Title: The Economic Costs of the Civil War - Foundation for Economic Education
Headings: The Economic Costs of the Civil War
The Economic Costs of the Civil War
Pensions and Tensions
Bribes Across America
Some Rollbacks
Burton W. Folsom

Content: In 1860, on the eve of war, almost all federal revenue derived from the tariff. We had no income tax, no estate tax, and no excise taxes. Even the hated whiskey tax was gone. We had seemingly fulfilled Thomas Jefferson’s vision: “ What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States?” Four years of civil war changed all that forever. In 1865 the national debt stood at $2.7 billion. Just the annual interest on that debt was more than twice our entire national budget in 1860. In fact, that Civil War debt is almost twice what the federal government spent before 1860. What’s worse, Jefferson’s vision had become a nightmare.