Era of Good Feeling was a period in early United States history marked by general harmony in domestic and international affairs. It began about 1815, at the end of the War of 1812. Patriotism after the war, together with an easing of political divisions, helped bring about a feeling of national unity. The period was marked by a booming economy and settlement of the western frontier. The era ended about 1824, during a divisive presidential campaign.
Background.
In the early 1800’s, the leading U.S. political parties were the Democratic-Republican Party and the Federalist Party. During the final months of the War of 1812, Federalists from New England held a closed meeting known as the Hartford Convention. The convention, which lasted from December 1814 to early January 1815, passed resolutions against the war. It also proposed making New England more independent of the federal government. Some people feared that New England would withdraw from the Union and sign a separate peace treaty with Britain.
In February 1815, American and British officials signed a treaty ending the War of 1812. This made Federalist opposition to the war seem both unnecessary and unpatriotic. The Federalist Party, having lost popularity, began to fall apart as a national organization. The Democratic-Republicans, led by President James Madison, became stronger.
Peace and unity.
After the war, Americans expressed strong feelings of nationalism (common belonging and loyalty to a nation). “The Star-Spangled Banner”—which would later become the U.S. national anthem—became a popular song. Statesman Albert Gallatin wrote that the people “are more American; they feel and act more as a nation.” In the two years after the war, trade expanded, and the country experienced great economic growth.
Madison’s Democratic-Republican Party controlled both houses of Congress. Changes in federal policy made it easier for settlers to buy frontier land, and a number of new states and territories became part of the Union. As the political landscape shifted, the Democratic-Republicans came to embrace a number of policies that had been popular with the Federalists. Such policies included the reestablishment of a national bank, a tariff (tax on certain imports) designed to protect American industries, federal spending on such internal improvements as roads and canals, and a permanent army and navy.
In 1816, voters overwhelmingly chose James Monroe to succeed Madison as president. Monroe had been Madison’s secretary of state and was a former soldier in the American Revolution (1775-1783). Monroe continued the policies of the Democratic-Republicans. After Monroe visited Boston in 1817, Benjamin Russell, the editor of the Columbian Centinel, called the period an “era of good feelings.”
In 1820, Monroe ran unopposed for reelection. He won all but one electoral vote. Five new states joined the Union during Monroe’s years in office, and cities rose along the western frontier.
Monroe’s international policies found support from a patriotic public. Congress passed stronger tariffs to protect American businesses. Monroe began to recognize the independence of Latin American countries that had rebelled against colonial Spanish rule. In 1823, the Monroe Doctrine warned European countries not to interfere with the nations of the Western Hemisphere. See Monroe Doctrine .
New divisions.
The Democratic-Republicans dominated national politics through the 1820’s. However, deep divisions developed within the party, particularly on the issue of slavery. In 1820, after months of heated debate, Congress agreed to a plan that admitted Maine to the Union as a free state and led to Missouri’s admission as a slave state. The plan temporarily maintained the balance between free and slave states.
In the presidential election of 1824, four different candidates headed segments of the Democratic-Republican Party. Andrew Jackson, who had won fame as a general in the War of 1812, received the most electoral votes, but since he did not win a majority, the election had to be decided by the House of Representatives. An arrangement between Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Representative Henry Clay of Kentucky led to Adams’s election as president. Jackson’s supporters felt that Adams and Clay had made a “corrupt bargain.” See Adams, John Quincy (Democratic-Republican Party split) .
The United States would continue to grow in land, wealth, and population. However, political divisions ensured that the Era of Good Feeling had passed. Jackson went on to defeat Adams in a bitter 1828 election. The election marked the end of the Democratic-Republican party. Most historians regard Jackson’s campaign organization as the beginning of today’s Democratic Party.
