THE NEW REPUBLIC
PART V — A CHANGING DEMOCRACY
Andrew Jackson, Political Power, and a Nation in Transition
1825–1840
A New Generation Takes the Stage
On March 4, 1825, John Quincy Adams became the sixth president of the United States.
The republic was approaching its fiftieth anniversary of independence. Its territory had expanded, its economy was developing, and a new generation of political leaders was beginning to replace the men who had established the nation's first institutions.
But the election that brought Adams to the White House had exposed a serious political division.
Andrew Jackson had received more electoral votes than any other candidate in 1824, but not a majority. Under the Twelfth Amendment, the election went to the House of Representatives, which selected Adams.
When Adams subsequently appointed Henry Clay secretary of state, Jackson's supporters accused them of making a political bargain.
Adams and Clay denied the accusation.
No conclusive evidence established that they had arranged an agreement to exchange the presidency for a cabinet appointment. But the controversy became a powerful political issue.
For Jackson's supporters, the election raised questions about whether the political establishment was respecting the preferences of voters.
For Adams's supporters, the outcome followed the constitutional procedure established for elections in which no candidate won an electoral majority.
Both sides appealed to the American constitutional system.
They disagreed over what its operation meant.
The next fifteen years would transform the country's political life.
The United States was entering an era when more citizens would participate in elections, political parties would become better organized, and disagreements over federal authority would grow increasingly intense.
Yet the expansion of democracy would be deeply unequal.
While many white men gained greater opportunities to vote, women remained excluded from most elections, Black Americans faced severe restrictions, and Indigenous nations confronted growing pressure on their lands and sovereignty.
The American experiment was changing.
And not everyone would experience those changes in the same way.
John Quincy Adams — An Ambitious Vision for the Republic
John Quincy Adams entered office with considerable diplomatic experience.
He had served as a diplomat, senator, and secretary of state.
He had helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812, played a major role in the Adams–Onís Treaty, and helped shape the foreign policy principles announced during James Monroe's presidency.
As president, Adams envisioned a nation strengthened by education, scientific advancement, economic development, and transportation improvements.
He supported federal investment in roads and canals, as well as institutions intended to advance national knowledge.
These ideas reflected a belief that the federal government could play a constructive role in the country's development.
But not everyone agreed.
Opponents argued that some of Adams's proposals exceeded the powers granted to the federal government by the Constitution.
Others worried that federally supported improvements would benefit certain states or commercial interests at the expense of others.
Henry Clay, now secretary of state, shared much of Adams's enthusiasm for a national economic program.
Clay had long promoted an approach known as the American System, which emphasized protective tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvements.
Adams hoped that a more connected economy would strengthen the Union.
His opponents questioned the cost, constitutionality, and distribution of those benefits.
The debate echoed disagreements that had existed since the founding.
How much should the federal government do to encourage national development, and how much should be left to states, private enterprise, and individual citizens?
There was no universally accepted answer.
An Administration Under Constant Opposition
Adams faced substantial resistance from the beginning of his presidency.
Supporters of Andrew Jackson remained dissatisfied with the election of 1824.
They organized opposition in Congress and prepared for the next presidential contest.
Among Jackson's important political allies was Martin Van Buren of New York.
Van Buren understood that successful political movements required more than prominent leaders.
They needed organization.
Local supporters.
Newspapers.
State-level political networks.
And a coordinated national effort.
During the 1820s, these methods became increasingly important.
Adams believed that national development projects could benefit the country.
But his administration struggled to build the congressional support necessary to accomplish much of its agenda.
Political disagreements were becoming more organized and more public.
The presidential election of 1828 was approaching.
And both sides understood that it would be a contest over the direction of the republic.
The Expansion of Voting Rights
One of the most significant changes of the early nineteenth century involved who could vote.
During the founding era, voting qualifications differed from state to state.
Many states imposed property ownership or taxpaying requirements that limited participation among white men.
Over time, numerous states removed or reduced those restrictions.
By the 1820s and 1830s, a growing proportion of adult white men could participate in elections.
This development changed American politics.
Candidates increasingly had to appeal to larger groups of voters.
Political organizations expanded.
Campaigns became more public.
Newspapers played a growing role in shaping political debate.
Political rallies, speeches, and organized efforts to encourage turnout became more common.
