Part 5 of My Presidential Review Series
While running out of different ways to say the series is continuing, we go to James Monroe. Washington was the only president to be elected unanimously, but Monroe came pretty close running for his second term. He got all but 1 electoral vote because an elector cast his vote for John Quincy Adams. He was the last Revolutionary War Officer to become president. Monroe's election marked the end of the Federalist party.
A Boston newspaper coined the term for Monroe's presidency, "The Era of Good Feelings," when it saw the receptive audience Monroe was given in New England, once the pillar of Federalist strength. The one-party system and lack of partisanry did, indeed, make it look like an Era of Good Feelings. Monroe was enormously popular, and personified the unity of the nation. But beneath the surface lay the time bombs of slavery and protectionism, and their clocks were almost at 0.
Seminole Indians hiding in Florida frequently raided Georgia and massacred residents. When it became clear that the Spanish had no intention of stopping them, he assigned General Andrew Jackson to take care of the problem. When the Seminoles heard that 'Old Hickory' was coming, they immediately fled deep into Florida. Jackson quickly invaded Florida, crushed the Seminoles, destroyed their villages, overthrew the governor, and executed 2 British citizens. Because he had taken this bold action without authorization, Secretary of War Calhoun and others tried to get him reprimanded, but nothing was done. The ordeal convinced Spain to sell Florida.
Secretary of State Rush and British Minister Bagot wrote up a treaty that demilitarized the Great Lakes. Known as the Rush-Bagot Agreement, it was ratified in 1818. Another agreement with Britain was the Convention of 1818, which granted American fishermen fishing rights to certain eastern Canadian areas and fixed the current border from Minnesota to the Rockies.
The Adams-Onis Treaty, written up by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Spanish Minister Luis de Onis, ceded all of Florida to America. In return, the U.S. agreed to assume all damage claims lodged against Spain. It fixed the Southwestern boundary at the Sabine River, and Spain agreed to relinquish its claim to Oregon.
Bad banking practices, feverish land speculation in the West, and renewed competition from European imports after the War of 1812 combined to throw the U.S. into its first real depression. The administration offered relief in the form of relaxing mortgage terms on land purchased from the government. It lasted until 1821.
The Missouri Compromise, written up by Henry Clay, kept the balance between slaveowners and abolitionists by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Also, it set everything below the 36°30' line as slave, and everything above it as free. Monroe considered vetoing it because he thought banning slavery in the territories was unconsituitional. But he signed it, for fear of a veto leading to Civil War.
Monroe believed that internal improvements were to be left to the states because the government lacked constituitional authority to fund them. Residents of the West grew increasingly impatient with this legal hairsplitting. In 1822 Congress passed a bill that would have funded building toll booths on the Cumberland Road that would fund the states' internal improvement projects. This was the only bill Monroe vetoed.
Amid concerns that European nations might try to reclaim or expand their claims in the Western Hemisphere, Monroe released the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that the U.S. would protect the independent nations and that they would intervene should any nation attempt to capture them. Britain approached Monroe with a proposal that they release a joint statement, but he declined, lest the world think America was just following the British. As modified by the Roosevelt Corollary and the Good Neighbor Policy, it is still a part of U.S. foreign policy.
Monroe, in the end, really did very little for America. His presidency may have been one of good feelings, but the only lasting effects he had on America were the Monroe Doctrine and the Missouri Compromise, and the Missouri Compromise was really a mixed blessing. In the end, he is doomed to be remembered as average.
Overall Ranking: 24
"The Earth was given to mankind to support the greatest number of which it is capable, and no tribe or people have a right to withhold from the wants of others more than is neccessary for their own support and comfort."