The
“Era of Good Feelings”
(1815-1824)
The Election of 1816
James Monroe [1816-1824]
• Republican
• Part of Virginia
dynasty
• Part of the emerging
nationalism
– Good will tour
– Inspect military
defenses
Era of Good Feelings?
• Positives
– Tranquility
– Prosperity
– Nationalism
Troubling Issues
– Tariff
– The Bank
– Internal
improvements
– Sale of public lands
• Crystallizing of
sectionalism
• Conflict over slavery
Panic of 1819
• Contraction due to inflation, depression,
bankruptcies, bank failures, unemployment,
debtor’s prisons
• Overspeculation of the frontier lands
• Bank of the US forced western banks to
foreclose on farms
– US Bank looks like devil to foreclosees
• Poorer classes were troubled
– Inhumanity of debtor’s prisons
Growing Pains of the West
• 9 states had joined the union
– Admitted alternately free and slave
• Land exhaustion forced farmers west
• Generals Harrison and Jackson pacified the
frontier
• Creation of the Cumberland Road
• Land Act of 1820 – authorized buyers to
purchase 80 acres at $1.25/acre minimum
US Population Density
1810
1820
John Quincy Adams:
A bulldog among spaniels!
• Secretary of State under
Monroe
• Negotiated treaties with
Britain and Spain
• Treaty of 1818 with UK
– Share Newfoundland
fisheries
– Share Oregon
– Set 49° as northern
boundary
The Convention of 1818
Florida
• Remained under Spanish control after War
of 1812
• South American revolutions forced Spain to
take attention away from Florida
• Jackson saw opportunity to combat
Seminole Indians and capture fugitive
slaves
– Seized St. Marks and Pensacola
• Adams negotiated the “Florida Purchase
Treaty of 1819” – Spain ceded Florida in
exchange for Texas
Adams-Onis Treaty, 1819
The West & the NW: 1819-1824
Slavery and the Sectional
Balance
• Rivalry was beginning between the free
North and the slave South over the West
• 1819 – Tension erupts as Missouri
requests admission to US as a slave
state
• House of Reps denies it by passing
Tallmadge Amendment
The Tallmadge Amendment
p No more slaves shall be brought into
Missouri
pAll slaves born in Missouri after the
territory became a state would be freed
at the age of 25.
p Passed by the House, not in the Senate.
p The North controlled the House, and the
South had enough power to block it in
the Senate.
Missouri Compromise
• Congress agreed to admit
Missouri as a slave state
and Maine as a free state
– Balance between N and S
remained intact
• All future slavery was
prohibited in LA territory
north of 36°30’
• Compromise lasted 34
years
The Election of 1820
The Monroe Doctrine, 1823
p Referred to as
America’s Self-Defense
Doctrine.
1. What foreign
policy
principles are
established?
2. What warning is given
to the European
countries?
Monroe
Doctrine
3. What would the
US do if the
warning was not
headed?
The Election of 1824:
The “Corrupt Bargain”
The Election of 1824:
The “Corrupt Bargain”
Popular Vote
Electoral
Vote
Andrew Jackson
43%
99
J.Q. Adams
31%
84
William
Crawford
13%
41
Henry Clay
13%
37
Candidate
Adams wins the Election
• Jackson did not have a majority in the
Electoral College
– House of Reps makes decision
• Henry Clay – Speaker of the House had
considerable influence
– Chose Adams – most similar politically
– “Corrupt Bargain” – became Sec. of State