ABSTRACT
To the popular imagination, the Civil War has always remained ‘the great and central event’ in American history. The war, it might be argued, produced no great or enduring upheaval in the political and constitutional system. A more enduring shift in the balance of power did occur in the relationship between the federal government and the states. But the political and governmental legacy of the Civil War was much more mixed and uncertain. But what kind of permanent legacy would they bestow upon post-war America? Beyond its two fundamental achievements, the legacy of the Civil War is full of ironies, contradictions and surprises. The Civil War was the supreme test of the strength, meaning and purpose of the American experiment – a test on the one hand of its stability, resilience and capacity for survival and, on the other, of its democracy, freedom, justice and equality.
