| Era Of Good Feelings |
Index for Era |
Website Links For Era |
Information AboutEra Of Good Feelings |
|
In the Election Of 1820 , President Monroe was re-elected with all but one electoral vote. Elector William Plumer of New Hampshire voted for John Quincy Adams . Legend has it that he voted for John Q. Adams because he thought George Washington should be the only president voted for unanimously, however; the true fact is he didn't think Monroe would make a good president. Slavery became a major issue for the first time, but thanks to the Missouri Compromise engineered by Henry Clay , the crisis passed. The solution was to balance admission of Missouri Territory as a Slave State , with the admission of Maine as a free state. By then, the Federalist Party had disappeared almost everywhere (except Delaware). For that matter, the old Democratic-Republican Party fell apart as well, because its function of fighting the opposition had vanished. Local politics flourished, of course, but without party labels or party conventions. The Era also saw a pause in bitter debates over the protective tariff and the Second National Bank . Florida was purchased from Spain to general acclaim. President Monroe promulgated the The Monroe Doctrine , advising European powers against attempts to re-assert their control over former colonies in the New World. :"...We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any Europe an power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States...." --The Monroe Doctrine, December 2 1823, excerpt from President James Monroe's Seventh Annual Message to Congress The Era ended in 1824, due to the breakdown of the electoral system. Previously the , John C. Calhoun , and William H. Crawford ; plus Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson . Calhoun took himself out of the running by deciding to seek the Vice-Presidency . The other four formed regional coalitions with state politicians and pursued the electorate. At the polls, turnout was light because there were no parties to mobilize voters. Then, since no one received a majority in the electoral college, the decision on the presidency went to House Of Representatives . Clay, who was Speaker Of The House Of Representatives , swung the election to Adams, who then appointed Clay as Secretary of State. The result outraged Jackson and his supporters. They alleged that a " Corrupt Bargain " had taken place and immediately began their crusade to regain the "stolen" presidency. Partisan politics began again. References
|