The Civil War and Expansion of Government

One other quick related Civil War post. I generally do not buy that Lincoln and Union victory brought in the age of the huge Federal Govt. The Federal Govt largely shrunk to pre Civil war levels in the years after the war.

However and this is not to debate if Social Security is a good or bad thing.

Did the fact that the federal government, as well as northern and southern state governments had huge amounts of their budgets dedicated to civil war pensions for veterans and their widows make the country a lot more receptive to things such as Social security and other benefits? Something to think about