Wherever he went, the people came by thousands to greet him; but nowhere was the reception so hearty as in New England, the stronghold of Federalism.  “The visit of the President,” said a Boston newspaper, “seems wholly to have allayed the storms of party.  People now meet in the same room who, a short while since, would scarcely pass along the same street”.  Another said that since Monroe’s arrival at Boston “party feeling and animosities have been laid aside, and but one great national feeling has animated every class of our citizens.”  So it was everywhere, and when, therefore, the Boston Sentinel_ called the times the “era of good feeling,” the whole country took up the expression and used it, and the eight years of Monroe’s administration have ever since been so called.

%294.  Trouble with the Seminole Indians.%—­Though all was quiet and happy within our borders, events of great importance were happening along our northern, western, and southern frontier.  During the war with England, the Creek Indians in Georgia and Alabama had risen against the white settlers and were beaten and driven out by Jackson and forced to take refuge with the Seminoles in Florida.  As they had been the allies of England, they fully expected that when peace was made, England would secure for them the territory of which Jackson had deprived them.  When England did not do this, they grew sullen and savage, and in 1817 began to make raids over the border, run off cattle and murder men, women, and children.  In order to stop these depredations, General Jackson was sent to the frontier, and utterly disregarding the fact that the Creeks and Seminoles were on Spanish soil, he entered West Florida, took St. Marks and Pensacola, destroyed the Indian power, and hanged two English traders as spies.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Parton’s Life of Jackson, Chaps. 34-36; McMaster’s History, Vol.  IV., pp. 430-456.]

%295.  The Canadian Boundary; Forty-ninth Parallel.%—­This was serious, for at the time the news reached Washington that Jackson had invaded Spanish soil and hanged two English subjects, important treaties were under way with Spain and Great Britain, and it was feared his violent acts would stop them.  Happily no evil consequences followed, and in 1818 an agreement was reached as to the dividing line between the United States and British America.

When Louisiana came to us, no limit was given to it on the north, and fifteen years had been allowed to pass without attempting to establish one.  Now, however, the boundary was declared to be a line drawn south from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude and along this parallel to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.

%296.  Joint Occupation of Oregon.%—­The country beyond the Rocky Mountains, the Oregon country, was claimed by both England and the United States; so it was agreed in the treaty of 1818 that for ten years to come the country should be held in joint occupation.