But the expansion was not universal.
Women were generally denied voting rights.
Many states restricted or eliminated voting rights for free Black men.
Enslaved people had no political rights under the system that held them in bondage.
Indigenous peoples were generally excluded from the American electorate and maintained their own political institutions and claims to sovereignty.
The period therefore represented an important expansion of electoral participation for some Americans, not the establishment of equal voting rights for all.
This distinction is essential to understanding the era.
American democracy was becoming more participatory.
But the boundaries of political membership remained deeply contested.
The Election of 1828 — A New Style of Politics
The presidential election of 1828 brought Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams into direct competition.
The campaign was intensely personal.
Supporters on both sides used newspapers, public meetings, and political networks to criticize their opponents.
Jackson's supporters portrayed him as a military leader and representative of ordinary white voters challenging established political interests.
Adams's supporters emphasized his experience and questioned Jackson's judgment and temperament.
Accusations about personal conduct and character circulated widely.
The campaign reflected a changing political culture.
Presidential elections were no longer primarily contests conducted through relatively small networks of political elites.
They increasingly involved organized public appeals to voters.
Jackson won the election decisively.
He carried a majority of the states' electoral votes and defeated the incumbent president.
On March 4, 1829, Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States.
His inauguration attracted a large crowd to Washington.
The event became associated with the more public, participatory style of politics emerging during the period.
A new administration had arrived.
But the disagreements that brought Jackson to office were only beginning.
Andrew Jackson — A Different Kind of President
Andrew Jackson's life differed in important ways from those of many earlier presidents.
He had been born in the Carolina backcountry and had experienced the Revolutionary War as a young boy.
He became a lawyer, landowner, military commander, and political figure in Tennessee.
His victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 helped make him a national hero.
Jackson presented himself as an opponent of entrenched privilege and concentrated political power.
He believed the presidency should actively represent the public interest.
He was willing to use executive authority aggressively in pursuit of his objectives.
Supporters regarded his leadership as a challenge to established political arrangements.
Opponents feared that his interpretation of presidential authority threatened the constitutional balance among the branches of government.
These disagreements would shape nearly every major controversy of his presidency.
Jackson's administration became associated with debates over appointments, banking, tariffs, federal power, and Indigenous removal.
His presidency also demonstrated how a strong executive could become the central figure in national political conflict.
Rotation in Office and the Spoils System
Jackson argued that government service should not become the permanent possession of a small group of officeholders.
He supported what was called rotation in office.
The idea was that replacing government officials could prevent entrenched interests from dominating public administration.
But the practice became closely associated with rewarding political supporters through government appointments.
Opponents criticized the dismissals of experienced officials and the appointment of people whose primary qualifications appeared to be partisan loyalty.
Supporters argued that elected administrations should have the ability to appoint officials who would carry out their policies.
The controversy became associated with the spoils system.
It raised questions that would remain important throughout American history.
Should government positions primarily reward political loyalty?
How much independence should public administrators possess?
And how could a democratic government balance accountability to elected leaders with professional competence?
The Jackson administration did not invent political patronage.
But its use of appointments helped make the issue a prominent part of national debate.
The Question of Indigenous Sovereignty
The expansion of the United States had brought increasing pressure on Indigenous nations.
Long before Andrew Jackson became president, Native peoples had faced warfare, land cessions, broken agreements, settlement, and efforts to restrict their political independence.
During the 1820s, these pressures intensified in the southeastern United States.
The Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole peoples maintained communities, governments, and longstanding relationships with their homelands.
Some nations had negotiated treaties with the United States that recognized territorial boundaries and political relationships.
The Cherokee Nation had established a written constitution and developed institutions intended to preserve its self-government.
Sequoyah's Cherokee syllabary helped expand literacy in the Cherokee language.
The Cherokee Phoenix newspaper began publication in 1828.
These developments demonstrated the political and cultural vitality of Cherokee society.
But state governments and settlers continued pressing for access to Indigenous lands.
Georgia asserted authority over Cherokee territory within its claimed boundaries.
Cherokee leaders maintained that their nation possessed rights protected by treaties and federal law.
The dispute became a major constitutional and political confrontation.
The Indian Removal Act — 1830
In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act.
President Jackson signed it into law on May 28.
