Once, the national government of the United States was small, unintrusive, and nearly invisible. Then came Progressivism, the New Deal, and the Great Society, and national authority grew much more powerful and affected every individual citizen. Or, as Brian Balogh, professor of history at the University of Virginia and Director of the “Governing America in a Global Era” National Fellowship Program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, puts it, “both conservatives and progressives agree on one thing: nineteenth-century Americans embraced the free market and the principles of ‘laissez-faire’. Conservatives want to harness that past; progressives celebrate America’s liberation from it…” (p. 2). In “A Government Out of Sight,” Balogh sets out to debunk this story and demonstrate that during the nineteenth century, the national government (Balogh consistently uses the term national rather than federal) was hardly powerless and passive. Instead, Balogh argues, Americans turned regularly to the national government to promote economic growth and provide important services. However, he points out, nineteenth century national power “was often most powerful in shaping public policy when it was hidden in plain sight” (p. 4).

Over the course of eight chapters (plus introduction and conclusion), Balogh seeks to dismantle the myth of a powerless nineteenth-century national government, and he does so quite persuasively. Chapters two and three cover the concept and evolution of national power before and immediately after the American Revolution; it is a bit ironic that a book that purportedly deals with the nineteenth century spends almost a hundred pages on the eighteenth. In these early chapters, Balogh largely (and somewhat uncritically) follows the established narrative of a transition from republicanism to liberalism, from a polity based on civic virtue and Hamiltonian activism to one based on self-interest and Jeffersonian small government. This would seem to contradict Balogh’s main argument, if not for two important points: first, the demand for energetic national government in the 1780s and Hamiltonian activism in the 1790s shows that a hands-off national government was not always the defining narrative in American politics. Second, while emerging liberalism did change the political culture of America in favor of laissez-faire, it did not dismantle the institutions of national government, which continued to play a crucial role in the dawning nineteenth century.

Chapters three through six form the core of Balogh’s argument, as he meticulously analyzes the many ways in which the national government actively shaped American life in the antebellum era, even under the leadership of the nominally laissez-faire Jeffersonian Republicans and Jacksonian Democrats. The national government fostered internal improvements and levied tariffs; it pursued an active foreign policy with domestic goals in mind (like the Louisiana Purchase); it administered, developed, and sold the Western territories; it fought and removed Native Americans, professionalized the army, and built lighthouses. While all these activities may be considered core responsibilities of even a “small” government, they nevertheless had a decisive impact on the development of the United States that went well beyond the purview of state or municipal governments. More surprisingly, perhaps, the national government used its few, largely uncontested domestic powers in unforeseen ways: the postal system not only tied the country together, it effectively subsidized newspapers, stagecoaches, and helped create a national transportation system. The federal courts mediated national and local concerns; the Supreme Court’s decisions helped shape an intricate system of incorporation and enabled the national government to move beyond its constitutionally enumerated powers. However, while the national government was far from passive, it tended to exert its power without levying direct taxes and without creating a national bureaucracy to enact its policies. Instead, it subsidized, regulated, enabled, and delegated, thus remaining much less visible than its actual exertion of power might suggest.

The Civil War and the Gilded Age are the focus of chapters seven through nine. Ironically, while Balogh describes the consolidation of national power during the war, as well as the system of military pensions that followed it, he says very little about Reconstruction, the arguably most controversial use of national power at the time. Balogh continues to make a very important point about the Gilded Age: federal courts intervened regularly in favor of corporations against labor unions, Populists, and state legislatures, while troops were dispatched to break up strikes. Even though this was ostensibly done to preserve the liberal laissez-faire state, it constituted a forceful use of national power to shape the American economy. Corporations were given rights, autonomy, and power, all courtesy of the national government. The protective tariff, too, remained an important exception to the prevailing ideology of the laissez-faire state. The final thematic chapter also deals with the rise of proto-progressive reformers, who were not as unequivocally nationalist as one might expect.

“A Government Out of Sight” is based mostly on secondary sources, an appropriate choice for a book of such a thematically and chronologically broad scope. The book provides a synthesis of much of the most current scholarship on policy in the nineteenth century, for example Richard John on the postal system 1, Daniel Feller on the General Land Office 2, Andrew Cayton on territorial governments 3, along with many others. Its great strength lies in bringing this diverse research together to draw such a nuanced and comprehensive picture of nineteenth-century governance.

In “A Government Out of Sight,” Balogh makes a powerful historical argument. “The mystery of national authority in nineteenth-century America can be resolved once we recognize that although the United States did indeed govern differently than its industrialized counterparts, it did not govern less. Americans did, however, govern less visibly.” (p. 379) The historical argument is well made, rich, and nuanced; it is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the evolution of American politics. Balogh also hopes to make a point regarding modern American politics by showing that the “battle between ‘big’ and ‘small’ government is grounded in a false historical premise” (p. 379). In this respect, “A Government Out of Sight” is less persuasive. For better or worse, the twenty-first century national government has grown into a taxing, spending, bureaucratic state that deals directly with a wide range of complex, controversial social and economic issues. Balogh is probably right that modern progressives and conservatives should stop referring to a mythical past of pure laissez-faire. It seems doubtful, however, that this would make American politics any less contested in the present day.

Notes:
1 See for instance: Richard John, Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse, Cambridge, Mass. 1995.
2 See for instance: Daniel Feller, The public lands in Jacksonian politics, Madison 1984.
3 See for instance: Andrew R.L. Cayton, The frontier republic: ideology and politics in the Ohio country, 1780-1825, London 1986.