Era of Good Feelings

The Era of Good Feelings was one in which the federalist dissolved thus leaving only one party; the republicans which left no room for party politics, this resulted into nationalism which was emphasized not only with that of Madison’s letter but also the Star Spangled Banner, the Bonus Bill, the Monroe Doctrine, The Court Decisions of John Marshall and most importantly National Spirit through the U.S. After the win of James Monroe a Virginian Republican president nationalism was looked at through that of a great perspective wherein Monroe won 231 of the electoral vote verses Adams who only won 1 of the electoral vote.(Doc I-Presidential Election, 1820) Also as the war between American and Britain came to a halt there were some minor issues that took place however, both countries settled the disputes between each other rather than going to war. This is because the British had taken note to U.S. sovereignty, therefore the U.S. was able to put forth Nationalistic ideals seeing that one of the strongest European nations had now respected the sovereignty that we a young country had established. This was followed by a letter that Madison wrote to congress in 1815 which represented once again the spirit of National Pride. With such aspects of National ideals in place National Spirit could take place wherein flags, words, prominent symbols and slogans were used to increase Nationalism.

There were many things done by two main people such as Henry Clay and John Sea Calhoun who promoted nationalism in that they wanted to work on projects which would benefit that of the county and not just one region. This would be profitable for everyone thus being profitable for the nation at large. Calhoun showed this by introducing the Bonus Bill which would build roads, canals and create internal improvement. Calhoun saw this as a necessity because he saw that transportation during the war was brutal because supplies for soldiers were dragged through trails and through much adversities. Agricultural societies found it very hard to trade because of how far apart they were from one another and lack of transportation to trade their goods. Calhoun said,

“Let it not be forgotten, the extent of the republic exposes us to the greatest let it be forever kept in mind that of calamities- disunion. We are great, and rapidly- I was about to say fearfully growing. This is our price and danger, our weakness and our strength… We are under the most imperious obligations to counteract every tendency to disunion…. Whatever impedes the intercourse of the extremes with this, the center of the republic weakens the union….. Let us, then bind the republic together was a perfect system of roads and canals. Let us conquer space.”(Doc B)

Another aspect that emphasized Nationalism apart from Madison’s address and the Bonus Bill was the Monroe Doctrine of 1822. The Monroe Doctrine was one in which its major role was that of foreign policy until that of 1840. Monroe was determined to make the U.S. involved in world Affairs and because of the Nationalistic support this was possible. However, because of the lands Spain had lost to the America’s both the English and the Americans are scared that European powers and Spain will be coming back to retrieve the land lost to them. Therefore George Cunning the British foreign secretary to America proposed an Anglo - American alliance to keep the European countries out of the Americas. Monroe wanted to go through with this but Adams did not allow this to take place because if so it would strangle the newly formed government and republics. They would then be sovereign to European control therefore Adams promoted the nationalistic entity of this issue wherein he says, “ I remarked