Monroe’s
Era of Good Feelings: 1816–1824
Events
1816
Tariff of 1816
Bank of the United States created
James Monroe elected president
1818
Treaty of 1818 establishes
fixed border with Canada
Gen. Andrew Jackson invades Florida
1819
Panic of 1819
Spain cedes Florida to the United States
House passes Tallmadge Amendment
McCulloch v. Maryland and Dartmouth
College v. Woodward cases
1820
Missouri Compromise reached
Monroe reelected
1821
Supreme Court issues Cohens v. Virginia ruling
1823
Monroe Doctrine
1824
Russo-American Treaty of 1824
Supreme Court issues Gibbons v. Ogden ruling
Key People
James Monroe - Fifth
U.S. president; presided over unified Era of Good Feelings until sectional
differences began to split the nation
John Marshall - Federalist
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1801–1835;
issued numerous landmark rulings
John Quincy Adams -
Son of John Adams; Monroe’s secretary of state; formulated
Monroe Doctrine
Henry Clay - Kentucky
statesman; promoted American System; orchestrated
Missouri Compromise
Daniel Webster - Massachusetts
senator; ardent proponent of Clay’s American System
Andrew Jackson - Military
hero; invaded Florida in 1818 Seventh
U.S. president; lost disputed 1824 election
to Adams but later served two terms Seventh
U.S. president; actively pursued Indian removal and decommissioned
the Bank of the United States
Postwar Pride
Although the War of 1812 essentially
ended a stalemate, Americans came away from the conflict with a
newfound sense of national spirit. They began to see themselves
as Americans first and New Yorkers or Virginians second (although
state pride didn’t disappear entirely). This American spirit boosted
the popularity of the federal government, and the nationalistic War
Hawks, who had agitated for the war, emerged as its new leaders.
Henry Clay and the American System
One of the War Hawks, Speaker of the House Henry
Clay, was an ardent proponent of his three-pronged “American
System” for improving the United States. First, Clay wanted
to improve the financial sector of the economy. Under his leadership,
Congress created another Bank of the United States in 1816 to
offer easy credit. Second, Clay sought to protect struggling American
manufacturers from the postwar influx of cheap British goods. He
pushed through the Tariff of 1816,
which placed a 20-percent
tax on all foreign goods—the first tariff that Congress passed in
order to protect merchants rather than just to raise revenue. Finally,
Clay’s American System called for construction of new roads and
canals in the West.
Internal Improvements
Clay’s program of internal improvements in
the West was meant to help farmers ship their crops and goods and
would be paid for with money raised by the Tariff of 1816.
Up to that point, western farmers had a difficult time transporting
their crops to eastern cities before they spoiled. The construction
of new roads and canals thus helped agriculture immeasurably. Improved
transportation also benefited eastern manufacturers, who suddenly
had access to new markets in the West. At the same time, the construction
of roads and canals accelerated the development of western cities,
especially in the Ohio Valley.
The Era of Good Feelings
The newfound national spirit after the War of 1812 also
spilled over into politics. Democratic-Republican candidate James
Monroe easily defeated his weak Federalist opponent in the
election of 1816, effectively
killing the Federalist Party for good. With the Federalists out
of the picture, the popular Democratic-Republicans were
left to run the show without much opposition. One newspaper dubbed these
tranquil years the “Era of Good Feelings,” and the
name stuck.
The Panic of 1819
A string of crises toward the end of Monroe’s first term
quickly dampened those good feelings, however. The first crisis
hit in 1819, when
overspeculation in western lands caused a financial panic. The Panic
of 1819 quickly
cascaded into a full-scale depression. The Bank of the United States
was hit hard, and many fly-by-night “wildcat banks” in
the West went bankrupt. Although all Americans were hit hard, farmers
suffered the most. Hundreds were thrown into debtors’ prisons, and
poverty was rampant until the economy finally recovered nearly a
decade later.
The Missouri Compromise
Another crisis arose in 1819 when Missouri applied
for admission to the Union as a slave state. Even though Missouri
met all of the qualifications, the northern-dominated House of Representatives
denied the territory statehood because they did not want to tip
the sectional balance in favor of the South (eleven
free states to twelve slave states). The House also passed the Tallmadge
Amendment later in 1819,
declaring that no new slaves could be taken into Missouri and that
slaves already there should gradually be freed.
