PRESIDENT MONROE AND THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS
I. U.S. emerged from the War of 1812 with a heightened sense of nationalism
A. Madison more popular when leaving office in 1817
than when he assumed it in 1809
B. Causes
1. Victories in War of 1812,
especially Battle of New Orleans
2. Death of the Federalist
party; reduced sectionalism; reduced states’ rightsism
3. Lessening of economic
and political dependence on Europe
4. Westward expansion and
optimism about the future
C. Americans coming to regard themselves as Americans
first and state citizens second.
II. Henry Clay's American System: BUS, tariffs, internal improvements
A. Second National Bank voted by Congress
in 1816.
1. Lack of national back
during the War of 1812 created a banking vacuum
a. Local banks sprung up all over the country
b. Country flooded by depreciated bank notes that hampered the war effort.
2. Modeled after the first
National Bank but with 3 1/2 times more capital: $35 mil.
3. Jeffersonians supported
the revived bank.
a. Used same arguments that Hamilton had used in 1791.
b. Ironically, Federalists denounced it as unconstitutional.
B. Tariff of 1816
1. Purpose: protection of
American manufacturing from British competition.
a. After the war, Brits flooded U.S. with cheap goods, often below cost
too strangle infant
U.S. industries.
-- Americans perceived this as British attempt to crush U.S. factories.
b. First protective tariff in U.S. History
i. Imposed roughly 20-25% duties on imports
ii. Not really high enough to provide completely adequate safeguards
c. Started a protective trend in U.S. trade.
2. Sectional battle over
the tariff represented by the three great Congressional leaders of the
antebellum period: Calhoun, Webster, and Clay (the "Great Triumvirate")
a. John C. Calhoun (from South Carolina) represented southern views.
i. Recent war hawk and ardent nationalist.
ii. After initially supporting 1816 tariff, he opposed it claiming it was
enriching Yankee
(New England) manufactures
b. Daniel Webster (from New Hampshire) represented northern views.
i. Opposed the 1816 tariff.
ii. Shippers in N.H. feared tariff would affect their carrying trade.
iii. New England not completely developed in manufacturing yet.
3. Henry Clay saw
tariffs as a way to develop a profitable home market.
a. Eastern trade would flourish under protection.
b. Tariff revenues would fund roads and canals in the interior esp. Ohio
Valley.
-- Frontier folks cried for better transportation; poor-no roads existed.
c. Foodstuffs & raw materials from the South and West would flow into
the North &
East
C. Internal Improvements (failure)
1. Congress passed Calhoun's
Bonus Bill in 1817; would have given $1.5 mil.
to states for internal improvements.
a. Madison vetoed it claiming it was unconstitutional
b. His successor, James Monroe, followed suit.
c. Jeffersonians hated idea of direct federal support of intrastate internal
improvements; saw it as a states’ rights issue
d. New England opposed federally constructed roads & canals; would
drain away population and create competing states in the West.
2. Prior to Civil War,
most internal improvements (except railroads) were done at the
expense
of state and local governments.
-- For example, Erie Canal in New York was completed in 1825 at
state expense.
III. Era of Good Feelings (1817-1825)
A. James Monroe elected President in 1816
1. Continued the Virginia
dynasty (4 of 5 initial presidents Virginian; 32 of first 36 yrs)
2. Death of Federalist
party resulted after the election.
a. Federalist liabilities
i. "Disloyalty" during the Wr of 1812
ii. Became extremely sectional (interests of New England) and unable to
accept new
nationalistic program
iii. Jefferson had adopted many of their most important ideas (e.g. Hamilton’s
financial
plan, expansion, loose construction in certain cases)
b. Ironically, Federalists reversed many of their initial positions
i. Originally nationalistic; now opposed to Republican nationalism
ii. Many became strict constructionists esp. vis-à-vis internal
improve
3. "Era of Good Feelings"
ushered in by Monroe's 1817 inspection tour of military bases
from New England to Detroit (term coined by a newspaper man covering the
tour)
B. "Era of Good Feelings" moniker somewhat of
a misnomer: Acute issues troubled the country.
1. Crystallizing sectionalism
(east, west and south)
2. Tariff issue (east and
south opposed; west in favor)
3. Internal improvements
(east and south opposed; west in favor)
4. Bank of U.S. (BUS) (west
and south opposed; eastern bankers in favor)
5. Sale of public lands
(east opposed; west and south in favor)
6. Republican party enjoying
1-party rule began developing factions eventually leading to 2nd
Party System in the 1830s.
