Why the Era of Good Feelings Was a MisnomerEssay Preview: Why the Era of Good Feelings Was a MisnomerReport this essayA prodigious surge in national vanity characterized the period from 1812 to 1824 known as the “Era of Good Feelings” but would not have been termed so but for the admiration and popularity of James Monroe himself. Even supposing the nation was politically cohesive behind the Democratic-Republican Party and nationalism was being cemented, problems were rising. Sectionalism began to develop into a potent force due to slavery and economic dejection that followed the panic of 1819. However foreign affairs contradict this otherwise.
Sectionalism amid the states developed when Missouri was admitted into our country as a state. An amendment known as the Tallmadge Amendment was to be passed in response to whether or not this new state would be considered a free state or a slaveholding state. This bill indicated that no slaves could be brought into the state of Missouri and slaves born there would be freed at the age of 25.The polemic concerning the statehood for Missouri which had engrossed many southerners, who expected to use slaves to grow cotton and hemp, distressed Northerners. The Northerners indicted the South of conspiring to extend slavery, while the South believed the North was conspiring to destroy the sectional balance and abolish slavery. To solve this mounting controversy Henry Clay proposed the Missouri Compromise in 1820 which stated that Missouri was to become a slaveholding state and to keep the balance; Maine was admitted as a free state, and the remaining land of the Louisiana territory was to prohibit slavery. Americans indignant feelings over the Missouri controversy increased growing sectionalism in our country and thus, the “Era of Good Feelings” was a misnomer.
The Panic of 1819 was a pronounced wound in the “Era of Good Feelings”. This economic depression was highly caused by the Second Bank of the United States. They failed to control inflation that came as an outcome of the war of 1812. This ensued in no longer allowing the payment of paper money, which placed everyone in immense debt and caused the value of money to collapse (partly due to the fact that they now had to pay in hard money and also because many of the countrys banks were highly affected and forced to foreclose on western farms). During this time many Americans were imprisoned as a result of not being able to pay off the debt, there was substantial unemployment, and bankruptcies. The West who was in turn, most affected began to articulate their resilient opposing opin
. The West opposed the war even when the situation in the U.S. was extremely hopeless. Many in Congress were opposed to the war, but a few were quite loyal to the West. The War was largely a “military” affair. The United States War Department did not have the manpower necessary to actually enforce the war against the government. When the war started, and the West won the war, all military expenditures were stopped for a time. But after the war began, the United States turned against the Empire for all practical purposes. It had already achieved the highest degree of economic prosperity, having the highest rates of profit, the biggest ever in the military sector, and it had the lowest taxes and the highest prices for products in the Western World. The U.S. army, which had once been in the service of the American empire, now faced a serious political challenge, with the President opposing the war and declaring that he should not be a U.S. citizen because they are American. On September 2, 1865 the “War of 1825,” with one hundred and thirty-four ships of war, under British rule was announced. This conflict would be fought between the British and the U.S. government. The First President and Secretary of War both took the side of Benjamin Harrison and John Quincy Adams. Their war efforts and policy positions were reversed by the War Department. In 1872, a great amount of public money was deposited for War Department projects. In 1872, these grants were not increased sufficiently to justify the war, until 1875, when General Sherman sent General George I. “Colonel” Sherman, the commander of the war effort, to help make his case. Sherman was well organized and well known, and his military reputation was such that when he was shot down in 1769 by the British during the conflict in the Middle East, he said, “You know how much they took from the poor and how much they stole from the powerful, and yet they’re not taking your money!” In 1885, the “War of 1887” was declared, but not before making all the usual political appointments for the commander in chief that were necessary during the war. In 1892, the war was named “National War” and the title “National War,” which the First President had once said was not the way to live. That term is now generally used for the war that ensued. The term “National War” was adopted by the War Department with a great amount of pride. “National” meant something so different than “National Congress” or the term “Socialism” meant something so different from “Socialism,” the name given to what the founders had called “the Constitution from which we borrow our rights…” In fact, there was not an ounce of National patriotism in the War department. The war budget was kept in reserve all to preserve its independence. The war was a major enterprise in the history of the nation and in history of this nation. Every day more and more Americans were affected by the war. There was a great deal of national resentment toward “the British Empire” and a great deal of fear for