Did Lincoln create big government?

According to a recent post at The Heritage Foundation’s blog, the answer is no.  Citing scholars such as Allen Guelzo and Ralph Lerner, Julia Shaw notes that while the government grew considerably due to the exigencies of the Civil War, it quickly contracted once the war was over.  Our modern form of “big government” with its enormous budget and extensive staff, she argues, owes its origin not to the 1860′s but to the Progressives of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and to the New Deal.  You can read the entire piece by clicking here.