“Era of Good Feelings” in the U.S., The: 1816-1827

After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, American citizens can for the first time afford to pay less attention to European political and military affairs.

The enactment in 1816 of the first U.S. protective tariff and the establishment in the same year of the second National Bank leads to a national mood of complacency.

On July 12, 1817, the Boston Columbian Centinel describes James Monroe's relatively calm and prosperous administration (1817-1825) as the Era of Good Feeling.

The first Seminole War (1817-18) culminates in the U.S. purchase of Florida from Spain (1819-21).

The Missouri Compromise (1820) peacefully settles the first conflict over slavery under the Constitution.

With the decline of the Federalists, the United States is, in practice if not in theory, a one-party state on the national level; heading the Democratic-Republicans, the incumbent Monroe secures all but one electoral vote in 1820.

An unassertive, isolationist nationalism drives sectionalism into comparative abeyance, but varying sectional interests, particularly regarding slavery and political personality conflicts, develop during Monroe's second term.

The citizenry's arguments with the federal government have been muted by a combination of fairer policies and increased militarization, while slaves continue to labor under strict supervision by their owners, who continue to fear organized revolt.

Despite the climate of repression and the certainty of harsh reprisals, the free black urban artisan Denmark Vesey allegedly plans, in 1822, the most extensive slave revolt in U.S. history.

By 1825, more than 36 percent of all the enslaved people in the New World are in the southern United States.The institution of slavery remains the nonpareil reform issue in the United States, however, and fuels the era's conflict in Texas&emdash;the Fredonian Rebellion (1826-27).

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