Presidency of James Monroe
's tenure as the fifth president of the United States began on March 4, 1817, and ended on March 4, 1825. Monroe, a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, took office after winning the 1816 presidential election in a landslide against Federalist Rufus King. This election was the last in which the Federalists fielded a presidential candidate, and Monroe was unopposed in the 1820 presidential election. Monroe was succeeded by his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams.
Monroe sought to eliminate political parties, and the Federalist Party faded as a national institution during his presidency. The Democratic-Republicans also stopped functioning as a unified political party, and the period during which Monroe served as president is often referred to as the "Era of Good Feelings" due to the lack of partisan conflict. Domestically, Monroe faced the Panic of 1819, the first major recession in American history. He supported many federally-funded infrastructure projects, but vetoed other projects due to constitutional concerns. Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri as a slave state but excluded slavery in the remaining territories north of the parallel 36°30′ north.
In foreign policy, Monroe and Secretary of State Adams acquired East Florida from Spain with the Adams–Onís Treaty, realizing a long-term goal of Monroe and his predecessors. Reached after the First Seminole War, the Adams–Onís Treaty also solidified U.S. control over West Florida, established the western border of the United States, and included the cession of Spain's claims on Oregon Country. The Monroe administration also reached two treaties with Britain, marking a rapprochement between the two countries after the War of 1812. The Rush–Bagot Treaty demilitarized the U.S. border with British North America, while the Treaty of 1818 settled some boundary disputes and provided for the joint settlement of Oregon Country. Monroe was deeply sympathetic to the revolutionary movements in Latin America and opposed European influence in the region. In 1823, Monroe promulgated the Monroe Doctrine, which declared that the U.S. would remain neutral in European affairs, but would not accept new colonization of Latin America by European powers.
In the 1824 presidential election, four members of the Democratic-Republican Party sought to succeed Monroe, who remained neutral among the candidates. Adams emerged as the victor over General Andrew Jackson and Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford. Polls of historians and political scientists have generally ranked Monroe as an above-average president.
Election of 1816
Monroe's war-time leadership in the Madison administration had established him as the Democratic-Republican heir apparent, but not all party leaders supported Monroe's candidacy in the lead-up to the 1816 presidential election. Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford had the support of numerous Southern and Western Congressmen, many of whom were wary of Madison and Monroe's support for the establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. New York Democratic-Republicans resisted the possibility of another Virginian winning the presidency, and they backed the candidacy of Governor Daniel D. Tompkins. Though Crawford desired the nomination, he did not strongly oppose Monroe's candidacy, as he hoped to position himself to succeed Monroe in 1820 or 1824. In the congressional nominating caucus held in March 1816, Monroe defeated Crawford in a 65-to-54 vote, becoming his party's presidential nominee. Tompkins won the party's vice presidential nomination.The moribund Federalist Party nominated Rufus King as their presidential nominee, but the Federalists offered little opposition following the conclusion of the War of 1812, which they had opposed. Some opponents of Monroe tried to recruit DeWitt Clinton, Madison's opponent in the 1812 election, but Clinton declined to enter the race. Monroe received 183 of the 217 electoral votes, winning every state but Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware. In the concurrent congressional elections, Democratic-Republicans picked up several seats in the House of Representatives, leaving them with control of over three quarters of the chamber. Monroe was the last president called a Founding Father of the United States, and also the last president of the "Virginia dynasty", a term sometimes used to describe the fact that four of the nation's first five presidents were from Virginia.
