erican Republic--the crowning act--occupied forty years, reaching from
1789 to 1829. During that period, John Quincy Adams participated
continually in public affairs, and ultimately became the principal actor.

The new Government was purely an experiment. In opposition to the fixed
habits of mankind, it established suffrage practically universal, and
representation so perfect that not one Legislative House only, but both
Houses; not legislative officers only, but all officers, executive,
ministerial, and even judicial, were directly or indirectly elected by the
people. The longest term of the senatorial trust was but six years, and
the shortest only two, and even the tenure of the executive power was only
four years. This Government, betraying so much popular jealousy, was
invested with only special and limited sovereignty. The conduct of merely
municipal affairs was distributed within the States, among Governments
even more popular than the federal structure, and without whose
ever-renewed support that structure must fall.

The Government thus constituted, so new, so complex and artificial, was to
be consolidated, in the midst of difficulties at home, and of dangers
abroad. The constitution had been adopted only upon convictions of
absolute necessity, and with evanescent dispositions of compromise. By
nearly half of the people it was thought too feeble to sustain itself, and
secure the rights for which governments are instituted among men. By as
many it was thought liable to be converted into an over-shadowing
despotism, more formidable and more odious than the monarchy which had
been subverted. These conflicting opinions revealed themselves in like
discordance upon every important question of administration, and were made
the basis of parties, which soon became jealous and irreconcilable, and
ultimately inveterate, and even in some degree disloyal.

These domestic feuds were aggravated by pernicious influences from Europe.
In the progress of western civilization, the nations of the earth had
become social. The new Republic could not, like the Celestial Empire, or
that of Japan, confine itself within its own boundaries, and exist without
national intercourse. It had entered the family of nations. But the
position it was to assume, and the advantages it was to be allowed to
enjoy, were yet to be ascertained and fixed. Its independence, confessed
to be only a doubtful experiment at home, was naturally thought ephemeral