Era of Good Feelings
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 Hamilton’s ideas as their own
Federalists now in opposition
Republicans the only party by 1824
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
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
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)
Missouri Territory Develops rapidly,
especially St. Louis and up the Missouri River
Population reached for statehood
Congress prepares to discuss territory’s future
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
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
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
Southern viewpoints South Carolina Senator William Smith, ca.
1820 Sour grapes over
Southern power Moderates rally to
defend the region, regardless of views on slavery’s future
Each new state must decide for itself
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
Can Congress regulate slavery? Northerners generally
insist that the answer is YES
Northwest Ordinance is the precedent
Can Congress regulate slavery? Looney extreme: South
Carolina says absolutely NO
Congress cannot bind states, ever
Fifth Amendment issue
Left: Flag of South Carolina
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
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
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 36°30” North longitude Tallmadge Amendments buried
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