To Enlarge the Machinery of Government

Congressional Debates and the Growth of the American State, 1858–1891

Williamjames Hull Hoffer

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Year: 2007
• eBook ISBN: 9781421402413
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

How did the federal government change from the weak apparatus of the antebellum period to the large, administrative state of the Progressive Era? To Enlarge the Machinery of Government explores the daily proceedings of the U.S. House and Senate from 1858 to 1891 to find answers to this question.

Through close readings of debates centered around sponsorship, supervision, and standardization recorded in the Congressional Globe and Congressional Record during this period, Williamjames Hull Hoffer traces a critical shift in ideas that ultimately ushered in Progressive legislation: the willingness of American citizens to allow, and in fact ask for, federal intervention in their daily lives. He describes this era of congressional thought as a "second state, " distinct from both the minimalist approaches that came before and the Progressive state building that developed later. The "second state" era, Hoffer contends, offers valuable insight into how conceptions of American uniqueness contributed to the shape of the federal government.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction. “Badly in Detail but Well on the Whole”: The Second State
• Prologue. “The Great, Noisy, Reedy, Jarring Assembly”: The Capitol, Lawyers, and Public Space
• 1 A “Government of States”: Sponsorship and the First Debate on Land Grant Colleges, 1858–1861
• 2 “The Object of a Democratic Government”: Sponsorship and Supervision of Agriculture and Land Grant Colleges, 1861–1863
• 3 “A Government of Law”: Sponsoring and Supervising the Freedmen, Abandoned Lands, and Refugees, 1863–1865
• 4 The “Two Great Pillars” of the State: The Supervision and Standardization of Education and Law Enforcement, 1865–1876
• 5 “To Change the Nature of the Government”: Standardizing Schooling and the Civil Service, 1876–1883
• 6 “What Constitutes a State”: Supervising Labor and Commerce, 1883–1886
• 7 “A System Entirely Satisfactory to the Country”: Standardizing Labor and the Courts, 1886–1891
• Conclusion. “To Answer Our Purposes, It Must Be Adapted”
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Essay on Sources
• Index