Era of Good Feeling

Nation Building: Foreign and Domestic

Era of Good Feeling?• James Monroe (Republican)

– President (1816-24)• Factions within Republicans

– Old Republicans (Calhoun)– New Republicans: Federalists in

disguise (Webster)• Actual Era of GF: 1816-1819

– Younger generation of voters • Excited with natlism, growth and little

interest in Europe and wars of past

Connecting the States• Telegraph (Samuel Morse)• Roads and Turnpikes

– Turnpikes (private ventures)• Lancaster Turnpike link Philly and Lancaster

– The Old National Road (Maryland to Illinois) 1811

• Steamboats travel upriver (1807)– Robert Fulton “Clermont”

• Canals link rivers and lakes– Erie Canal first transportation link

between East and West, 1825• stimulates commercial growth esp. of N.Y

– Lower food prices in East

• Most important, railroads– Baltimore and Ohio 1828

Industry• Mid 19thc manuf. surpass agric in value• Samuel Slater from GB

– factory system 1791• Interchangeable parts (Eli Whitney)

– Mass production (1801)• Francis Lowell’s textile mill

– Located in Massachusetts– Combined all steps in one factory– Used young farm women (dorms)

• Wholesalers control distribution and markets widen– Cheap, efficient products more important

than finely finished ones.– Value of the skilled craftsman declined– Unions formed (very weak)

Economics and Politics• Legislation

– Fed and State govt help business– Encourage competition– Corporations can sell stock to raise capital– Bonds for canal and RR building

• The Court– Two Constant Principles

• The sanctity of contracts (property protected)• Supremacy of federal legislation

• Flectcher v Peck(1810)- GA and land fraud• 1st time use unconstitutional. Uphold contract

• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) – N.Y gave Ogden monopoly of ferry travel to N.J. Gibbons competes

• Rules: Gibbons fine. State has no right b/c interstate trade. • McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)– Maryland placed tax on Bank

of U.S. MY deemed BUS unconstitutional• Rules: upholds the constitutionality of the Bank. Overturns

a state law. Only feds can tax a fed. Institution. Fed. law supreme

• Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)—N.H. tries to change Dartmouth from private to public college

• Rules: charters are contracts and state cannot revoke.

Economics and Politics• Republicans adopt some Federalist

measures • Protective Tariff of 1816 (nationalism)• American System (Henry Clay)

– establish high tariffs (for East = sectionalism)

– charter a national bank (2nd Bank)– federal aid for internal improvements

• Monroe object Const. not allow fed. govt.• Panic of 1819

– The B.U.S. decided needed stricter credit requirements

– Called in its loans, so state banks had to as well

– Land speculators unable to repay loans (West hurt the most= sect.lism)

– banks failed and depositors were wiped out

– Monroe did nothing

Foreign Policy• John Quincy Adams

– Secretary of State• Treaty of 1818

• GB and US share Oregon (10 yrs)• Recognize Canadian and US border• Rush Bagot Agreement (1817)

• Longest unfortified border in the world• Adams-Onis Treaty 1819

– Spain gives us Florida– U.S assumes $5 mill of debt Spain owes

Americans– U.S recognizes Texas belongs to Spain

• Monroe Doctrine 1823– American continents no longer subject to further

colonization.– Political systems of Europe dangerous b/c so

different from America – Cornerstone of U.S foreign policy with Latin

America

Rejecting Industrialism

• By 1825, pop. had doubled• By 1830s, 1/3 lived west of Appal.

– South needs more land; East fled b/c of embargo and war; Easier transports to West; Native Amer. Land; Immigrants

The Missouri Compromise: The Issues

• House rejects unless slavery abolished (North dominates)– Tallmadge amendment gradual end

of slavery in Missouri– Henry Clay compromise

• Wish to preserve balance between slave states and free states (Senate)

• Sectionalism rears its head

The Missouri Compromise 1820

• Maine comes in free• Missouri comes in slave• All territory north 36’30 will be free• All territory south will be slave• Exposed rift between North &

South

Economy & Sectionalism

• Market stimulates specialization – West farms to feed– North manufactures– South grows cotton

• Cotton– Bulk of the exports

• GB textile factories– Northern merchants benefits by

providing– Transportation– Manufacturing the cloth, then selling the cloth

Market Economy• End of self-sufficiency

– Ppl went to work, not work from home• Interdependence• Effects

– Women• Work force (single women)

– Domestic work or teachers; factory jobs rare– Replaced by immigrant workers

• Still, once married stopped working– Social mobility

• Wage earners vs merchants– North just as bad as South now

– Slavery• End to slavery? Not with cotton gin.• Even Northern workers slaves to the clock

CW

• To what extent was the Era of Good Feeling a truly nationalistic era.– Provide me with a thesis

• Mostly, somewhat, barely

– Provide me with two topics• 8 pts of o.i

– Provide me with the proof of a counterpt

• 4 pts of oi.i