It is March 27th. Welcome to Episode 86 of History in a Year. Today, the United States enters a bizarre, brief period of political peace. Following the War of 1812 and the spectacular suicide of the Federalist Party, the country is swept up in a massive wave of fierce nationalism. We follow the newly elected President James Monroe as he embarks on an unprecedented, nationwide goodwill tour, literally healing the wounds of a fractured nation. We explore the illusion of the “Era of Good Feelings,” the reality of a chaotic one-party system, and how the terrifying issue of slavery was already beginning to boil just beneath the surface.
STEPHEN:
Welcome to History in a Year: America’s First 250 Years.
LEAH:
Join us every single day as we journey from the Revolution of 1776 to the 250th anniversary of the United States.
STEPHEN:
You can find every episode and join the discussion at PointedWords.com. I’m Stephen.
LEAH:
And I’m Leah.
STEPHEN:
It is March 27th. Welcome to Episode 86. Yesterday, we watched the conservative Federalist party essentially destroy itself at the Hartford Convention.
LEAH:
Because they threatened to secede from the Union right as the United States won the Battle of New Orleans, they were permanently branded as traitors. The party of Alexander Hamilton completely collapsed.
STEPHEN:
And that created a political situation that we have practically never seen again in American history: A one-party system.
LEAH:
In the Election of 1816, the Democratic-Republican candidate completely steamrolled the opposition. And the man who won the White House was James Monroe.
STEPHEN:
James Monroe is a fascinating transitional figure. He was the very last American President from the Founding Father generation. He had literally crossed the icy Delaware River with George Washington, and he still had a musket ball lodged in his shoulder from the Battle of Trenton to prove it.
LEAH:
While the rest of the country was wearing modern 19th-century trousers, Monroe still walked around Washington D.C. wearing a powdered wig, knee breeches, and a tricorn hat. He was a living, breathing monument to the American Revolution.
STEPHEN:
And Monroe decided to use that massive historical respect to completely unify the country.
LEAH:
Shortly after taking office in 1817, Monroe did something unprecedented. He left Washington and went on a massive, 15-week nationwide goodwill tour.
STEPHEN:
And he didn’t just visit his friends in the South. He rode directly into the belly of the beast. He went straight up the coast into New England—the absolute epicenter of the angry, bitter, former Federalists who had just threatened to tear the country apart.
LEAH:
But something amazing happened. When Monroe arrived in Boston, the crowds didn’t throw rocks at him. They threw flowers.
STEPHEN:
Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to cheer for him. The intense, unified patriotism of the War of 1812 had completely washed away the old party loyalties. A local Boston newspaper printed a headline to describe the incredible vibe of the President’s visit.
LEAH:
They called it the “Era of Good Feelings.” STEPHEN:
The name stuck, and it perfectly described the surface of American society at the time. The economy was booming, people were rapidly expanding into the West, and politicians weren’t screaming at each other in the newspapers anymore.
LEAH:
But underneath that unified, patriotic surface, the foundation of the country was actively cracking.
STEPHEN:
Because having only one political party didn’t actually stop politicians from fighting. It just changed how they fought.
LEAH:
Without a unified enemy to rally against, the massive Democratic-Republican party started to fracture from the inside. They stopped fighting over broad political philosophies, and they started fighting over geography.
STEPHEN:
This is the birth of fierce Sectionalism. The country began splitting into three very distinct, very hostile camps: The North, the South, and the West.
LEAH:
The North wanted tariffs to protect their new factories. The South hated tariffs because they made imported manufactured goods too expensive. The West wanted the government to build massive roads and canals to connect them to the East Coast.
STEPHEN:
But the most terrifying crack in the foundation was the one that nobody wanted to talk about.
LEAH:
Slavery.
STEPHEN:
As hundreds of thousands of Americans poured into the West, they started carving out new territories that would eventually become new states. And every single time a new territory asked to join the Union, the exact same, explosive question was asked in Congress:
LEAH:
“Will this be a free state, or a slave state?”
STEPHEN:
The “Era of Good Feelings” was ultimately an illusion. The old political parties were dead, but the regional hatreds that were replacing them were infinitely more dangerous. The United States was slowly, quietly drawing battle lines on a map.
LEAH:
But James Monroe was determined to steer the ship through the calm waters for as long as he could. And to do it, he built one of the greatest Presidential cabinets in history.
STEPHEN:
Join us tomorrow for Episode 87. President James Monroe. We look closer at the man behind the powdered wig. We explore the brilliant, volatile “team of rivals” he assembled to run his government—including John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun—and how his administration boldly declared to the empires of Europe that the Americas were officially closed for business.
LEAH:
I’m Leah.
STEPHEN:
And I’m Stephen.
STEPHEN:
You can find every episode at PointedWords.com. And this… is our story.