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