“Era of Good Feelings”
Rise of Nationalism
1816-1825
Mr. Owens
Essential Questions
1. To what extent did both cultural nationalism
and sectionalism emerge during this era?
2. What were examples of a new American
national culture that emerged in this era and
how was it both influenced by and distinct from
Europe?
3. What was the American System?
“Era of Good Feelings”
• Reflects surge of nationalism, optimism & good will
• Election of 1816 James Monroe easily defeats Rufus
King – Federalist decry “Virginia Dynasty”
• Election of 1820 Monroe runs unopposed (Federalist
Party dead) & receives all but 1 electoral vote
• Expansion & National Respect & Cultural Pride
• How accurate a label?
Economic Nationalism
• Expansion of national economy
• Tariff of 1816: first truly protective tariff to protect from
postwar British goods
• Henry Clay’s American System:
1. Protective tariffs
2. National Bank – 2nd BUS charter (1816-1836)
3. Internal improvements (roads & canals)
• Madison & Monroe viewed federal funding for internal
improvements unconstitutional - veto
Henry Clay
Not So Good Feelings?
• Panic of 1819: 2nd BUS tightens credit to
control inflation caused by western land
speculation, caused bank failures,
bankruptcies, unemployment & debtors prison
– West hit hardest – anti BUS
– 6 Year economic depression
• Death of Federalists, Democratic-Republicans
began to divide
• Many northern Dem-Reps adopted many
Federalist views like support for large standing
army & National Bank
• 1824 Election splinter into factions & run 4
separate regional candidates
Marshall Court 18011835
• Rulings consistently favored a strong central
government & property rights over state rights
• Marbury v. Madison (1803) Judicial Review
• Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
• Martin v. Hunter’s Lease (1816)
• Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) “the power to tax
is the power to destroy” – Daniel Webster, BUS
is constitutional due to “implied power” from
“Necessary & Proper clause”
• Cohens v. Virginia (1821)
• Gibbons v. Ogden (1821)
Chief Justice John Marshall
Daniel Webster
Go West! Causes & Effects of Western
Migration
1.
2.
3.
4.
•
Taking of American Indian land – victories of Harrison &
Jackson, Indians driven from land
Economic pressures – unemployment from Embargo &
war, new opportunities West, cotton plantations in
Alabama, Miss. & Ark.
Transportation improvement – roads, canals, steamboats,
& eventually railroads
Rise of immigration attracted to cheap land near Great
Lakes & Ohio & Mississippi River valleys
Westerns states limited population, called for:
1.
2.
3.
•
“Cheap money” easy credit
Low prices for land
Improved transportation
New Conflict: expansion of slavery
1820 Pop density
Missouri Crisis & Compromise
1820
• 1791-1792 Vermont & Kentucky entered jointly for
free state/slave state balance
• Missouri applies as a slave state – opened sectional
divide
• Tallmadge Amendment: Rep James Tallmadge of NY
proposed: no further slaves in Missouri, slaves born in
state free at age of 25 – passed House but not Senate –
why?
• Missouri Compromise: Henry Clay
1. Missouri as a slave state
2. Maine as a free state
3. No slavery north of 36*30’ lat.
• “But this momentous question, like a firebell in the
night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered
it at once as the knell of the Union.” - Jefferson
Foreign Policy
• Sec. of State John Quincy Adams
• Rush-Bagot Agreement (1817) mutual
disarmament of Great Lakes between US &
Canada
• Treaty of 1818 – US & Britain
1. Shared fishing rights in Newfoundland
2. 10 year joint occupation of Oregon
3. 49th Parallel US-Canada border
Florida:
• Jackson’s 1st Seminole War (1818)
• Monroe sends Jackson to “pacify” Seminoles, did
he exceed his orders?
• “Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, scalp for a
scalp” - Jackson
• Arbuthnot & Armbrister Incident – war?
• Adams-Onis Treaty (Florida Purchase Treaty of
1819) Spain gave US Florida & Oregon claims in
exchange for Texas
The Monroe Doctrine, 1823
Inserted in annual
message to Congress
Referred to as America’s
Self-Defense Doctrine.
Reflected rising
nationalism of the era.
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?