Era of Good Feelings

1
Era of Good Feelings

• Yeah, right.
• 1816-1820

2
War of 1812 Changes Republicans

• Build a permanent professional army and navy
• Second Bank of the United States
• Internal improvements National Road

• Protective tariff Tariff of 1816
• Essentially adopted all of Hamiltons ideas as
  their own
  
• Federalists now in opposition
• Republicans the only party by 1824

3
Panic of 1819

• Worldwide economic panic
• Collapse in cotton prices because of reduced
  British demand
  
• Deflation
• Land speculation and debts
• Right Crowd Outside the NYSE, October, 1929

4
Controversial Role of the Bank

• BUS tightens credit
• Stopped inflation, but slowed speculation
• Made bank unpopular in South and West
• Panic on scale similar to Great Depression
• Generational memory
• Front of Second Bank of the US Building in
  Philadelphia, PA by Peter Clericuzio, 2006

5
Bigger Crisis Looms Missouri Controversy

• By 1819, slavery all but dead in North
• West of Mississippi River no clear boundary for
  slavery
  
• 1812-1819 Louisiana Purchase divided three ways
• Louisiana
• Arkansas Territory
• Missouri Territory

• Thomas Cole, The Garden of Eden (1828)

6
Missouri Territory

• Develops rapidly, especially St. Louis and up the
  Missouri River
  
• Population reached for statehood
• Congress prepares to discuss territorys future

7
James Tallmadge and his amendments

• NY Congressman, involved in ending slavery in New
  York
  
• Proposed two amendments to a Missouri statehood
  bill
  
• No more slaves in MO
• Free all slaves born after 1820 at 25
• Post nati emancipation

• George Caleb Bingham, Fur Traders on the Missouri
  River, 1845

8
Stakes are high in Missouri debate

• Three-fifths compromise gave disproportionate
  representation to South in House
  
• Senate equally distributed, free and slave
• Missouri would tip the balance one way or other

9
Northern viewpoints

• Imbalance of representation already there
• Messing with egalitarianism
• National politics changing
• More democratic
• North gaining in population

• Lithograph of US Capitol, ca. 1800

10
Southern viewpoints

• South Carolina Senator William Smith, ca. 1820

• Sour grapes over Southern power
• Moderates rally to defend the region, regardless
  of views on slaverys future
  
• Each new state must decide for itself

11
Congressional debate begins in late 1819

• No one arguing over the morality of slavery
• The argument is over whether or not Congress
  could regulate slavery
  
• Typical of early debates over slavery
• Morality not at issue
• Effect on the nation and is democracy more
  important

12
Can Congress regulate slavery?

• Northerners generally insist that the answer is
  YES
  
• Northwest Ordinance is the precedent

13
Can Congress regulate slavery?

• Looney extreme South Carolina says absolutely
  NO
  
• Congress cannot bind states, ever
• Fifth Amendment issue
• Left Flag of South Carolina

14
Can Congress regulate slavery?

• For most Southerners in 1819, the answer is YES,
  BUT
  
• Most believe slavery will eventually end on its
  own Madison, Henry Clay and Thomas Jefferson,
  for example
  
• But congressional moves against it will make
  matters worse

15
A complex argument

• Expansion will kill slavery
• Allow slavery to go west and two things will
  operate to kill it
  
• Great American Desert
• Dilution of slave population will make whites
  more comfortable with ending it

• These views nothing new in 1819
• Most Southern leaders espouse them
• Most believe perpetual slavery bad for country
• Because morality off the table, people are
  willing to compromise
  
• Only South Carolina arguing for the desirability
  and morality of slavery

16
Missouri Compromise

• Begins in the Senate, but Clay makes it possible
  in the House
  
• Maine to be brought in as a free state
• Missouri will be a slave state
• No slavery above 3630 North longitude
• Tallmadge Amendments buried

17
Crisis over slavery past for now

• This momentous question, like a firebell in the
  night awakened and filled me with terror. I
  considered it at once as the knell of the
  Union.
• Thomas Jefferson
• Right Thomas Jefferson, by Rembrandt Peale, 1805