The Disastrous Consequences of the American “Civil War”

by Tom DiLorenzo on June 16, 2026

Murray Rothbard pinpointed them in 1961, referring to the “devastating consequences for the libertarian movement” and saying that “America never recovered from . . . the statist consequences” of Lincoln’s war. Namely, “the enormous toll of death,” “setting aside of the civilizes ‘rules of war,'” waging of total war against the civilian population of the South, ending of federalism or “states’ rights,” ending of the right of secession and the voluntary union of states, creation of a national monetary monopoly, generations of protectionist tariffs, corporate welfare run amok, skryrocketing national debt, the “inauguration of despotic and dictatorial methods beyond the dreams of the so-called ‘despots of ’98,'” rampant militarism, suppression of civil liberties, military conscription, income taxation, a permanent standing army, and much worse. All of this is that Lincon and the Republican party (to this day) called “a new birth of freedom.”