The Presidency of James Monroe
James Monroe 1758 1831 Democratic-Republican 5 th President (1817-25) Last President to have participated in the Revolution Former Governor of Virginia, Secretary of State, and Secretary of War; as Ambassador to France he negotiated the details of the Louisiana Purchase Slave owner who brought slaves to serve him in the White House
The Era of Good Feelings Term created by a newspaper editor to describe Monroe s presidency In the years following the War of 1812, nationalism (intense pride in one s country) surged and Americans, for the first time, truly thought of themselves as Americans first, ahead of their loyalty to their state or geographic region The collapse of the Federalist Party left only the Democratic- Republican Party to dominate politics, so there was little political disagreement
Second National Bank of the US The expense of the War of 1812 led Congress to create a new National Bank The Bank was not overly popular with small farmers because it was aimed at helping Eastern industrialists Despite this, the need for federal regulation of currency had prompted senators John Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay to force through a bill in 1816 creating the Second National Bank
The Panic of 1819 The Second Bank of the United States, however, was too generous in offering easy credit, leading to it overextending itself by issuing more loans than it had money When the European economy recovered following the Napoleonic Wars, demand for American farm goods collapsed; at the same time, the Bank began recalling its loans in an attempt to stabilize its ability to fund the U.S. government s needs these two circumstances combined led to massive foreclosures on American farms, creating America s first economic depression
McCulloch v. Maryland 1819 The state of Maryland, angry that Congress had revived the Bank of the U.S., passed a bill taxing any currency issued by the Bank s Baltimore branch; the Bank s branch manager (McCulloch) refused to pay the tax The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that: 1) the necessary and proper clause in Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the implied power to create a Bank; 2) the federal government stands above the states and 3) the states can not interfere with the operation of federal agencies
Dartmouth College v Woodward 1819 Dartmouth College, operating under a charter granted by King George III in the 1760s, was forcibly transformed by the state of New Hampshire from a private to a public college Dartmouth s trustees sued, arguing that their charter, even though it predated the Revolution, was a valid contract and could not be voided by the state legislature The U.S. Supreme Court agreed, denying states the right to interfere with private contracts
Gibbons v. Ogden 1824 Aaron Ogden was operating steamboats between New York and New Jersey under an exclusive license from the state of New York Thomas Gibbons began operating a competing line of steamboats under the argument that the Constitution grants all regulation of interstate commerce to Congress, not the states The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Gibbons: Article I, Section 8 grants Congress alone has the right to regulate interstate and foreign commerce
New States Join the Union 18 th : Louisiana (1812) - slaves 19 th : Indiana (1816) no slaves 20 th : Mississippi (1817) - slaves 21 st : Illinois (1818) no slaves 22 nd : Alabama (1819) - slaves The admission of Alabama left the nation perfectly balanced between states which allowed slavery and states which did not (11 of each) By this point, however, the Era of Good Feelings was already fading as sectional differences between the North and the South began to grow
The Missouri Compromise 1819: Missouri (which allowed slavery) applied for statehood This threatened the balance in Congress by giving pro-slavery states more votes in the Senate U.S. finally agreed to admit Missouri as a slave state but only once Maine was admitted as a free state to keep balance Congress also drew a line through the Louisiana Territory: north of the line, no slavery; south of the line would allow slavery The Compromise was largely the work of Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, who came to be called the Great Compromiser (1820)
The Treaty of 1818 Also known as the Convention of 1818 Treaty between the U.S. and Britain, which permanently set the boundary between the U.S. and Canada at the 49 th parallel from Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains The Treaty also allowed both the British and Americans to share the Oregon Territory for the next ten years and granted American fishing boats the right to fish the Grand Banks
The First Seminole War Spanish Florida was a big problem for the U.S. s southern states it harbored runaway slaves and was a base for attacks by Seminole Indians into U.S. territory In 1818, General Andrew Jackson was ordered into Florida to deal with the Seminole threat, but was also ordered not to engage the Spanish; however, after destroying the Seminole s stronghold at Tallahassee, Jackson then seized the Spanish capital at Pensacola as well
Adams-Onís Treaty Spain was infuriated by Jackson s actions The U.S. put the blame on Spain for not being able to control the Seminoles Spain finally agreed to sell Florida to the U.S. for $5 million in return for the U.S. agreeing to a formal border between the U.S. and Spanish Texas
Latin Rebellions In the early 1820s, Mexico and other Central and South American colonies rebelled against Spanish rule The U.S. was concerned that Spain would try to retake these newly independent nations in Latin America; they also worried about Russian expansion into Alaska and what that might mean for Russian claims against the Oregon Territory
The Monroe Doctrine In 1823, President Monroe issued a formal statement of U.S. policy regarding the Americas 1) The U.S. would not tolerate European countries interference in the affairs of countries in the Americas 2) No new European colonization would be allowed in Americas 3) The U.S. would not interfere in the affairs of countries in the Americas or of in Europe