The period between the "second revolution" of the Jacksonian
Era and the close of the Civil War in America saw the testings
of a nation and its development by ordeal. It was an age of
great westward expansion, of the increasing gravity of the
slavery question, of an intensification of the spirit of embattled
sectionalism in the South, and of a powerful impulse to reform
in the North. Its culminating act was the trial by arms of
the opposing views in a civil war, whose conclusion certified
the fact of a united nation dedicated to the concepts of industry
and capitalism and philosophically committed to egalitarianism.
In a sense it may be said that the three decades following
the inauguration of President Andrew Jackson in 1829 put to
the test his views of democracy and saw emerge from the test
a secure union committed to essentially Jacksonian principles
(Harmon, 6th. Edition).
Home »
» Romantic Period in American Literature, 1830-1865