Election of 1820: The Era of Good Feelings and the One Party System

Election Results:
Monroe and Tompkins: 231 electoral votes
(John Quincy Adams, secretary of state for Monroe, received 1 electoral vote, while three electoral voters were not cast).

Summary:
James Monroe may have faced trouble in the 1820 presidential election had there been opposition within or without his party, but the Federalists had crumbled completely and no party had taken its place. Monroe’s administration had faced considerable difficulties in the year before the election, with issues of regionalism, slavery, and economic woes making some Democratic-Republicans wary of another Monroe presidency. But Monroe and Congress were able to negotiate a temporary peace on the issue of regionalism with the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which admitted slave state Missouri and free state Maine to the Union and drew a line threw the North and South to divide free and slave states. Though down the line this solution would prove to be the dividing line for the Civil War, for the next decade it would prevent regionalism from flaring up too much. When the congressional caucus met, the lack of delegates made an official nomination an insult to the incumbent president so the caucus decided not to provide a formal nomination. The ticket remained the same as in 1816 with Daniel Tompkins remaining vice president.

Without an opposition party to force Monroe on the issues, he kept his opinions to himself except for his blame of the Second Bank of the United States for the country’s economic woes. The Democratic-Republicans in Congress allowed former Federalists into their caucuses, thereby ushering in an “Era of Good Feelings” without partisan conflict. The popular president and the “Last of the Fathers” (reference to his involvement in the founding of America) was supported by former Federalists, including former president John Adams, and received almost unanimous support in the Electoral College vote. However, his unanimity was tarnished by New Hampshire governor William Plumer, who gave his electoral vote to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Plumer was not a fan of Monroe’s 1820 compromise and also wanted to prevent George Washington’s famous unanimous elections to remain part of American history. Monroe was the last founder to win the presidency and was also the last in the relatively long line of Virginians to win the presidency in American history.