DBQ Constitutional and Social Changes
... The time preceding the Civil War produced a series of constitutional and social changes that ripped through the states causing the bloodiest war ever fought by Americans. The war itself led to political and social developments throughout the following Reconstruction period. ... ” Secretary Welles writes “we shall get rid of slavery be constitutional means but conferring on the black civil rights is another matter. ... So, we see that the great philosophical and functional constitutional debate that raged throughout the young and growing United States was not put on a solid foundation until the outcome of the Civil War. ... It refers to “momentous changes” which not only empower the federal government but grant it legal jurisdiction that it never had before.