Administration
Monroe appointed a geographically balanced cabinet, through which he led the executive branch. At Monroe's request, Crawford continued to serve as Treasury Secretary. Monroe also chose to retain Benjamin Crowninshield of Massachusetts as Secretary of the Navy and Richard Rush of Pennsylvania as Attorney General. Recognizing Northern discontent at the continuation of the Virginia dynasty, Monroe chose John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts to fill the prestigious post of Secretary of State, making Adams the early favorite to eventually succeed Monroe as president. An experienced diplomat, Adams had abandoned the Federalist Party in 1807 in support of Thomas Jefferson's foreign policy, and Monroe hoped that the appointment of Adams would encourage the defection of more Federalists. Monroe offered the position of Secretary of War to Henry Clay of Kentucky, but Clay was only willing to serve in the cabinet as Secretary of State. Monroe's decision to appoint Adams to the latter position alienated Clay, and Clay would oppose many of the administration's policies. After General Andrew Jackson and Governor Isaac Shelby declined appointment as Secretary of War, Monroe turned to South Carolina Congressman John C. Calhoun, leaving the cabinet without a prominent Westerner. In late 1817, Rush was appointed as the ambassador to Britain, and William Wirt succeeded him as Attorney General. With the exception of Crowninshield, Monroe's cabinet appointees remained in place for the remainder of his presidency.Judicial appointments
In September 1823, Secretary of the Navy Smith Thompson received a recess appointment from President Monroe to a seat on the Supreme Court that had been vacated by Henry Brockholst Livingston. Officially nominated for the same seat on December 5, 1823, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 9. Thompson was on good personal terms with Monroe, had a long record of public service as a jurist and a public official, and, like Livingston, hailed from the state of New York. Monroe also considered Senator Martin Van Buren and jurists Ambrose Spencer and James Kent for the nomination. Thompson was Monroe's lone appointment to the Supreme Court, though Monroe also appointed 21 judges to United States district courts during his presidency.Domestic affairs
Democratic-Republican Party dominance
Like all four of his predecessors, Monroe believed that the existence of political parties was harmful to the United States, and he made the elimination of political parties a major goal of his presidency. He sought to strengthen the Democratic-Republican Party by avoiding divisive policies and welcoming ex-Federalists into the fold, with the ultimate aim being the dissolution of the Federalists. Monroe made two long national tours to build national trust. At Boston, his 1817 visit was hailed as the beginning of an "Era of Good Feelings." Frequent stops on these tours allowed innumerable ceremonies of welcome and expressions of goodwill. Monroe was seen by more Americans than any previous president, and his travels were detailed in the local and national press. The Federalists failed to develop a unified national program, and Federalist candidates frequently campaigned on local rather than national issues. The Federalists maintained their organizational integrity in Delaware and a few localities, but lacked influence in national politics. Lacking serious opposition, the Democratic-Republican Party's congressional caucus stopped meeting, and for practical purposes the Democratic-Republican Party stopped operating.Panic of 1819
Two years into his presidency, Monroe faced an economic crisis known as the Panic of 1819, the first major depression in U.S. history. The panic stemmed from declining imports and exports, and sagging agricultural prices as global markets readjusted to peacetime production and commerce after the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic Wars. The severity of the economic downturn in the U.S. was compounded by excessive speculation in public lands, fueled by the unrestrained issue of paper money from banks and business concerns. The Second Bank of the United States failed to restrict inflation until late 1818, when the directors of the B.U.S. took overdue steps to curtail credit. Branches were ordered to accept no bills but their own, to present all state bank notes for payment immediately, and to renew no personal notes or mortgages. These contractionary fiscal policies backfired, as they undermined public confidence in banks and contributed to the onset of the panic.Monroe had little control over economic policy; in the early 19th century, such power rested largely with the states and the B.U.S. As the panic spread, Monroe declined to call a special session of Congress to address the economy. When Congress finally reconvened in December 1819, Monroe requested an increase in the tariff but declined to recommend specific rates. Congress would not raise tariff rates until the passage of the Tariff of 1824. The panic resulted in high unemployment, an increase in bankruptcies and foreclosures, and provoked popular resentment against banking and business enterprises.
Popular resentment towards the national bank motivated the state of Maryland to implement a tax on the national bank's branch in that state. Shortly afterwards, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in McCulloch v. Maryland. In a major defeat for states' rights advocates, the Supreme Court forbade states from taxing B.U.S. branches. In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Marshall articulated a broad reading of the Necessary and Proper Clause, holding that the Constitution granted Congress powers that were not expressly defined. The decision fed the popular disdain for the B.U.S. and aroused fears about the growing reach of federal power.