We often debate the role of government in building infrastructure and connecting the country, and these arguments are nothing new. Before the Civil War, Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams advocated for national investment in transportation and economic development. The South, meanwhile, built much of its railroad network around getting cotton to port. When war came, those priorities became a serious liability. How did a debate over the nation's future help shape the outcome of the Civil War?
Explore the history behind today's assumptions on The United States of Amnesia.
#railroad #trains #americanhistory #usoa
