James Monroe
and the
“Era of Good
Feelings”
1815 – 1824
A Preliminary Examination
The Election of 1816
The American System
1.
Henry Clay
Second Bank of the United
States
2. Tariff of 1816
3. Internal Improvements
- National Road
(Cumberland)
- Erie Canal
*Which region would benefit
the most from the internal
improvements?
New England, the West, or
the South. Why?
Convention of 1818 – Adams-Onís Treaty, 1819
The Panic of 1819
An Overview:
• The impressive post-War of 1812 economic expansion
ended.
• Banks throughout the country failed; mortgages were
foreclosed, forcing people out of their homes and off
their farms.
• Falling prices impaired agriculture and manufacturing,
triggering widespread unemployment.
• All regions of the country were impacted and prosperity
did not return until 1824.
The Panic of 1819
The Causes:
• The primary cause of the misery seems to have been a change
toward more conservative credit policies by the Second Bank
of the United States (rechartered in 1816).
• The wary directors viewed with scorn the unconventional
practices of many western banks – “Wildcat” banks.
• The B.U.S. called in its loans, forcing the state banks to do
likewise.
• State loans had been made to land speculators who were
unable to repay; banks failed and depositors were wiped out.
• Conditions were exacerbated by the influx of large quantities of
foreign goods into the American market and the slumping
cotton market in the South.
The Panic of 1819
The Results:
Reaction to the Panic of 1819 depended upon where one lived.
• Northern manufacturers thought future economic
downturns could be avoided by enacting high tariffs
that would protect them from foreign competition.
• Southerners, however, resented the higher prices they
had to pay for imports because of the tariff and began
a long campaign against those duties, hoping that freer
trade would revive the cotton economy.
• Westerners, taking a still different approach, blamed
the bankers and speculators.
The Infamous
“Peculiar Institution”
Strikes Again
As Thomas Jefferson remarked…
“The Missouri question…is the most
portentous one which ever yet
threatened our Union. In the
gloomiest moment of the
revolutionary war I never had any
apprehensions equal to what I feel
from this source…[The] question,
"like a firebell in the night,
awakened and filled me with
terror…[With slavery] we have a
wolf by the ears, and we can
neither hold him nor safely let him
go.”
- April 22, 1820
The Tallmadge & Thomas Amendments
• The Tallmadge Amendment was a bill which would
have admitted Missouri with its existing slave
population, but would forbid the introduction of
additional slaves and free all slave children at age 25.
• The Thomas Amendment was a bill which would
have admitted Missouri as a slave state but forbid
slavery north of the 36°30" latitude in the Louisiana
Purchase region. Neither bill was put into effect.
Henry Clay
“The Great
Compromiser”
The Missouri Compromise, 1820
The Missouri Compromise, 1820
• Admitted Missouri as a slave state and at the same
time admitted Maine as a free state.
• Declared that all territory north of the 36°30" latitude
would become FREE states, and all territory south
of that latitude would become SLAVE states.
The Election of 1820
The Monroe Doctrine, 1823
(more appropriately – the John Quincy Adams Doctrine)
• It was declared in a few paragraphs of President James
Monroe's seventh annual message to Congress on
December 2, 1823.
• Monroe warned European countries not to interfere in the
Western Hemisphere, stating "that the American
continents. . .are henceforth not to be considered as
subjects for future colonization by any European powers."
• The Monroe Doctrine became a cornerstone of future U.S.
foreign policy.
The Key Elements of
“America’s Self-Defense Doctrine”
• Non-colonization
• Non-intervention
The Monroe Doctrine