The Free Market Republic, 1877-1937

AuthorJack Fruchtman
ProfessionProfessor of Political Science and Director of the Program in Law and American Civilization at Towson University, Maryland
Pages95-97
American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction, First Edition. Jack Fruchtman.
© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The slave republic closed with the end of Reconstruction in 1877. For
the next 60 years, the United States experienced marked industrial and
commercial growth that eventually led to economic collapse and the
Great Depression of 1929. After the Civil War, Americans both bene-
fited from and occasionally complained about the rise of the railroads,
factory system, and many new corporations in the oil, steel, meat
packing, textile, iron and brass industries. When Congress passed
economic regulations, the Court often struck them down as violations
of substantive due process rights. Exceptions included laws like the
Sherman Antitrust Act, enacted at the end of the century, which broke
up monopolies in the oil and tobacco industries.
At the same time, presidents gradually began to assume new
leadership roles in policy development, wresting control from Congress.
Theodore Roosevelt, who succeeded to the presidency after the
1901 assassination of William McKinley, viewed the president as the
“steward” of the people, engaged in bringing world leadership to
theUnited States, and attempted to solve social, environmental, and
economic problems. Leading the country into World War I in 1917,
Woodrow Wilson transformed the nation into a war‐making machine
and esta blished what some historians have called a “war dictatorship.”
While the United States was at war and during its aftereffects, the
Supreme Court dealt with groundbreaking First Amendment issues,
siding with laws that restricted both verbal and written comment
Part 3
The Free Market Republic,
1877–1937

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