Although the Treaty at Ghent was signed in 1814, it still needed to be ratified by Congress; this was done in February of 1815.  Still, the Battle of New Orleans, which resulted in an American victory might have been avoided were communications of the era quicker.

Maine, which was then a northern region of Massachusetts, was admitted to the Union as a result of the Missouri Compromise.

Following Nat Turner's slave rebellion, which resulted in the deaths of 55 whites, and no fewer than 100 blacks, there was no largely sympathetic newspaper coverage in the South.

The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Confederate held states that were rebelling. The border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, and Maryland were not affected. All Union states had either already freed their slaves, or would do so in separate state and federal actions. Slavery was not actually illegal until the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, however. 

The War of 1812 ended without major gains having been made by either side. In fact, the political and territorial situation after the war was much the same as it was before the war; therefore, it is best considered a stalemate.

Rather than catapulting the Federalist Party to a position of dominance in precipitated their decline—due to the timing of the peace treaty and the Battle of New Orleans—public opinion in America viewed the war as a victory, and the Federalists who had opposed it were disparaged by the American population. Likewise, it very clearly did not result in the decline of the British Empire, which had yet to reach the height of its influence and would not experience decline until after World War Two.

The Republican Party was founded in opposition to slavery and its expansion throughout the United States.

The ardent abolitionist John Brown led an attack on the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) on October 16, 1859, with the hopes of gaining weapons and support for a widespread slave uprising. In actual fact, Brown's 20 men were quickly counterattacked by local militia, and U.S. troops under Colonel Robert E. Lee managed to kill 10 of Brown's men (including two sons) and capture Brown. Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859, but the event stirred passions North and South regarding issues of slavery. In late December, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, which helped the country on the road to Civil War.

John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln on April 15, 1865, less than a week after Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, and nearly three weeks after the fall of the Confederate capital at Richmond, VA. Booth was an ardent Southern supporter and white supremacist who believed Lincoln was a tyrant and race traitor. Booth developed a conspiracy to kill not only Lincoln, but Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State Edwin Stanton as well. Neither of those men were killed, as Johnson's assassin backed out and Stanton's was stopped by the Secretary's family. Booth managed to escape, but was instantly villified; he was tracked down by Union troops less than two weeks later. Booth refused to surrender and was shot by a Union soldier.

At the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States gained territory in the Caribbean and the Philippines. Though the United States refused to name these territories as colonies, they essentially treated them as such. Thus joining the Imperialist nations.

The Panic of 1893 was a widespread economic depression, largely coming on the heels of railroad over speculation and general over investment by speculators. Due to the closing of banks and railroads, as well as problems with the currency, the Populist Party's constant attacks against big business, railroads, and the gold standard gained a great deal of traction.