The 1820's is a very interesting period for the US navy and likely the most powerful it would be in a time of peace until the later 19th century. The 14th Congress of the United States was one of the most impressive in the early republic, one of the noteworthy pieces of legislation passed was the "An Act for the Gradual Increase of the Navy of the United States". This act appropriated nearly 10 million dollars (a vast sum of the time) for nine new ships of the line and twelve heavy frigates in addition the United States had three ships of the line built for the war of 1812 and a number of leftover heavy frigates. By comparison the navy in the previous decade had consisted of a handful of heavy frigates and smaller vessels often limited to coastal operations. In addition the new heavy frigates were improvements over the famed USS Constitution( which largely were already better than comparable foreign frigates). This new navy caused worry in Great Britain and was a source of pride and national power. However it should be noted that many of these ships were kept on the stocks or in drydock for long periods of time, it was rare to have more than one ship of the line active. They were very expensive to maintain and required very large crews, for the most part they were intended to be activated against war with a foreign power although there were a number of peacetime cruises to the Mediterranean and Latin America. They saw little if any action, often too big to be used (although a number of heavy cannon was off loaded and used in the siege of Veracruz during the Mexican-American War) by the time of the civil war they were largely obsolete. The US navy was largely able to avoid the political fighting that the army was subject too, partially because democrats saw the benefit of a navy to protect national commerce and because traditional american fears of the military didn't stick to the navy.