The American nation, I was taught in school, was born in 1776 with Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and the Revolution that Washington led. It was given legal form in 1789 by the establishment of the Constitution. And it was most bloodily “tested,” as we used to say, in the fires of the Civil War.

But a nation is not a set of laws, and its history is not a mere chronicle of military engagements. Political historians will be quick to point out that the Declaration of Independence was not addressed to the world as from a single nation. It does not contain the word “nation,” and though it speaks of the People as the rightful source of government, it resolved “that these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.” A period of thirteen years ensued under the improvised government of the Continental Congresses and a weak Confederation. As those years continued into the 1780s, uneasiness was felt over the security of the structure. The Confederation's great achievement was one of internal diplomacy, to secure agreement among the states to pool the claims derived from their royal charters on the lands west of the Alleghenies. This meant most notably to secure cession of Virginia's claim, according to one interpretation of her charter, to the lands north and west of the Ohio River, which became the six states of the Old Northwest: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.