Liberal British commentators on America between 1792 and 1820 rejected the brew of resentment, contempt and fear that constituted the conservative British attitude towards the new United States of America. Instead, they applauded the new republic for successfully limiting the power of the executive in government and for demonstrating that such a state could flourish politically and prosper economically, and they suggested that it had a vital role to play internationally. They were more critical of American society and intellectual achievements, though, and, unlike radical writers, they were unwilling to be persuaded by the American example that popular sovereignty was a phenomenon to be emulated in Britain or elsewhere in the world. They needed the American example to sustain their own particular political mythology, and they believed that America's role in the world was to take up the British mantle of spreading liberty throughout the globe, but they did not wish to see Britain follow the American model of widely representative government, which was a totem to liberty rather than a pattern to be followed.

The opposition Whigs, as chapter 2 showed, had taken some time to recognize and support the case for American independence, as opposed to their preferred option of reform of British governance in America and reconciliation with the colonists within the British Empire. Their attitudes had been characterized by sympathy for the colonists and, later, a pragmatic acceptance of American independence, since reform was not forthcoming, rather than the enthusiasm for and envy of American republicanism displayed by British radical thinkers.