James Monroe: The Era of Good Feeling

The first four decades of what has come to be called the “American Experiment” were turbulent in the extreme. First there was a revolution to be won, despite the opposition to its goals expressed by nearly a third of the population. A failed attempt at a national government under the Articles of Confederation led to the creation of a strong federal government, creating disputes over the role of state’s rights that continue to the present day. Partisan politics created divides so wide that at one point a sitting Vice-President, Aaron Burr, killed a former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, in an illegal duel. Though the causes of their enmity were many, at their core was a fundamental disagreement over politics.

There were armed insurrections over taxes, over veteran’s benefits, over slavery. During the John Adams administration, the United States fought an undeclared naval war with France. Jefferson sent the US Navy and Marines to fight a war along the North African coast and ordered an embargo against trade with Britain that proved ruinous to American commerce. Quarrels with Britain over free trade and freedom of the seas led to another, nearly disastrous war with the British Empire. Settlers struggling into the western lands of the Northwest Territory and the southern lands found hostile tribes opposing them and a federal government unable to defend them.

Then came a period of eight years of relative peace, during which American commerce thrived, the nation's borders expanded through peaceable means, and the United States gained respect on the world stage. In the wake of the tumultuous years that followed, it became known as the Era of Good Feelings. It was the period of the administration of James Monroe, fifth President of the United States, and the last of the Founders to hold that office.

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Further Reading:
https://millercenter.org/president/mo...
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/bi...
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-do...
https://www.archives.gov/electoral-co...
https://www.britannica.com/event/Reig...
https://www.loc.gov/collections/meeti...
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/12/16/...
https://millercenter.org/president/mo...