Sold – Monroe Expresses the Principle of the Era of Good Feeling

The Monroe years are remembered as the Era of Good Feeling. All the administrations of the presidents prior to him had been consumed by the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815), overwhelming events that split the American people, decimated trade, and built to a pitch that resulted in the War of 1812. Monroe was thus the first president able to turn his attention and energies to internal affairs, and he brought to it the purpose of promoting unity, confidence and harmony. Monroe emerged as a talented, flexible and competent leader, as well as a consensus builder who not merely reflected the mood of the country but tried to lead it away from both the party divisiveness that plagued his predecessors and the sectional divisiveness that would characterize the administrations of his successors.

He laid out his basic philosophy in his Inaugural Address. “Such, then, is the happy Government under which we live…a Government” which contains within it no cause of discord, none to put at variance one portion of the community with another; a Government which protects every citizen in the full enjoyment of his rights, and is able to protect the nation against injustice from foreign powers… Equally gratifying is it to witness the increased harmony of opinion which pervades our Union. Discord does not belong to our system…The American people…constitute one great family with a common interest…To promote this harmony in accord with the principles of our republican Government and in a manner to give them the most complete effect, and to advance in all other respects the best interests of our Union, will be the object of my constant and zealous exertions.”

During the summer of 1817, to promote and encourage a spirit of unity that he hoped would animate the nation, the new President made a tour of the northern United States, a section that had been disaffected over the War of 1812. Monroe traveled from Washington, D.C. to Portland, Maine, and then westward to Detroit, covering some 2,000 miles in 15 weeks. The President was received everywhere with parades, dinners, military reviews, addresses, public festivities, and invitations from private citizens (including from many former Federalist opponents). He inspected military installations, visited universities and other cultural facilities, met with important leaders (including former president John Adams), and made innumerable speeches. In New England there was such enthusiasm and acclaim that many said it equaled the reception given Washington in 1789.

When Monroe arrived in Boston in July 1817 the Republican members of the Massachusetts assembly, led by General Henry Dearborn (who was at that time a member of the assembly), organized a committee to welcome Monroe.  This committee was set up in opposition to the official committee of the city, which was dominated by Federalists.  Monroe could not officially meet this informal committee without insulting the city.  Dearborn’s group instead prepared an address for him, and Monroe received a copy of it on July 4. It stated, “The…Republican members of both branches are deprived of the pleasure of personally paying their respects to the President of the United States.  Those members…have deputed us to offer you their congratulations on your arrival, and to express their high regard for your official and personal character….These are sure pledges that the prosperity of the American republic will be the object of your pursuit, and that while you are desirous of allaying the asperity of party dissentions, you will be anxious to maintain the legitimate principles of the Constitution with unabated ardour…We wish you every blessing, both national and domestic, and trust that your name will be recorded in the American annals with the same respectful veneration as distinguishes the characters of your illustrious predecessors, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison…”

Monroe sent his reply, dated July 10, from Salem, after he left Boston. It contained a full and clear statement of his vision of the Era of Good Feeling. “…Believing that there is not a section of our Union, nor a citizen, who is not interested in the success of our government, I indulge a strong hope that they will all unite in future in the measures necessary to secure it.  For this very important change, I consider the circumstances of the present epoch peculiarly favorable.  The success and unexampled prosperity with which we have hitherto been blessed must have dispelled the doubts of all who had before honestly entertained any, of the practicability of our system, and from these, a firm and honorable co-operation may fairly be expected.  Our union has also acquired of late much strength…It is on these grounds that I indulge a strong hope, and even entertain great confidence, that our principal dangers and difficulties have passed, and that the character of our deliberations, and the course of the government itself, will become more harmonious and happy, than it has heretofore been… I owe it to the integrity of my views to state that as the support of our republican government is my sole object, and in which I consider the whole community equally interested, my conduct will be invariably directed to that end…”

Autograph Letter Signed as President, being the letter that accompanied his reply to Dearborn’s committee, Salem, Mass., July 11, 1817, addressed to Dearborn. It expresses the essential principle of the Era of Good Feeling – bi-partisanship – and reaffirms his commitment to the tenets set forth in his Inaugural Address. “Not knowing whether I shall see you, as I understand you have not arrived here this evening, I enclose to you my answer to the address to which you are a party. I pursuade myself that it will be satisfactory to the committee. The Constitution not recognizing a distinction of parties, I have avoided it, but the disruption is sufficiently plain. I have explained myself fully as to the principles on which I shall act. In this I have followed the spirit of my Inaugural address. My best respects to Mrs. Dearborn.” He adds a P.S. “I hope that my paper will be published correctly, as it touches on points that are interesting.”

This is the most evocative expression of the sentiments underlying the Era of Good Feeling that we have seen in a Monroe ALS as President.