Is it true that the 1860s was the best time to live in America?

No. The South had the Civil War, the bloodiest in US history, and out west really brutal wars with Native Americans.
I do love 1860s clothes more than modern day clothes, but I wouldn't want to live in it. ...Show more

Probably not......Show more

The American Civil War made relations tense in Canada too.  

At the start of the war, a Union gunboats removed two diplomatic envoys of the Confederate States from the British ship "Trent".  The British government demanded an apology  from the U S.  Secretary of State Seward refused. (Mr  Seward was not Canada's friend even in peacetime and he kept advocating invasion  throughout the Civil War .) So the militias were put on alert and British regulars were preparing to come to our rescue.  Prince Albert managed to get the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister at Westminster to tone down the ultimatum and Pres. Lincoln managed to convince Seward and Congress not to insist on fighting two wars at the same time. The two envoys were released and allowed to go to the 🇬🇧. 
Meanwhile spies for both sides were causing headaches for our Prime Minister Macdonald. Secretary Seward wanted the Confederates deported. He'd send men across to arrest  them. Macdonald had our (officially British) national sovereignty to defend. Besides, who they were and where they were were hardly known. The  border is  very long. Montréal, the likely centre for Confederate spy rings, was large and diverse, and Toronto, Kingston, Windsor and Niagara hardly had enough police to take care of domestic affairs, let alone patrol the Great Lakes for the Americans. Some Canadians and Maritimers were pro Confederate too - another headache for Macdonald. How to keep them from getting British North America into trouble with the Union and the United Kingdom?

So life on both sides of the border was no picnic....Show more

during the Civil War......no way...Show more

That's subjective ... on a case by case basis depending on relative variables. But if you think it's true, that's fine w/ me. I think the average American had considerably less free time. And then there's this little thing called the Civil War....Show more