Era of Good Feelings

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The Era of Good Feelings (1815–24)^[1] describes a period in United States political history in which partisan bitterness abated. The phrase was coined by Benjamin Russell, in the Boston newspaper, Columbian Centinel, on July 12, 1817, following the good-will visit to Boston of President James Monroe.

[edit] Overview

Overt political bitterness declined because the Federalists had largely dissolved and were no longer attacking the president, then causing an era of good feeling because there was only one political party. The nation was politically united behind the Democratic-Republican Party. The Era of Good Feelings started after the War of 1812. The Hartford Convention of 1814-15 underscored the disloyalty of the Federalists during the war. Nationalism surged even though there were no redress of pre-war grievances at the Treaty of Ghent, but America had survived the onslaught of a mighty military power, Britain. Americans had even scored a few land and sea victories. The battles of the Thames, Lake Champlain and Baltimore were all American victories. Victories were attained against the world's largest and most prestigious navy. The USS Constitution was able to defeat HMS Guerriere, USS United States defeated HMS Macedonia, the USS Enterprise defeated the HMS Boxer, American vessels defeated British in the Battle of Lake Erie, and finally America was even able to extend its navy across the Atlantic where the USS President defeated 3 frigates off the coast of Ireland. These victories instilled pride in the new nation. President Monroe paid little attention to party in dispensing patronage. In the election of 1820, Monroe was re-elected with all but one electoral vote. A myth has arisen that one elector deliberately voted against him so that George Washington would remain the only unanimously elected president. Factually, the elector disliked Monroe's policies; at the time he cast his vote, he could not have known that his would be the only one to prevent a unanimous election.

Slavery had come to the forefront as a national issue, but Henry Clay's negotiation of the Missouri Compromise ameliorated the crisis. The solution was to balance admission of Missouri Territory as a slave state, with the admission of Maine as a free state. The issue of slavery was part of the larger issue between the North and the South of economic and social sectionalism. At this time, local politics were still largely conducted without party labels or party conventions.

The era gave a pause to bitter debates over the protective tariff and the Second National Bank. Florida was acquired from Spain to general acclaim. President Monroe promulgated the Monroe Doctrine, advising European powers against attempts to reassert their control over former colonies in the New World. The Monroe Doctrine boldly asserted the status of the United States as a full-fledged nation, and this gained the administration popular support during a time of increased nationalism.

"…We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States…" ―The Monroe Doctrine, December 2, 1823^[2]

[edit] End

After the Panic of 1819 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the national mood grew more tense. However, the relentless daily bitter attacks by one party against the other did not resume until about 1828. Before 1820, the Democratic-Republican Party members of Congress had met in caucus and decided on the party's presidential candidate. That system collapsed in 1824 as five men competed: John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, William H. Crawford, Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson.

Calhoun took himself out of the running by deciding to seek the Vice Presidency. The other four formed regional coalitions with state politicians and pursued the electorate. At the polls, turnout was light because there were no parties to mobilize voters. Then, because no one received a majority in the electoral college, the decision on the presidency went to the House of Representatives. Clay, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives, swung the election to Adams, who then appointed Clay as Secretary of State. The result outraged Jackson and his supporters. They alleged that a "corrupt bargain" had taken place and immediately began their crusade to regain the "stolen" presidency.

[edit] References

• George Dangerfield. The Era of Good Feelings (1952).
• George Brown Tindall. "Good Feelings" (2004).