Deep political differences, economic disruption, civil unrest, and a sense that America may be coming apart. This year? Actually, the year was 1786. America was only ten years old, but already some people were saying that our “experiment” in self-government, as James Madison called it, had failed. Fourteen years later, in 1800, America experienced one of the nastiest and most divisive elections in our history. Again, many people wondered if America could survive.