Era of Good Feelings

James Monroe’s presidency was first called the “Era of good feelings” by The Columbian Centinel, which was a Federalist newspaper based in Boston. Some people unfortunately find it very misleading. For the first couple of years, Monroe had no problems to face. After the War of 1812, America had made a lot of progress and was prosperous. Then, everything started to go down hill when the Panic of 1819 hit America. All the progress ended and America went into a depression. The Panic of 1819 featured deflation, bank failures, foreclosures, unemployment, a decrease in agriculture and manufacturing, and overcrowding in debtors’ prison. This was said to be the first economic crisis since Washington. Although the whole country was in distress, Monroe was never blamed. He was even voted in for a second term. The country began to split again by geography (north, south, and west). Because of this, Henry Clay came up with a plan called the “American System”. It consisted of three parts; a strong banking system, a protective tariff, and internal improvements such as canals and roads. Many of the people did not like the high tariff and the roads and canals were vetoed by Monroe. In this time, the north and south split their views on slavery. The north opposed it while the south and west wanted it. America also had problems with the Spanish that had territory in Florida. They signed a treaty with us. Basically even though Monroe was elected almost unanimously, a lot of hard times happened while he was president. The Era of Good Feelings, in my opinion is very misleading and does not tell the story about what actually happened.