14. The forgotten achievements of the Lincoln Administration
The Lincoln Administration was dominated by the Civil War, and its other goals which Lincoln had hoped to attain when campaigning for office were overwhelmed by the struggle to save the Union. Nonetheless, during his first term and the five weeks of his second, Lincoln achieved many other goals, forgotten due to the catastrophe which the war became. Numerous fiscal achievements included the issuance of paper money (called greenbacks) which were backed not by gold and silver reserves but rather than by the good faith and credit of the federal government. The first federal income tax was enacted. Congress established a tax on banknotes issued by private and state banks, and federal banknotes became the dominant paper currency in the United States.
The Homestead Act of 1862 opened the lands of the west to settlement, with federal land holdings made available for purchase under favorable terms and low costs. The same year the executive branch Department of Agriculture was created to address the issues of farmers across the United States. Congress passed, at the urging of the president, the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 to provide funding for the first railroad across the continent, completed in 1869 as the Transcontinental Railroad. In 1863 Lincoln designated the final Thursday of November as National Thanksgiving Day. Lincoln also supported and approved the designation of Yosemite as a protected land grant, the precursor for what eventually became Yosemite National Park. Two new states, Nevada and West Virginia, were admitted to the Union even as it struggled for its existence during the Civil War under Abraham Lincoln.