The Growing Republic
As the eighteenth century drew to a close, Americans had already answered several important questions. Could they win their independence from Great Britain? Could they create a governmental framework that balanced federal and state power? Could they establish a republic?
Americans in 1800 could answer "yes" to each of those questions. They had overcome significant difficulties already, and they continued to face significant challenges a quarter century after the Declaration of Independence.
If the late eighteenth century represented the infancy of the United States, the first decade of the 1800s would be its adolescence. And then, after another war with Great Britain, the nation entered its young adult years in the 1810s. Throughout this coming of age period, Americans from across the country drew closer following revolutions in transportation and communication. A strong national economy emerged, linking the different sections of the country into a vast market.
But at the same time, certain issues drove Americans farther apart. Citizens in the 1820s and 1830s divided into separate camps: North or South, nationalist or states' rights, Democrat or Whig, and pro-slavery or anti-slavery. These fissures widened as the decades passed. Nonetheless, in the first half of the nineteenth century, Americans, despite their disagreements, built a stronger economy, a more democratic government, and a larger nation.
