ABSTRACT
A way to test an historical hypothesis is to determine its ability to coexist with prior historians' related claims, that is does it support their propositions with additional insights and evidence? This chapter reconfirms Parrington's conception of three rival empires by comparing and contrasting the three regions' competing theories of the formal structure of the American Republican Empire. The Jefferson-Madisonian commitment to equality among the States throughout the empire could not provide a stable solution. The concept of "equality of citizenship" was also too general; it begged the central question of whether the right to take one"s slaves into a new Territory was a constitutionally protected right of national citizenship. The Whig victory in the 1840 election must have turned Jackson"s anger into despair. Tyler"s apostasy did not drive his first Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, from office.
