“ERA OF GOOD
FEELINGS”
SWBAT: DETERMINE IF THE EVENTS DURING MONROE’S
PRESIDENCY WARRANT THE PERIOD AS AN “ERA OF
GOOD FEELINGS”
DO NOW
• Why did feelings of nationalism
emerge after the War of 1812?
• We “won” our first declared war in
the nation’s history!
JAMES MONROE
• 1816 Election: Won in wake of War
of 1812, served 2 terms (1817-1825)
• Inaugurated an “Era of Good
Feelings”
• Suggests nationalism, optimism,
and goodwill but…
• Debates over national bank,
internal improvements, land sales,
slavery, and sectional tensions
and party divisions ensued
JAMES MONROE
• Visited every state in the nationpersonable demeanor made him
extremely popular
• Hoped to preside over the decline of
political parties
• Cabinet:
• Democratic-Republicans
• John Quincy Adams (Sec. of State)
• John C. Calhoun (Sec. of War)
• Often vetoed legislation that extended
economic nationalism
CULTURAL
NATIONALISM
• Patriotic (feeling of responsibility &
pride in nation no matter what it does)
themes were infused into aspects of
American society
• Painting: The Hudson River School
• everyday life, common people,
landscape, natural world
• Thomas Cole, Frederick Church
CULTURAL
NATIONALISM
• Literature:
• People eager to read works of American
writers
• James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the
Mohicans
- Cooperstown named after his family!
• Washington Irving, Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- Irvington named after him!
• Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
• Herman Melville, Moby Dick
ECONOMIC NATIONALISM
• Political movement to support growth of nation’s
economy
• Tariff protection for U.S. industry after War of 1812
• Manufacturing increased during war to replace
products no longer sold by Britain
• Post-war, Britain dumped cheap goods in
American markets to ruin American
manufacturing
• Tariff of 1816: first protective tariff passed to
shield “infant industries” (20%!)
• Designed for protection, not revenue
• Southerners actually supported the tariff & felt it would
aid development of manufacturing in the South to
rival New England’s
ECONOMIC NATIONALISM
• Henry Clay’s “American System”- plan to
advance nation’s economic growth
• Protective Tariffs- benefit the East, promote
manufacturing, raise revenue to build
transportation systems
• National Bank (charter for first National Bank
expired in 1811)- to provide national
currency, pay government debt, open
branches, grant loans,  aid in economic
growth of all sections of nation
• Internal Improvements- roads & canals
would promote growth in West and South
ECONOMIC NATIONALISM
• Protective tariff passed under Madison in
1816
• Congress chartered the Second National
Bank in 1816
• Both Madison and Monroe objected
internal improvements, b/c Constitution did
not provide for federal spending on roads
and canals
•Cumberland
Monroe vetoed
actsNational
to fundRoad:
improvements
Road aka
First
to be
built left
by federal
government
•highway
Individual
states
to improve
on their own
PANIC OF 1819
• BUS did not regulate issuance of
paper money
• Value of paper currency
fluctuated
• Land speculation
• Price of land plummeted &
those who invested in western
real estate lost millions
• Demand for American goods
dropped off
• Europeans did not buy as much
PANIC OF 1819
• Repayment of loans
• Banks start asking for loan
repayment
• Farmers & businessmen
could not repay loans
Many filed for
bankruptcy
Western debtors saw
Bank as evil
Increased division
between wealthy & poor
WRAP UP
• Henry Clay was proud of his economic plan. In a
speech in Cincinnati in 1830, he declared:
“That system has had a wonderful success. It has more than
realized all the hopes of its founders. It has completely falsified all
the predictions of its opponents. It has increased the wealth, and
power, and population of the nation. It has diminished the price
of articles of consumption and has placed them within the reach
of a far greater number of our people than could have found
means to command them if they had been manufactured
abroad instead of at home.”
• Was Clay’s “American System” successful?
Explain.
• Do you agree this was an national “Era of Good
Feelings”? Explain.