Southerners, outraged at these northern attempts to eliminate slavery,
blocked the Tallmadge Amendment in the Senate. Congress was deadlocked
over the issue for months until Henry Clay orchestrated the Missouri
Compromise. In exchange for admitting Missouri as an unrestricted
slave state, Southerners agreed to admit Maine as a
free state, thus preserving the sectional balance. The compromise also
declared slavery illegal north of the 36° 30'
parallel west of Missouri.
Growing Sectionalism
In hindsight, the Missouri crisis reveals that the sectional
differences that led to the Civil War were present decades before
open conflict finally broke out in the 1860s.
Antislavery northerners had wanted to end the “peculiar institution” of
slavery as far back as the Constitutional Convention. Southerners,
however, had become completely dependent on slave labor to produce
“king cotton.” Southern elites reasoned that if slavery didn’t expand
westward, the southern way of life would certainly die.
John Marshall and the Supreme Court
During Monroe’s term, the Supreme Court, still under diehard
Federalist Chief Justice John Marshall, issued a series
of landmark rulings that also increased the power of the federal
government:
-
Fletcher v. Peck (1810):
Protected the permanence of legal contracts and established the
Supreme Court’s power to overrule state laws.
-
Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819):
Protected the right of private institutions to hold private contracts
without state government interference.
-
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819):
Declared the Bank of the United States constitutional and upheld
Hamilton’s loose interpretation of the Constitution.
-
Cohens v. Virginia (1821):
Established that the Supreme Court had the power to review decisions
by the supreme courts of the individual states.
-
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824):
Upheld the federal government’s authority to control interstate
commerce.
Marshall’s Legacy
McCulloch v. Maryland was perhaps the
most influential of Marshall’s rulings because it legitimized Hamilton’s
belief that the Constitution had been “loosely constructed” to
allow the federal government to act in the best interests of the
people. Marshall’s decision thus gave future presidents and congresses
a green light to enact a wide variety of legislation in accordance
with the “spirit” of the Constitution. Likewise, Marshall’s Cohens
v. Virginia ruling was highly influential because it helped
establish the Supreme Court as the highest law of the land.
U.S. Expansionism
Monroe and his administration did much to cement a formal
U.S. foreign policy. Secretary of State John Quincy
Adams negotiated the Treaty of 1818 with
Britain that set the border with Canada from Minnesota to the Rocky
Mountains at the 49th
parallel. The treaty also specified that the United States would
occupy the Oregon Territory (present-day Oregon, Idaho,
Washington, British Columbia, and part of Montana) jointly with
Britain until 1828.
In the face of a united Britain and United States, Russia
abandoned its claims to Oregon in the Russo-American Treaty
of 1824. Meanwhile,
General Andrew Jackson illegally seized Florida from Spain,
on the pretext that Spain was plotting with the Seminole tribe against
the United States. Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1819 in
exchange for Washington’s retraction of its claims to Texas.
The Monroe Doctrine
Monroe is most famous for the foreign policy doctrine
that bears his name. Devised by John Quincy Adams, the 1823 Monroe
Doctrine warned European powers to stay out of the New World
and stated that the region was closed to further colonization. In
return, the United States would not interfere with Europe’s affairs
and would recognize all existing European colonies in the New World.
The doctrine also pledged Monroe’s support for the growth of democracy
throughout the western hemisphere.
Impact of the Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine, undoubtedly Monroe’s greatest contribution
as president, has become one of the defining features of American
foreign policy. Ironically, it was the British who first proposed the
doctrine to John Quincy Adams, for they wanted to protect their West
Indian colonies from other European powers—and, secretly, to curb
U.S. expansion in the Caribbean. Sensing Britain’s motives, Adams
encouraged Monroe to issue the doctrine on his own, which would
give the United States more freedom than a joint U.S.-British declaration
would. Ultimately, however, the British supported the Monroe Doctrine
as issued, and much of the Doctrine’s authority came from the Royal
Navy’s vigorous enforcement of it.