The act authorized the president to negotiate exchanges of Indigenous lands east of the Mississippi River for lands farther west.
Supporters argued that relocation would reduce conflict between Native nations and expanding American settlement.
Some also claimed that western territory would allow Indigenous communities to preserve their separate existence.
Opponents challenged the policy's morality, legality, and consequences.
They questioned whether Indigenous nations could meaningfully consent to agreements under the threat of losing their lands and political independence.
Cherokee leaders, including Principal Chief John Ross, resisted removal through petitions, diplomacy, and legal challenges.
The policy was not merely a question of moving communities from one location to another.
It involved the forced disruption of established nations, homes, farms, institutions, and relationships with ancestral lands.
The consequences would be profound.
The Supreme Court and the Cherokee Nation
The conflict over Cherokee sovereignty reached the Supreme Court.
In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in 1831, the Court declined to exercise original jurisdiction over the Cherokee Nation's claim.
Chief Justice John Marshall described Native tribes as domestic dependent nations.
The following year, in Worcester v. Georgia, the Court held that Georgia's laws could not be applied within Cherokee territory in the manner at issue in the case.
The decision recognized important limits on state authority in relation to the Cherokee Nation.
But the ruling did not end the political struggle.
Georgia continued asserting its authority.
The Jackson administration did not take effective action to secure Cherokee territorial rights against the state's encroachments.
The controversy exposed a serious problem within the constitutional system.
Courts could issue decisions defining legal rights.
But the practical protection of those rights depended on actions by other branches of government.
For the Cherokee Nation, the conflict was not an abstract constitutional disagreement.
It concerned whether their government, land, and communities could survive increasing pressure from the surrounding states and the federal government.
The Treaty of New Echota and the Trail of Tears
In 1835, a small group of Cherokee representatives signed the Treaty of New Echota.
The agreement provided for the cession of Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi and removal to territory in the West.
But the treaty did not have the support of Principal Chief John Ross or the majority of the Cherokee people.
Many Cherokee citizens protested its legitimacy.
Nevertheless, the United States Senate ratified the treaty in 1836.
When most Cherokee people did not leave voluntarily, the federal government moved toward forced removal.
In 1838, during the presidency of Martin Van Buren, federal troops and state militia forces rounded up Cherokee families and compelled them to leave their homes.
Thousands endured detention, difficult travel, exposure, illness, and inadequate supplies.
Approximately 4,000 Cherokee people died in connection with the forced removal, although historical estimates vary.
The suffering became known as the Trail of Tears.
Other Indigenous nations, including the Choctaw, Muscogee, and Chickasaw, also experienced forced or coercive removals during the period.
Seminole resistance in Florida contributed to a prolonged and costly war.
The removal policies reshaped the southeastern United States.
They also left enduring consequences for Indigenous nations whose governments, communities, and descendants continue to exist today.
The period demonstrated that expanding American political participation and territorial growth could occur alongside severe violations of Indigenous rights.
The Tariff Debate — Who Should Benefit From Federal Policy?
Another major disagreement involved tariffs.
Tariffs were taxes imposed on imported goods.
Supporters of protective tariffs argued that they could encourage domestic manufacturing by making certain imported products more expensive.
They also provided revenue to the federal government.
Opponents argued that high tariffs increased costs and favored some economic interests over others.
The issue produced sharp regional disagreements.
Many manufacturers supported protective duties.
Agricultural exporters and consumers in parts of the South often objected.
In 1828, Congress passed a tariff that opponents labeled the Tariff of Abominations.
The law became especially controversial in South Carolina.
John C. Calhoun, Jackson's vice president, developed an argument that a state could declare certain federal laws unconstitutional and refuse to enforce them within its borders.
The doctrine became known as nullification.
Its supporters presented it as a defense against federal overreach.
Critics argued that allowing individual states to invalidate federal laws would undermine the Constitution and threaten the Union.
The dispute would become one of the most serious constitutional crises since the founding.
The Nullification Crisis — 1832–1833
In 1832, South Carolina adopted an ordinance declaring the federal tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void within the state.
State leaders challenged the federal government's authority to collect those duties.
President Jackson rejected South Carolina's position.
Although he often favored limiting federal authority, he did not accept the idea that a state could unilaterally invalidate federal law and threaten the continued existence of the Union.