-- Clay, Calhoun, Jackson, John Quincy.Adams
C. Monroe's presidency oversaw two major events:
1. Panic of 1819
2. Missouri Compromise of
1820
IV. Panic of 1819
A. Economic panic and depression set in 1819
1. First financial panic
since the "Critical Period" of the 1780s under Articles of
Confederation.
-- Henceforth, panics and depressions would occur approximately every 20
years.
2. Causes of 1819 panic:
a. Most immediate cause: Overspeculation on frontier lands by banks
(especially BUS)
b. Inflation from 1812 war + economic drop-off after war (especially cotton)
=
vulnerable economy
c. Significant deficit in balance of trade with Britain = U.S. drained
of vital specie
d. BUS forced "wildcat" western banks to foreclose on western farms
-- BUS stopped allowing payment in paper; now demanded payment in specie;
state
banks affected & called in loans in specie; farmers didn’t have specie
3. Resulted in calls
for reform and pressure for increased democracy.
a. Western farmers viewed the bank as an evil financial monster.
b. Hard hit poor classes looking for more responsive gov't (beginnings
of Jacksonian
democracy)
c. New land legislation resulted in smaller parcels being sold for lower
prices.
-- By the Civil War, western land would be given nearly for free.
d. Directed attention to inhumanity of imprisoning debtors.
-- Some states passed remedial legislation.
B. Monroe reelected in 1820 with all but one electoral
vote (nearly unanimous)
-- Only president in history
to be elected after a major panic.
V. The Growing West
A. New states' characteristics
1. No long-established history
of states' rights
2. More than other regions,
depended on federal gov't where it had secured most of its land.
3. Melting pot of a wide
diversity of peoples immigrating from the east.
B. 9 frontier states joined the union bet. 1791
& 1819
1. Most had been admitted
alternately free and slave.
2. Maintaining a sectional
balance in Congress was a supreme goal.
C. Reasons for explosive westward expansion
1. Westward movement had
been significant significant since colonial era.
2. Cheap lands in the Ohio
territory attracted large numbers of European immigrants.
3. Land exhaustion in older
tobacco states drove people westward.
4. Speculators accepted
small down payments & made purchase of land easier.
5. Economic
distress of embargo years stimulated migration west.
6. Crushing of Indians during
the war cleared much of the frontier.
a. Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) and Jay Treaty
b. Battle of Tippecanoe (1811)
7. Transportation Revolution
improved land routes to Ohio Valley.
a. Cumberland Road built in 1811; ran from MD to Illinois.
b. Emergence of the steamboat in 1811 made upstream travel possible.
c. Canals beginning in 1826 allowed for increased trade between west and
east.
D. West still remained weak in population and influence
1. Forced to ally itself
with other sections when addressing national political issues.
2. Demanded land reform
& cheap transportation (got it slowly), cheap money and
issued its own "wildcat" banks, & fought the powerful Bank of he US
to get its goals
VI. Missouri Compromise of 1820
A. Missouri asked Congress to enter the union in
1819
1. Tallmadge Amendment
passed
by the House of Representatives in response.
a. No more slaves could be brought into Missouri
b. Gradual emancipation of children born to slave parents already there.
B. Southern states viewed Tallmadge Amendment as ominous
threat to sectional balance.
1. Jefferson: The crisis
rang as "a firebell in the night."
2. Concerned by fast increase
in northern population and economy and political balance in
in the House of Representatives.
-- Senate still balanced 11 free to 11 slave states; parity had to be maintained
3. Future of the slave system
caused southerners profound concern.
a. Missouri first state entirely west of the Mississippi made from the
Louisiana Territory.
b. Tallmadge amendment might set a precedent for the rest of the area to
be free.
c. If Congress could abolish slavery in Missouri, it might try in southern
states.
d. Small group of antislavery agitators in the North used the occasion
to protest
4. The Senate refused to
pass the amendment and as the crisis loomed
C. Missouri Compromise of 1820
1. Henry Clay played a key
role in mediating a compromise
2. Provisions:
a. Congress agreed to admit Missouri as a slave state.
b. Maine was admitted as a free-soil state.
-- Balance kept at 12 to 12 for the next 15 years.
c. Future slavery prohibited north of 36-30' line, the southern border
of Missouri.
-- Ironically, Missouri was north of the 36-30 line.
3. Compromise was largely
accepted by both sides
a. South got Missouri
b. North won concession that it could forbid slavery in the remaining territories
above
36-30 line
i. Northern advantage because Spanish territory in southwest prevented
significant
southern expansion westward.
ii. Southerners not overly concerned of lands north of 36-30 as lands not
condusive to
slave-labor cash crop agriculture.
