The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens that just as society is the creation of the people, so the improvement of society rests with the people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking fondly of the reformers and reforms, may have summed it up best when he asked, "What is man made for, but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man has made?"