01:512:205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: National Road, Jacksonian Democracy, Ert3
18 May 2018
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Chapter 12: The Second War for Independence and
the Upsurge of Nationalism, 1812-1824
1. The So-Called Era of Good Feelings
1. James Monroe was nominated for presidency in 1816 by the Republicans;
they undertook to continue the so-called Virginia dynasty of Washington,
Jefferson, and Madison; the fading Federalists ran a candidate fro the last
time in their history and he was crushed by 183 electoral votes to 34—left
the field to the triumphant Republicans and one-party rule
1. James Monroe straddled two generations: the bygone age of the
Founding Fathers and the emergent age of nationalism; he was in
intellect and personal force the least distinguished for the first eight
presidents (times called for sober administration)
2. Monroe was an experienced, levelheaded executive with talent for
interpreting people
2. Emerging nationalism was further cemented by a goodwill tour Monroe
undertook early in 1817, ostensibly to inspect military defense (he
received a heartwarming welcome)
3. A Boston newspaper was so far carried away as to announce that an Era
of Good Feelings had been ushered in—term used to describe the
administrations of Monroe
4. The Era of Good Feelings was something of a misnomer; the period was a
troubled one
1. The acute issues of the tariff, the bank, internal improvements and,
the sale of public lands was being hotly contested around the United
States population
2. Sectionalism was crystallizing, and the conflict over slavery was
beginning to rise
2. The Panic of 1819 and the Curse of Hard Times
1. Much of the goodness went out of the good feelings in 1819, when a
paralyzing economic panic descended; it rough deflation, depression,
bankruptcies, bank failures, unemployment, soup kitchens, and
overcrowded pesthouses known as debtors’ prisons
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2. This was the first national financial panic since President Washington took
office
1. Many factors contributed to the catastrophe of 1819, but looming large
was overspeculation in frontier lands; the Bank of United States,
through its western branches, had become deeply involved in this
popular type of outdoor gambling
2.
3. Financial paralysis from the panic, which lasted in some degree for
several years, gave a rude setback to the nationalistic ardor; the West
was especially hard hit
4. The Bank of the United States forced the speculative (wildcat)
western banks to the wall and foreclosed mortgages on countless
farms, which was legal but unwise
3. The panic of 1819 created backwashes in the political and social world;
the poorer classes were severely strapped and in their troubles was sown
the seed of Jacksonian democracy
4. Hard times also directed attention to the inhumanity of imprisoning
debtors; in extreme cases, often overplayed, mothers were torn from their
infants for owing a few dollars
5. Mounting agitation against imprisonment for debt started in remedial
legislation in states
3. Growing Pains of the West
1. The onward march of the West continued; nine frontier states had joined
the original thirteen between 1791 and 1819; with an eye to preserving the
North-South sectional balance, most of these commonwealths had been
admitted alternately, free of slave
1. In part, it was a continuation of the generations-old westward
movement, which had been going on since the colonial days—special
appeal to European immigrants
2. Eager newcomers from abroad were beginning to stream down in
impressive numbers, especially after the war of boycotts and bullets;
land exhaustion in the older tobacco states, where the soil was
mined, likewise drove people westward
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3. Acute economic distress during the embargo years turned many
pinched faces toward the setting sun; the crushing of the Indians in
the Northwest and South by Generals Harrison and Jackson pacified
the frontier and opened up vast virgin tracts of land
4. The building of highways improved the land routes to the Ohio Valley,
noteworthy was Cumberland Road, begun in 1811 from Maryland to
Illinois; the use of the first steamboat on western waters, in 1811,
heralded a new era of upstream navigation
2. But the West, despite the inflow of settlers, was still weak in population
and influence; not potent enough politically, it was forced to ally itself with
other sections
3. The West demanded cheap acreage and partially achieved its goal in the
Land Act of 1820, which authorized a buyer to purchase 80 acres at a
minimum of $1.25 an acre
4. The West also demanded cheap transportation and slowly got the
transportation, despite the constitutional qualms of the presidents and the
hostility of easterners
5. Finally, the West demanded cheap money, issued by its own wildcat
banks and fought the powerful Bank of the United States to attain its goal
4. Slavery and the Sectional Balance
1. Sectional tensions, involving rivalry between the slave South and the free
North over control of the virgin West, were stunningly revealed in 1819
concerning Missouri
1. The territory of Missouri in 1819 knocked on the doors of Congress for
admission as a slave state; the fertile and watered area contained
sufficient population for statehood
2. But the House of Representative stymied the plans of Missourians by
passing the incendiary Tallmadge amendment which stipulated that
no more slave should be brought into Missouri and provided for the
gradual emancipation of children born
2. A roar of anger burst from slave-holding southerners; they were joined by
many depression-cursed pioneers who favored unhampered expansion of
the West and by many northerners, especially diehard Federalists, who
were eater to use the issue to break the back of the Virginia dynasty—
that concerning the long reign of Virginian presidents
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