Thursday, December 30, 2004

Dangerfield, The Era of Good Feelings (1952)

George Dangerfield.
The Era of Good Feelings.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952.

A paperback edition is in print: Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 1989. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

This book focuses on United States history during the administrations of James Monroe (1817-1825) and John Quincy Adams (1825-1829).

The author describes James Monroe's presidential administration as an interlude, at least during the years 1817-1819, a period when the political rivalries of the past had burnt themselves out; the moderate Republicans quenched the passions of the agrarian Republicans on one side (perhaps this has more to do with the sudden re-opening of the Western frontier, following the cessation of western Indiana hostilities, which formed one of the major fronts in the War of 1812). The Republicans had also - beginning even with Thomas Jefferson's first administration - gradually adopted the policies of the Federalists: government funded Internal Improvements - roads, canals, etc.; a permanent federal Army and Navy; a national Bank; support for commerce and industry. By the beginning of Monroe's first Administration this process had finished. Meanwhile, the Federalists as a separate, viable political party was seriously discredited by their sponsorship of the Hartford Convention of 1814, which resolved to threaten secession if President Madison's war against Britain were not ceased. But suddenly the war ended! and these last embers of New England Federalism, now appearing traitorous, faded away. Thus James Monroe inherited a political environment of unusually low party rivalry, all having been subsumed under one political Party. Thus the "Era of Good Feeling" referred to by the title. This "Era of Good Feeling" was quite brief.

Over the time horizon lay Andrew Jackson, the birth and growth of "Jacksonian Democracy", and the rise of the Whig Party in opposition. The Jacksonians would inherit the Jeffersonian Republican Party, the party morphing into the Jacksonian Democratic party and later the Democratic-Republican Party, and later (by the year 18??) known simply as the Democratic Party, which we see staggering today.

The "Era of Good Feelings" dissipated with the Panic of 1819, the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The bitter defeat of Jackson by John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives in the election of 1824 tainted Adams' administration. Jackson won the 1828 election with the electoral votes of all states from Pennsylvania westward and from the Potomic southward. A new political era began from 1824-1828 with the rise of the Jacksonians. Notably, the election of 1828 was conducted with a broader pool of voters than the election of 1824.

Some Wikipedia Articles:
Posted by at