The second political era of the United States coincides with the last of the Founding Fathers and the beginnings of our modern political parties. While John Quincy Adams might technically have been the end of the previous era. I’m grouping him here as the bridge and beginning of the post-Founding era.
By the mid-1820s, the United States had established itself as strong, wealthy, growing nation, worthy to sit at the same table as the Great Powers based in Europe, chiefly Great Britain and France. The United States had purchased and annexed territory, fought against trade embargos by the Great Powers and fought a literal war against one of them, and despite the odds done well in the struggle. Land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase was being explored and settled, bringing in new wealth to the fledging nation.