Early Days in the Mississippi Valley 37 A Husking Bee in Ohio: William Cooper Howells 38 Religion in Tennessee: Lorenzo Dow 40 Davy Crockett Runs for Office 44 Early Days in Illinois: Morris Birkbeck 47 Ominous Loomings: The Missouri Compromise, 1820 50 Representative Arthur Livermore Argues Against Extending Slavery 50 Senator James Barbour Defends Slavery 52 Representative James Stevens Argues for the Compromise 53 The Monroe Doctrine 54 Excerpts from the Monroe Doctrine 54 IV John Quincy Adams Lighthouses in the Sky 56 Excerpts from Adams’ First Message to Congress 56 The selections by Margaret Bayard Smith, from _Forty Years of Washington Society_, edited by Gaillard Hunt, which begin on pages 2 and 22, were reprinted through the courtesy of Charles Scribner’s Sons. The picture on the cover and the picture on page 1, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, were reprinted through the courtesy of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company of Boston, Massachusetts. The picture on page 22, of the _Constitution_ and the _Guerrière_, was reprinted through the courtesy of the New York Public Library. The picture of a political speaker on the Fourth of July on page 37 and the picture of John Quincy Adams on page 56 were reprinted through the courtesy of the Library of Congress. Preface The early part of the last century was an exciting time to live in America. The signers of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the Constitution, mostly old men by now, saw that their experiment in republican government had turned out to be a success. The nation was flourishing in these years like a healthy adolescent. There were growing pains, to be sure, but no one doubted now that the youngster would reach manhood. The question was: What is he going to be like? The party battles of John Adams’ administration left the Federalist Party in ruins, and Thomas Jefferson succeeded to the presidency with an overwhelming popular mandate. During his first term, Jefferson increased his popularity through buying from France the enormous Louisiana Territory which doubled the size of the United States. By the time the Lewis and Clark Expedition returned from exploring the new land, people began to realize the immense possibilities that the Louisiana Purchase held for the future of the United States.