In December 1832, Jackson issued a proclamation opposing nullification.
The confrontation intensified.
South Carolina prepared to resist federal enforcement.
Jackson sought congressional authority to ensure the collection of federal revenue.
For a time, the dispute raised fears of armed conflict.
But Congress also pursued a political settlement.
Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun helped negotiate a compromise tariff in 1833 that gradually reduced duties.
Congress also passed the Force Bill, providing additional authority for enforcement of the revenue laws.
South Carolina rescinded its tariff nullification ordinance, although it symbolically nullified the Force Bill.
The immediate crisis ended without a war.
But the underlying disagreement remained.
Could a state refuse to comply with federal law when its leaders believed that law violated the Constitution?
The Constitution established federal supremacy within the scope of federal authority.
But the precise boundaries of state sovereignty and national power continued to generate controversy.
The Nullification Crisis demonstrated how disputes over economic policy could become disputes over the structure and survival of the Union itself.
The Bank War — A Battle Over Economic Power
One of the defining conflicts of Jackson's presidency involved the Second Bank of the United States.
Congress had chartered the bank in 1816.
It served as an important financial institution, holding federal deposits and helping regulate the country's banking system.
By the early 1830s, Nicholas Biddle served as its president.
Supporters argued that the bank contributed to a more stable currency and financial system.
They believed it helped restrain excessive lending by state banks and facilitated national commerce.
Jackson saw the institution differently.
He believed that its federal charter granted special privileges to a powerful financial corporation.
He also questioned its constitutionality and worried about concentrated economic influence.
The debate involved more than banking.
It concerned the relationship between government, private capital, and political power.
Who should control the nation's financial institutions?
Could a federally chartered corporation exercise too much influence over public policy?
And what role should the president play in deciding the future of an institution created by Congress?
These questions divided national leaders.
Jackson's Veto — 1832
In 1832, supporters of the bank sought an early renewal of its federal charter.
Congress approved the recharter legislation.
Jackson vetoed it.
In his veto message, he argued that the bank's privileges were inconsistent with his understanding of constitutional government and economic fairness.
Supporters of the bank strongly disagreed.
They defended its usefulness and challenged Jackson's reasoning.
The veto became a central issue in the presidential election of 1832.
Jackson defeated Henry Clay and won a second term.
He regarded the result as public support for his opposition to the bank.
But the struggle was not over.
Jackson sought to remove federal deposits from the institution and place them in selected state-chartered banks.
The decision produced another confrontation with Congress.
Opponents accused him of exceeding proper executive authority.
In 1834, the Senate formally censured Jackson over his handling of the bank deposits.
Jackson protested the censure.
In 1837, his supporters succeeded in having it expunged from the Senate record.
The conflict demonstrated how disputes over economic institutions could become constitutional battles between the executive and legislative branches.
The End of the Second Bank
The Second Bank's federal charter expired in 1836.
It continued for a time under a Pennsylvania state charter, but it no longer possessed its former national role.
Federal deposits had been transferred to selected state banks.
The financial system became more decentralized.
Some Americans welcomed the decline of a powerful national institution.
Others worried that the absence of the bank would make credit and currency less stable.
The economic consequences were complex.
State bank lending expanded during the mid-1830s.
Land speculation increased.
International financial conditions also influenced American credit markets.
Jackson attempted to restrain speculation through the Specie Circular of 1836, which generally required payment in gold or silver for federal public land purchases, subject to exceptions.
The policy was controversial.
The economy was expanding, but financial pressures were building.
A major crisis was approaching.
Political Parties Take a New Shape
During Jackson's presidency, the country's political organizations developed into a more recognizable two-party system.
Jackson's supporters became associated with the Democratic Party.
Opponents gradually united under the Whig Party.
The Whigs included people who disagreed with Jackson for different reasons.
Some favored the national bank and federal support for economic development.
Others were primarily concerned about Jackson's use of presidential authority.
Henry Clay became one of the party's most prominent leaders.
Daniel Webster was another influential Whig figure.
The Democrats generally emphasized opposition to concentrated economic privilege and often favored a more limited federal role in economic development, although positions varied among party members and over time.
The Whigs more frequently supported national economic institutions and congressional leadership.
