American literary nationalism

[10] The predominant rhetoric of early post-War of 1812 literary nationalists advocated more expansive treatment of American characters, settings, and events, but expressed with a morality and style that matched British conventions.

Critic and author John Neal was unique in this early period for demanding and experimenting with natural diction and "ungenteel and sometimes bluntly profane"[11] American colloquialism.

"[14] The Portico magazine under Stephen Simpson and Tobias Watkins played an important early role in promoting literary nationalist criticism by Neal and others during its two-year run 1816–1818.

[15] In January 1820, English critic Sydney Smith quipped in the Edinburgh Review "In the four-quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?".

James Kirke Paulding issued a scathing reply later that year in the Salmagundi, calling for the US to develop its own rival literature that abandons "servile imitation" of British precedent.