This question has been bugging me for a while so I finally looked it up. Before the civil war, it was common for people to view the "United States" as a plural noun. For example: "The United States are going to obtain the Louisiana Purchase." Famous Transitional Americans (I can them transitional because they lived in a time between G. Washington and Abe Lincoln) Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and Daniel Webster are documents as referring to the United States in the plural sense. Then came the famous "A house divide can not stand" and a bloody civil war and after hundreds of thousands of Yanks and Confederates lost their life we, as a society, have adopted the United States as a singular form.
The question remains though, which is right? From a philosophical stand point big government people, the Hamilton's of today, would prefer to see the US as a unified single object. Whereas, the state rights people, the Jeffersons of today, could potentially still feel that the US is an organization of states both independent and dependent of each other.
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I vote for a plural noun. While it is true that a house divided can not stand, there is no reason why the individuals who make up that house have to lose their identity. I believe that the United States of America are fifty states with common goals and purposes. It's a lot like our family. We are individuals who function independently of one another but, when one of us is threatened or needs help, we stand united as a family. (I hope!)
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