"The Age of Experiments in Government."

In 1783 the Treaty of Paris acknowledged the victory of the American republic over the British Empire. In 1815 the Treaty of Ghent acknowledged the American republic's successful "second revolution" against Great Britain in the War of 1812. The period in between may be called, in Thomas Jefferson's words, "the age of experiments in government." Jefferson's Declaration of Independence in 1776 established a government based on the consent of the governed that would secure "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for its citizens. How to implement those republican principles became the responsibility of the American people. The first American constitution, the Articles of Confederation, reflected the revolutionary generation's fear that a strong central government would threaten "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Articles created "a firm league of friendship" among the states, which retained all their powers except those "expressly delegated" to the...