1820 Missouri Compromise balances number of slave and free states

1825 Erie Canal completed

1823 Monroe Doctrine issued

1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson gives address to Phi Beta Kappa society at Harvard College, The American Scholar
“American thinkers have remained colonial dependents of Europe...but, the day is at hand...our day of dependence...draws to a close...”

1844 Telegraph line connects Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland

1831 Nat Turner leads slave rebellion in Virginia