During the Era of Good Feelings, both nationalism and sectionalism were emerging, but none of them had a greater importance in the economy and politics during this time period because different people were being affected in different ways. Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States. He is seen as a person who believes in democracy, equality and freedom. He created the Embargo Act which was a self-blockade in which the United States sought to influence Britain and France by denying American Trade. This led to the war of 1812, which was a war between the United States and Great Britain because of their disagreements over trade and western expansion. What ended this was the Treaty of Ghent, this treaty returned everything to …show more content…
They were receiving less cotton from Britain, which ruined their economy and they had to pay a higher price for their consumer goods. James Monroe was the president during the Era of Good Feelings. He was a signer of the Missouri Compromise that didn’t allow slavery above the 36’ 30’ parallel. This divided up the states and created a sense of sectionalism. The Monroe Doctrine that European powers would not be allowed to interfere with western hemisphere affairs and vice versa. This closed America off to interference in European policies and the same for Europe. The Florida purchase treaty gave America Florida for 5 million dollars; this gave America another state which meant it expanded. The American people were of course proud of this because this meant that their nation was increasing this sense of nationalism. Another purchase that was made was the Louisiana purchase; this purchase was the acquisition of territory from the French for 12 million dollars. These purchases doubled the size of the current United States and allowed for there to be more expansion toward the western part of the American …show more content…
Henry Clay was the president of the state under President Adams. He was also a speaker in the House of Representatives. Henry Clay devised a system called “The American System”. This system promoted American industry, a national bank, and federal substations for infrastructure projects such as roads, creating high tariffs. In 1824, the tariffs were extremely high. These tariffs were designed to protect American industry, but they were affecting the southerners in a negative way. In one of Henry Clay’s speeches he said “establishment of a tariff” (Doc 4). This shows that his system was meant to protect the nation's economy but this was ruining the southern farmers' economy. In a congressional record from 1816 it illustrates that only the middle states agreed with the tariffs (Doc 7). This shows that the other regions weren’t benefiting from the tariffs which is why they didn’t vote on it. The audience was clearly manufacturing businesses who benefited because it helped their industry, but the southern farmers had to pay a higher price for goods which wasn’t good for their economy. This led to sectionalism during this time period. This situation also happened in the American civil war, the southerners were forced to buy from northerners due to