D. Legacy of the Compromise
1. Lasted 34 years and preserved
the union (until the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854)
2. Henceforth, slavery became
a dominant issue in American politics.
-- Serious setback to national unity
3. South began to develop
a sectional nationalism of its own.
-- Looked to the young West who was seeking allies as well.
4. Clay criticized by subsequent
generations as an "appeaser"
a. Yet, nation was founded on compromise; no one section could dominate
b. End of compromise in the 1850s resulted in civil war.
VII. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism
A. Marshall most important chief justice in U.S.
history (1801-1835)
1. Significantly strengthened
the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803) and other
cases.
2. His decisions greatly
increased power of the federal government over the states.
a. Strengthened the union and helped create a stable, nationally uniform
environment for
business.
b. Checked excesses of the popularly elected state legislatures.
c. Ironically, his decisions at times hampered democracy at a time when
America was
become much more democratic during the Jacksonian era.
3. Examined cases from a
Federalist philosophy and found legal precedents to support
his Hamiltonian views.
a. Jeffersonian attempts to balance the Court with Republicans failed.
b. Republicans came to accept the Federalist ideal of strong central gov't.
B. Fletcher v. Peck (1810) (protection
of property rights against popular pressures)
1. Issue: New Georgia legislature
canceled a contract which had granted 35 million acres in
the Yazoo River country (Miss.) to private speculators as a form of graft.
-- Previous legislature had made the grant in what was called "Yazoo Land
Controversy"
during Jefferson’s presidency.
2. Significance: Court ruled
the Constitution forbids state from "impairing contracts".
a. One of earliest examples of Court asserting its right to invalidate
state laws.
b. Court stated the legislative grant was a contract (albeit fraudulently
secured)
C. Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee
(1816)
1. Issue: Did Supreme Court
(as provided for in Judiciary Act of 1789) have the right to
review decisions of state supreme courts where federal statutes or treaties
were involved
or when state laws had been upheld under the federal Constitution?
-- Virginia sought to disregard Treaty of Paris (1783) and Jay’s Treaty
(1794) regarding
confiscation of Loyalist lands.
2. Decision: Supreme Court
rejected "compact theory" and state claims that they were
equally sovereign with the federal gov’t.
3. Significance: Upheld
Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and federal judicial supremacy
over the states.
D. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) (Blow
to states' rights)
1. Issue: Maryland tried
to destroy Baltimore branch of the BUS by taxing its notes.
2. Marshall declared US
bank constitutional invoking Hamilton's doctrine of implied
powers (elastic clause of the constitution -- "necessary & proper").
a. "Loose construction" given major boost.
b. Argued the Constitution derived from the consent of the people
and
thus permitted the gov't to act for their benefit.
3. Denied Maryland the right
to tax the bank: "..that the power to tax involves the
power to destroy" and "that a power to create implies the power to preserve."
E. Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
(protection of property rights from the states)
1. Issue: New Hampshire
had changed a charter granted to the college by King George
III in 1769. Republicans sought to remove "private" aspect of school &
make a state
institution.
-- Dartmouth appealed; defended by Daniel Webster, an alumnus.
2. Ruling: Charter was a
contract; states could not invalidate it according to Constitution.
3. Significance:
a. Positive: safeguarded business from domination by the states.
b. Negative: set precedent giving corporations the ability to escape gov’t
control.
F. Cohens v. Virginia (1821) (Blow
to states' rights)
1. Significance: Marshall
asserted right of Supreme Court to review decisions of
the state supreme courts in all questions involving powers of the federal
gov't.
a. Significant blow to states' rights.
b. Similar to Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee case (above)
2. Issue: Virginia courts
convicted Cohens for selling lottery tickets illegally.
a. State supreme court upheld the decision
b. Marshall overturned it.
G. Gibbons v. Ogden -- 1824 ("steamboat
case") (Blow to states' rights)
1. Significance: Marshall
ruled Constitution conferred on Congress alone the right to
control interstate commerce.
2. Issue: NY tried to grant
a monopoly of river commerce between NY & NJ to
a private company (owned by Ogden). Gibbons had congressional approval
to conduct
business on the same waters.
3. Court ruled interstate
streams were to regulated by Congress, not individual states.
H. Daniel Webster became an important influence
in Marshall’s decisions.
1. Advocated strongly Federalist
and nationalist views before the Supreme Court.
-- He actually "ghost wrote" some of the Court’s opinions.
2. Classic speeches in the
Senate, challenging states' rights and nullification, were
largely repetitions of arguments he earlier presented to the Supreme Court.
