[Illustration:  JAMES MONROE.]

CHAPTER 26

THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING, 1815-1824

[Sidenote:  Monroe elected President, 1816, 1820.]

[Sidenote:  Characteristics of the Era of Good Feeling. McMaster, 260.]

276.  The Era as a Whole.—­The years 1815-24 have been called the Era of Good Feeling, because there was no hard political fighting in all that time—­at least not until the last year or two.  In 1816 Monroe was elected President without much opposition.  In 1820 he was reelected President without any opposition whatever.  Instead of fighting over politics, the people were busily employed in bringing vast regions of the West under cultivation and in founding great manufacturing industries in the East.  They were also making roads and canals to connect the Western farms with the Eastern cities and factories.  The later part of the era was a time of unbounded prosperity.  Every now and then some hard question would come up for discussion.  Its settlement would be put off, or the matter would be compromised.  In these years the Federalist party disappeared, and the Republican party split into factions.  By 1824 the differences in the Republican party had become so great that there was a sudden ending to the Era of Good Feeling.

[Sidenote:  Hard times, 1816-18.]

[Sidenote:  Emigration to the West, 1816-18. McMaster, 241, 266-273.]

[Sidenote:  Four states admitted, 1816-1819]

[Sidenote:  Maine and Missouri apply for admission.]

277.  Western Emigration.—­During the first few years of this period the people of the older states on the seacoast felt very poor.  The shipowners could no longer make great profits.  For there was now peace in Europe, and European vessels competed with American vessels.  Great quantities of British goods were sent to the United States and were sold at very low prices.  The demand for American goods fell off.  Mill owners closed their mills.  Working men and women could find no work to do.  The result was a great rush of emigrants from the older states on the seaboard to the new settlements in the West.  In the West the emigrants could buy land from the government at a very low rate, and by working hard could support themselves and their families.  This westward movement was at its height in 1817.  In the years 1816—­19, four states were admitted to the Union.  These were Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), and Alabama (1819).  Some of the emigrants even crossed the Mississippi River and settled in Missouri and in Arkansas.  In 1819 they asked to be admitted to the Union as the state of Missouri, or given a territorial government under the name of Arkansas.  The people of Maine also asked Congress to admit them to the Union as the state of Maine.

[Sidenote:  Objections to the admission of Missouri.]