These were broad political coalitions rather than groups whose members agreed on every issue.
Their development reflected the increasingly organized character of American elections.
Party newspapers, conventions, local committees, and political campaigns became important tools for mobilizing voters.
For the broader story of how the nation's political parties developed, see Two Parties, Three Branches, One America.
Slavery and the Growing Abolitionist Movement
During the 1830s, the debate over slavery became more visible and confrontational.
Slavery remained central to the agricultural economy of much of the South.
Cotton production expanded across newly settled lands.
The forced labor of enslaved people generated substantial wealth for slaveholders and supported commercial relationships extending into northern states and overseas markets.
At the same time, abolitionist movements became increasingly organized.
In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison began publishing The Liberator, calling for the abolition of slavery.
In 1833, abolitionists established the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Black abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass later in the decade and other prominent organizers and writers, contributed to the growing movement against slavery.
Free Black communities organized churches, newspapers, conventions, and campaigns defending civil rights and opposing slavery.
Abolitionists used petitions, publications, public lectures, and organizing efforts to challenge the institution.
Their activities provoked fierce resistance.
Proslavery advocates defended slavery through economic, political, and racial arguments.
Violence and intimidation were used against abolitionists in several communities.
The controversy reached Congress.
Beginning in 1836, the House of Representatives adopted procedures commonly known as the gag rule to table antislavery petitions without consideration.
Former president John Quincy Adams, now serving in the House, became an important opponent of those restrictions.
The dispute raised another constitutional question.
Could Congress restrict the consideration of petitions because their subject was politically controversial?
The issue connected slavery with the First Amendment right to petition the government.
The nation was increasingly confronting the conflict between its constitutional institutions, its founding ideals, and the continued existence of slavery.
Martin Van Buren Becomes President
In 1836, Martin Van Buren won the presidential election.
He had served as Jackson's vice president and was one of the principal organizers of the Democratic political movement.
On March 4, 1837, Van Buren became the eighth president of the United States.
He hoped to continue much of Jackson's political program.
But almost immediately, his administration confronted a severe economic crisis.
Banks failed.
Credit contracted.
Businesses closed.
Unemployment increased.
Property values declined.
The downturn became known as the Panic of 1837.
It would dominate much of Van Buren's presidency.
The Panic of 1837 — Another Financial Crisis
The Panic of 1837 had multiple causes.
The preceding years had brought substantial lending and land speculation.
State banks had expanded credit.
International trade and British financial conditions played important roles.
Changes in monetary policy, including the movement of federal deposits and the Specie Circular, also contributed to financial pressures.
When credit tightened, the effects spread rapidly.
Banks suspended payments in specie.
Businesses struggled to obtain loans.
Land prices fell.
Workers lost jobs.
Merchants and farmers faced declining demand.
The crisis developed into a prolonged economic depression that continued, with fluctuations, into the early 1840s.
Political opponents blamed the financial policies of Jackson and Van Buren.
Administration supporters pointed to speculation, international conditions, and weaknesses in banking practices.
Historians generally recognize several interacting causes rather than a single explanation.
But the consequences for ordinary Americans were substantial.
Families lost income.
Businesses failed.
And public confidence in the country's financial institutions suffered.
The crisis once again raised questions about how the federal government should respond when economic activity collapsed.
Van Buren and the Independent Treasury
Van Buren opposed recreating a national bank.
He also became dissatisfied with relying on selected state banks to hold federal funds.
Instead, he proposed an independent treasury system.
Under this arrangement, federal money would be held through government-controlled facilities rather than deposited in private or state-chartered banks.
Supporters believed this would separate government finances from speculative banking activity.
Opponents argued that the plan would not adequately address the country's broader credit and economic difficulties.
Congress debated the proposal for several years.
The Independent Treasury Act became law in 1840.
The system would later be repealed and then reestablished in the following decade.
The controversy continued the long-running American debate over money, banking, and federal responsibility.
From Alexander Hamilton's national bank to Jackson's veto and Van Buren's treasury proposal, successive generations had struggled with the same underlying question.
How should a republic organize its financial system while protecting both economic stability and constitutional government?
The country had not reached a permanent answer.
The Election of 1840 — A New Political Era
By 1840, Van Buren faced widespread dissatisfaction over the economy.