VIII. Foreign Policy after the War of 1812
A. Rush-Bagot Treaty (1817) – during
Madison’s presidency
1. Severely limited naval
armament on the lakes.
2. By 1870, U.S. & Canada
shared longest unfortified border in the world (5,500 mi)
B. Treaty of 1818 (Convention of
1818) with England (during Madison’s presidency)
1. Negotiated by John Quincy
Adams, one of the nation's great sec. of states.
2. Provisions:
a. Fixed the American-Canadian border at the 49th parallel from
Lake of the
Woods to the Rocky Mountains.
b. 10-year joint occupation of Oregon Territory w/o surrender of claims
of by either country.
c. Permitted Americans to share Newfoundland fisheries with the Canadians.
C. U.S. gains Spanish Florida
1. Americans already claimed
West Florida where settlers had torn down the Spanish flag in
1810 and Congress ratified the conquest during War of 1812.
2. Revolutions in South
America forced Spain to move its troops out from Florida.
a. Floods of Indians, runaway slaves, and white outcasts poured across
the border
into American territory to pillage and kill and then retreat south of the
border.
b. Monroe commissioned Andrew Jackson to punish the Indians and if necessary,
pursue them back into Florida.
-- He was to respect all Spanish posts.
3. Jackson swept through
central and eastern Florida during the First Seminole War
(1816-1818).
a. Exceeded orders by capturing Spanish cities and deposing Spanish Governor.
b. Executed 2 Indian chiefs and British aids to the Spanish cause
4. John Quincy Adams convinced
Monroe's cabinet to offer an ultimatum to Spain.
a. Control the outlaws of Florida (which Spain was not equipped to do)
or
cede Florida to the U.S.
b. Spain infuriated but realized it would lose Florida in any case; decided
to negotiate.
5. Adams-Onis Treaty(Florida
Purchase Treaty) of 1819
a. Spain Ceded Florida as well as claims to Oregon.
b. U.S. abandoned claims to Texas (which was to become part of independent
Mexico).
D. Monroe Doctrine -- John Quincy Adams: Secretary
of State
1. European monarchs, Russia,
Austria, Prussia, and France -- "Holy Alliance" -- alarmed
at Latin American revolutions and European democratic tendencies.
a. Saw democracy as a threat to absolute monarchy.
b. Wished to restore newly independent Latin American republics to Spanish
rule.
2. Americans alarmed at
European hostility to democracy in Western Hemisphere
3. Great Britain sought
an alliance with the U.S. to protect its interests in Latin America
a. Benefitted, along with the U.S., with trade in Latin America.
b. 1823, Br. foreign secretary, George Canning, proposed a joint
declaration, warning
European despots from to stay away from Latin American Republics.
4. American reaction
a. Former presidents Jefferson & Madison urged Monroe for a Anglo-American
alliance.
b. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams believed Britain wanted alliance
to keep U.S.
from taking Latin American territory and jeopardizing Britain’s possessions
in the
Caribbean.
i. Believed alliance would hamper U.S. expansion and was unnecessary.
ii. Realized Europeans did not really pose an imminent threat to region.
5. Monroe Doctrine (1823)
-- written by John Quincy Adams
a. J.Q. Adams finally won President Monroe over to his way of thinking
b. President's annual message to Congress incorporated stern warning
to Europeans
i. Colonial powers could keep their existing colonies but
gain no new ones.
ii. Nonintervention in the Americas; let new republics govern themselves
iii. Directed primarily at Russia, whom the U.S. feared would threaten
the Pacific coast
c. Most famous expression of American nationalism during the era.
i. Nationalistic Americans widely supported the proclamation.
ii.Maintained Washington's tradition of avoiding an "entangling alliances."
d. Foreign
reaction
i. British reaction mixed.
-- Canning concerned Monroe Doctrine aimed at Britain as well.
-- British press favored protection of Latin American markets.
ii. European monarchs angered and offended at U.S. haughtiness
iii. Latin American countries skeptical and saw U.S. merely protecting
its own interests.
e. Immediate
impact of Monroe Doctrine was small
i. U.S. army and navy remained small and relatively weak
ii. Not until 1845 did Polk revive it and did it become more important
f. Long-term
impact: Monroe Docrtine became cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy
during
last half of 19th century and throughout 20th century.
6. John Quincy Adams
one of most significant secretaries of state in U.S. history.
a. Oversaw Convention of 1818 establishing U.S.-Canadian Border
b. Adams-Onis Treaty resulted in acquisition of Florida from Spain
c. Monroe Doctrine
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