Could the United States contest the 1840s Royal Navy?

How could Britain supply a war in American waters, and was the United States Navy large enough to contest it in the 1840s?

The Royal Navy was overwhelmingly larger; America could build a rival only through years of investment that had not occurred.

The United States had the resources to build a much larger navy, but doing so required years of investment in infrastructure and wooden warships. Britain already possessed a large active and reserve fleet and continued building ships of the line. Conversions to screw propulsion added steam power to many of those hulls. Several American capital ships had been reduced or neglected, and attempts to reactivate them during the Civil War exposed their poor condition. Potential resources therefore did not describe the force immediately available to contest British operations.