After two four-year terms, in an unparalleled move the popular president retired, setting an example for future leaders to resist the dangers and corruption of power.

Thomas Jefferson, the third president, more than doubled the size of the country in 1803 by purchasing the Louisiana Territory from the French. He commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead the “Corps of Discovery” which explored the new land. This expansion westward was the beginning of an American ideal carried out very faithfully throughout the following century, that of Manifest Destiny. This was the belief that the citizens of the United States had the right and obligation to expand and inhabit the North American continent. This mindset would eventually lead to expansion all the way to the west coast and the Pacific Ocean.

During the first several decades of her existence the United States was involved in a number of small wars. The undeclared Quasi War against France, the War of 1812 against England, American settlers fighting in the Texas Revolution, and the subsequent Mexican-American War from 1846-48, amongst them.

Despite all of this expansion and war America was not a war-minded country. Her people continued to peacefully prosper and advance themselves through their own steady labor. The Erie Canal, a monumental advancement in American trade, was completed in 1825, and soon many other canals were opened for trade. All in all the “American Experiment,” as many called the new country, was flourishing.

In 1848 gold was discovered in California and a great migration of adventurers and fortune seekers moved west. This was just part of the great move west as more and more families packed up and moved to “meet their fortune” on the great American plains.

Even though America was prospering, there was a growing problem that had to be resolved. In the first years after independence legislation had been introduced to do away with the slave trade that was still prospering, but it had not done away with slavery itself. In 1793 Eli Whitney had revolutionized the cotton industry when he invented thecotton gin, and this had prompted the states throughout the South, where cotton grew well, to maintain a large supply of slaves with which to harvest the cotton. Over the years the South had grown more and more dependant on slavery while the northern states gradually abolished the infamous institution. This had led to a more and more divided country as the slave-owning South squared off against the free North. By the middle of the century there was a delicate balance of power in Congress, and this was overthrown when the Republican Abraham Lincoln won the election in 1860. The southern states attempted to withdraw from the Union but the North would not hear of it. In 1861 bad turned to worse and fighting began. Lincoln now rose as a powerful leader that held what remained of the nation together while he began, by force, to reunite the shattered country.

In 1865, after four bloody years of war, the northern states emerged victorious and the Union was preserved. Afterwards the Civil War Congress, dominated now by radical Republicans, instituted ruthless reconstruction policies throughout the South. This reconstruction, along with the war itself, left deep divisions between both the North and South as well as the different races. These divisions would last for a long time.

America, in the mean time, endured through the turmoil with great grace and soon after the war she was advancing again. In 1869 the first transcontinental railroad brought the west and east coasts together. Telegraph wires were going up everywhere and other advances plunged America into an Industrial Revolution. New inventions were developed in industry and agriculture, and all in all America was advancing quickly.

At the same time, Americans continued to roll westward across the Great Plains where they continued, to their lasting shame, to uproot and violently force Native Americans to withdraw into specific reservations.

In 1898 America fought a brief war with Spain in which she won the Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines and secured independence for Cuba. America sped into the 20th century at full steam. Automobiles and bicycles began to impregnate her streets and airplanes began to fill her skies. Then a world war erupted in Europe. The current president, Woodrow Wilson, kept America aloof from the fighting in Europe for a time, but in 1917 America entered the war on the side of the Allied Powers, just in time to participate in the last of the fighting.

In 1918 an influenza epidemic broke out and it racked the entire globe, taking millions of lives. The effects did not go unfelt in America where it claimed many victims. In the beginning of the 1920s a depression also hit America, but soon afterwards she recovered and the period of the “Roaring Twenties” began. It was a time of great prosperity, unseen before in America, but it was short lived. On October 29, 1929, the U.S. stock market crashed and soon afterwards a worldwide depression set in. The generation that grew up in the 1930’s truly knew what it was to see “hard times” as families struggled to find work and to get food. Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the election of 1932, and as the new president he introduced large government programs aimed at easing the suffering. Some say these programs did little to help while others say they made things worse, extending the duration of the depression, but most of the people were happy to see a president actively involved.

In 1939 a world war began in Europe a second time. Again America stayed out of it, this time until Japan attacked an American Navy at Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941. America then came out swinging on the side of the Allies again, playing an instrumental part in the downfall of Japan, Germany, and Italy. When World War Two ended America had grown into a super power. She also was the only country with the capability to build an atomic bomb. This specialty was soon shared with the Soviet Union, who built their first atomic weapon in 1949, challenging America. The Soviet Union was a collection of communist countries, the most powerful of which was Russia. America was not a communist, but a capitalist country. Although the United States and the Soviet Union did not physically fight, the “Cold War” that developed between the two super powers went on for over four decades. In the 1950s 60s and 70s America fought wars in Korea and Vietnam in an attempt to stop the spread of communism. One of the key elements of the Cold War, however, was technology. Although Russia was the first country to put a satellite and then a man into space, America soon caught up and surpassed the communists. In the long run American tenacity and prosperity won out. In the 1980s President Ronald Reagan steadfastly led the U.S. in the final stages of the struggle and soon after the Soviet Union dissolved.

America is still the most powerful country in the world. Her people are still prosperous and their strength still endures. However, she has come up against a new collection of enemies. While there are no longer any countries strong enough to seriously challenge her militarily, though some show potential, her enemies now come in the night, like thieves. Terrorists attacked the World Trade Centers in New York City on September 11, 2001, prompting a ruthless war to find and exterminate the fanatics.

Like many powers of the past, America’s greatest challenge comes from within. Her foundations began on an unwavering belief in freedom and Christian morals, and on that steady rock they must stay or she will not stand. It must be the rallying cry of all faithful Americans to stand on their faith and their freedoms and not to surrender them for any level of promised protection. They must decide what is most important, and to that they must hold fast.