed met some of the riots. This is another reason why the government stepped in: to stop the deaths and thus stop the lack of production.

So far, the government inflated in power and autonomy from being just a protective layer from foreign entities to being more powerful than the states, protecting its companies, and getting involved in civil rights and human rights. The government truly got more and more involved during this time period. But that's not even the height of it.

To not bore you guys any longer this is where I'm gonna stop. Trust me if you think 127 years (1783 to 1910) had a lot going on, you should see what the next 100 has. It's a lot more, a lot more quickly, and a lot more drastic.

Thank you for reading. If you liked this blog please comment I'm open to suggestions for blog posts too.