The Whig Party nominated William Henry Harrison, a former military commander whose reputation included his role at the Battle of Tippecanoe.
The Whigs developed an energetic campaign emphasizing Harrison's public image and criticizing the incumbent administration.
Campaign slogans, songs, public gatherings, and widely circulated political materials became prominent features of the election.
The campaign reflected how far American political organization had developed since the early republic.
National parties were now capable of coordinating public appeals across many states.
They could mobilize large numbers of voters through local organizations and newspapers.
Harrison defeated Van Buren in the 1840 election.
His victory demonstrated that the Whig Party had become a major national political force.
The election also marked the end of the period dominated by Jackson and Van Buren.
But many of the controversies associated with their administrations remained unresolved.
The country was entering the 1840s with an established competitive party system, an expanding economy, and increasingly serious sectional disagreements.
WHAT CHANGED BETWEEN 1825 AND 1840?
The fifteen years between the presidencies of John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren transformed American political life.
The electorate expanded substantially among white men.
Political parties developed more sophisticated national organizations.
Presidential campaigns became more public and competitive.
The presidency became a more assertive institution under Andrew Jackson.
Congress and the executive branch clashed over banking and constitutional authority.
The Nullification Crisis revealed the dangers of disagreements over state and federal power.
The Indian Removal Act and subsequent forced removals caused immense suffering and transformed the lives of Indigenous nations.
The Bank War and Panic of 1837 exposed competing views of economic policy and financial responsibility.
And the growing abolitionist movement brought the moral and constitutional questions surrounding slavery into increasingly prominent public debate.
These developments did not move the country in one simple direction.
Some Americans gained greater political influence.
Others experienced the loss of land, freedom, or legal protection.
The nation became more democratic in certain respects while maintaining or deepening profound inequalities in others.
Understanding the era requires recognizing both developments.
THE FOUNDERS' EXPERIMENT FACES NEW QUESTIONS
The Constitution had established a government based on representation, separated powers, federalism, and a system of elections.
But the founding generation had not resolved every disagreement about how those institutions should operate.
By the 1830s, Americans were confronting those unresolved questions in new circumstances.
How much authority should a president exercise?
Could states refuse to enforce federal laws?
Should the federal government establish or support major financial institutions?
What protections did treaties and constitutional law provide to Indigenous nations?
How could the nation's principles of liberty coexist with slavery?
And who should have the right to participate in choosing the country's leaders?
The political leaders of the era offered different answers.
Some emphasized the importance of national authority and economic coordination.
Others stressed limits on federal power and opposition to concentrated privilege.
Some appealed to the will of voters.
Others warned that popular political movements could threaten constitutional restraints.
These disagreements were part of the continuing development of American government.
But their consequences were not merely theoretical.
They affected families, communities, states, businesses, and entire nations.
A COUNTRY ENTERING A NEW DECADE
By 1840, the United States was larger, more economically connected, and more politically organized than it had been fifteen years earlier.
Railroads were expanding.
Canals and steamboats were connecting commercial markets.
Factories were becoming increasingly important.
New towns were developing.
And political parties were reaching voters through increasingly sophisticated campaigns.
But the country faced serious challenges.
The economic depression had not fully ended.
Indigenous nations continued resisting removal and defending their sovereignty.
Slavery remained entrenched, and the movement against it was growing.
Territorial expansion raised new diplomatic and constitutional questions.
The political disputes of the Jacksonian era had changed the republic.
They had not settled its future.
America was entering the 1840s with growing ambitions—and with disagreements that would shape the next generation.
THE STORY CONTINUES
THE NEXT CHAPTER — A NATION PUSHES WEST (1840–1850)
The coming decade would bring the presidency of William Henry Harrison, the unexpected rise of John Tyler, the annexation of Texas, the Oregon boundary settlement, and the Mexican-American War.
The United States would acquire vast new territories.
Those territorial changes would reopen the question of slavery's expansion and deepen the divisions between different regions of the country.
The Compromise of 1850 would attempt to manage the resulting crisis.
And the republic would move closer to the sectional conflicts that would define the following decade.
The nation was expanding across a continent. Whether its political institutions could manage the consequences remained uncertain.
Our Money Matters. Our Choices Matter. Our Voice Matters.
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Politics 1776