Two-hundred years is a long time when we think of the history of the United States. Yet, by 1823 Europeans and Africans had already been in North America for more than 200 years. The United States Constitution had been ratified for only 35 years. There would be a Civil War in 38 years.

37-year-old General Winfield Scott had already fought in the War of 1812 and the war with Mexico was still more than a decade away. Hiram Ulysses Grant and Mathew Brady were both a year old. Abraham Lincoln was 14 and Robert E. Lee was 16.

The population of the US was roughly 10 million, of which 1.5 million were slaves. There were 24 states and Missouri was the last state to join in 1821. According to the 1820 Census there were slaves counted in 19 of the 24 states in the Union. The Census counted free colored persons separate from whites when there was no Constitutional reason to do so.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were still alive and exchanging letters.

James Monroe was president. In December of 1823 he articulated the Monroe Doctrine in his State of the Union message to Congress. This warned European nations that further colonization of the Western Hemisphere would not be tolerated.

The 18th Congress of the United States would begin on March 4, 1823. This would be the last Congress for the Democratic-Republican and the Federalist parties. Monroe was a Democratic-Republican and he had massive majorities in both houses. For example, there were only 24 Federalist house members out of a total of 213 seats and 5 Federalist senators. The great Kentuckian, Henry Clay, was the Speaker of the House.

The Jeffersonian interpretation of the Constitution dominated the previous two decades. The national debt was $91 million and the revenue from duty and sale of lands was $20 million. After the War of 1812 the debt was $127. What are the chances the current central government reduces the debt by 28% over the next eight years?