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“Strains on National Unity”
CHAPTER 12 SECTION 4
Era of Good Feelings
 After the War of 1812, Americans turned away from
the Federalist party for failing to support the War of
1812.
 Wherever President James Monroe(5th POTUS)
went, he was greeted by thousands of people. So
many New Englanders turned out to greet Monroe
that a Boston newspaper reported the beginning of
“an Era of Good Feelings”.
 These good feelings were to assure Monroe of an
easy re-election in 1820.By then new problems were
arising to threaten national unity.
The Panic of 1819
 The national unity was strained in 1819 by a
financial panic. When crop prices overseas plunged,
American farmers could not pay their debts. People
lost their farms, homes, and businesses.
 Cotton which soared up to 33 cents per lb. fell to 14
cents per lb.
 The bank of the United States made a bad situation
worse by taking over the property of borrowers who
could not pay their debts.
Expansion of Slavery
 The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had set up the
steps for forming new states. It had also banned
slavery in the Northwest Territory. Thus, the new
states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were “free
states”-states where slavery was not permitted. New
states south of the Northwest Territory-Kentucky,
Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama
allowed slavery.
 In 1819 Missouri requested to join the Union as a
slave state.
Missouri Compromise 1820
 A greater threat to unity was Missouri’s request to join
the Union as a slave state. The issue divided northern
and southern states. Henry Clay feared that sectionalism
would tear the nation apart.
 Sectionalism-devotion to interests of one’s own section
over those of the nation as a whole.
 Clay convinced Congress to pass the Missouri
Compromise in 1820. It let Missouri join the Union as a
slave state and Maine as a free state. It also banned
slavery in the Louisiana Purchase north of latitude 36
degrees 30’.South of that line slavery was permitted.
Missouri Compromise 1820