Despite the Constitution's ratification in 1787, most Americans retained a strong suspicion of government power. Establishment of the operating practices of the new federal system could occur only over time and through experience, leaving the new government in an uncertain and potentially perilous situation. The Revolution had strengthened the ideology of republicanism, but Americans with different political, social, and economic visions of the Republic's future interpreted republicanism differently. The first years under the Constitution represented a further working out of domestic and international problems that harkened back to the Revolution and its meaning for the American people.

The heated party battles of the 1790s deeply divided the leaders of the Revolution and caused Americans to fear for the survival of the Republic. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson became the first leader of an opposing party to win the presidency. Jefferson had come to power largely because of his resistance to Hamilton's and the Federalist Party's domestic and foreign policies, and he entered office determined to reverse the programs of the previous administrations and preserve an agrarian empire of liberty. Yet once in office, he quickly discovered that governing the nation posed quite different challenges than leading an opposition party. Jefferson and his successors confronted many of the same problems that had dominated the political disputes of the previous decade, including the government's role in the economy, the assertion of the rights of the United States to other nations, and the settlement of the West.