In the early 1800s, several main issues held the attention of the American public. The rise of the two-party system, the free labor movement, and the Civil War reflected the growing ideological diversity of American citizens and at the same time their commitment to virtue as the primary goal of government.

Political parties, especially in early America, facilitated a majority in the electoral college, restrained extreme opinions, formed a stable set of opinions, and provided coordination between the executive and legislative branches. The first political parties formed due to opposing views to Hamilton's treasury proposals. Hamiltonian Federalists wanted a national bank, a mint, and public credit so the rich would have a financial reason to support the government. Jeffersonian Republicans thought such a bank would lead to corruption and would undermine the virtue of politicians and citizens. Behind the bank, however, they were divided by a deeper issue -- interpretation of the Constitution. Federalists favoured a loose construction, where the Bank was one of the "necessary and proper" functions of Congress. Republicans, on the other hand, felt this phrase was supposed to limit Congress to only powers outlined in the Constitution and perhaps a few vital others. These varying views of the Constitution also led to disputes over the strength and sovereignty of the national government -- with a restricted interpretation, the government had less power, and vice versa. The Federalist party also wanted tariffs and government interaction to encourage commerce and industry, thinking such economic prosperity would create more virtuous citizens and unify the nation. The Republicans, however, wanted to limit the government so the people could be more self-governing, more independent, and thus more virtuous, the ideal of which were the many farmers of America at the time. The two parties also differed on their expansion policies. The Hamiltonians felt the government should concentrate on unifying the existing states, while the Jeffersonians wanted westward expansion into the lands gained by the Louisiana purchase, so farmers would have more land and independence.

The Federalist and Republican parties changed into the Whig and Democratic parties, respectively, in the early 19th century, though with a few important differences. Instead of exclusively protecting farmers, as the Republicans had done, the Democrats wanted to protect small businesses and artisans from the infringement of corporations and factories. The main argument for this protection was that small business owners are more independent, free-thinking, and virtuous than factory workers, whose monotonous tasks lead to a lack of ingenuity and pathos for government. Yet at the same time Democrats also favoured a laissez-faire policy. They suggested limiting big businesses as the major economic function of government, as opposed to the Whig platform of controlling the economy to cultivate a virtuous community. Henry Clay's American system epitomized this way of thinking, with its provisions for railroads, tariffs, and a bank to unify Americans and encourage industry. The Whigs also believed in forming good citizens by such government programs as jails, asylums, reformatories, religious institutions, and schools. Thus, all four political parties sought to increase American virtue, though the Federalists and later Democrats felt such virtue was inherent in independent farming or business, and the Republicans (later Whigs) felt that economic prosperity and government intervention would lead to increased happiness and virtue.

The labor issues of the pre-Civil War period sought to further define such concepts as freedom and work, and also the government's role in these issues. The civic view of wage labor was that propertyless factory workers who must subsist on weekly wages don't have the kind of character necessary for good democratic government. This view prevailed during early debates, although the voluntarist view also existed. This view claimed that wage labor was not a violation of freedom, for workers are not forced to work in factories as slaves must work for their masters. This acceptance of capitalism did not prevail until after the Civil War, when it became clear that America could not survive as a simply agricultural and small business nation. The Lowell experiment attempted to refute the negative civic view of wage labor by having stringent living conditions for its young women workers, where spare moments were filled with reading, religion, and other virtuous pursuits. While the experiment was successful for a while, soon the workers rebelled against the Puritanical living requirements, the factory became more urbanized, and more permanent immigrant workers replaced the temporary young women, and the Lowell factory became just what Jeffersonians and Democrats had feared -- a trap of drudgery and dependence undermining the virtue of its workers.

Slavery arguments emerged at the same time as wage labor arguments, both enemies of free labor according to free labor proponents. Slavery, as a form of involuntary work, some bracketed in with wage labor, saying both took away the freedom of the workers. Abolitionists, on the other hand, usually did not cooperate with wage labor opponents, for they felt that slavery was infinitely worse than wage labor. Lincoln agreed with these abolitionists, for in his conception of freedom, the wage laborers who could someday hope to escape their factory lives had much more freedom than slaves, who could never hope to escape. Labor advocates like Evans and West wanted abolitionists to broaden their conception of freedom for the anti-wage labor cause, and while most anti-slavery politicians did not, free labor was still a driving force for the North in the Civil War, relating not only to wage labor, but also to slavery and free soil in the West.

The free soil movement and the pro-slavery movement clashed in during the Kansas-Nebraska disputes. Despite the Missouri Compromise limiting slavery in the area, Douglas and others wanted the area to be open to popular sovereignty, where the inhabitants of the territory would choose whether they wanted to be a slave or free state. Lincoln opposed this doctrine, however, on distinctly moral grounds. "There can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of another." ("On the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise", AHSR). Many free-soilers had different reasons for wanting the territories to remain free, however. One was prejudice against African-Americans; they simply did not want blacks in the area. Slave territories posed a threat to the free labor movement, for without free lands in the west, wage laborers would have no hope of moving west to buy a cheap farm to settle down on. The North and South tried to compromise on the issue by respecting each others' laws; in general, the North returned fugitive slaves, and the South respected the rights of free African-Americans, but most of this good will ended with the Dred Scott decision. This decision made slavery national and freedom local, for it forced free states to recognize slavery. It then became clear that America could not exist as half-slave, half-free.

Along with slavery, the integrity of the Union was at stake in the Civil War. The secession of the South was foreshadowed by the party splits that occurred before Lincoln's election, where the Democrats divided into North and South, the Southern Whigs joined the Southern Democrats, and the Republican party arose as mainly a Northern anti-slavery party. After several states' secessions, Buchanan issued an ambiguous statement that did not make clear whether it was legal for states to secede from the Union. However, Lincoln in his First Inaugural address refuted this viewpoint, saying that the Union was meant to be a perpetual joining of the states, and that secession was illegal and would be opposed by force if necessary. With the Union's victory in the Civil War, the theory of government as a compact between the states dissolved, and the federal government's sovereignty was reaffirmed. The 14th Amendment was another step in this direction, for it made citizenship a federal issue instead of a state issue. These events helped to assert the United States' validity and dominion as a nation and not a confederacy.

Behind all these incidents was the goal of virtue for America's citizens -- whether it was to be found in farming, free labor, or a strong national government. Though the United States today is not as virtue-centered as the 19th century government, the changes made then led to the government we have today.