Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers.
Shortly after the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), public debt grew to more than $75 million and continued to swell considerably over the next four decades to nearly $120 million. However, President Andrew Jackson shrank that debt to zero in 1835. It was the only time in U.S. history when the country was free of debt.
When the United States won its independence from Great Britain at the end of the Revolutionary War, the country nearly doubled in size. The Treaty of Paris, signed with the British in 1783, provided for the expansion of the young nation west to the Mississippi River.