Era of Good Feelings

Monroe was a talked up very much before he had taken office, many were extremely pleased when he had been elected after James Madison. He was known to have a "spotless reputation" and had also fought a great battle in Trenton. He had quickly become a very popular choice as a federalist newspaper sent out an article named "The Era of Good Feelings" referring to his time in office. Although they believed this was going to be true, the "good feelings" started to dwindle. In 1819 is when it first started during "The Panic of 1819" as the country started to go into depression, leaving agriculture and manufacturing in a slump. Also, regional differences came up as well, such as tariffs, banking policies, and slavery. Slavery began to divide the nation and the "good feelings" that were supposed to be cause by Monroe started to fade away because of him. Therefore Monroe's presidency was not an Era of Good Feeling after all.

Impact of Cotton Gin

The invention of the Cotton Gin impacted the ways of life and work for many southerners. Before 1793 when Eli Whitney had produced the first Cotton Gin, cotton had been quite the hassle to grow. The Cotton Gin had helped cotton become more popular than the cash crops had been throughout that time period. The Cotton Gin had positive and negative affects for many of the southerners lifestyles.

Cotton was a highly desired crop, but because of the labor intensive process it required this kept it from being cost efficient. If farmers wanted to grow cotton it took a very large amount of work and time to do this. Once Whitney's invention had been discovered it decreased the labor by 50 times without throwing anyone out of business. This then inceased cotton to become the most planted crop in the US. The first ten years of the Cotton Gin, cotton production sky rocketed up by 800%. The new moto in the south had then become "Cotton is King". Cotton had become the most popular, planted crop in the United States.

The South isn't the only place in the country that had benefited from the Cotton Gin: "Southerners were not the only ones benefiting from the cotton boom. Eighty percent of the south’s cotton went to England by way of northern shippers. These shippers were able to buy cotton wholesale and sell it at a premium, since England’s most important manufactured good was cotton cloth. One-fifth of the population in England earned a living from the manufacture of this cloth, and 75 percent of the cotton used in England’s production came from the United States. Since England was so dependent on the south’s cotton and the north’s transportation of it, both the north and the south were able to benefit heavily from this export". Another positive out-come from the Cotton Gin is how the production from it helped strengthen the US.

The Cotton Gin seems to have very many positive affects on the US, it also had negative affects. As the cash crops tobacco, rice, and sugar began to dwindle away and not be as popular cotton production got very strong. This can be helpful at first, until the economy becomes a one crop economy from so much cotton being planted by so many people. The cotton had also taken a tole on the soil quality in the south, which had led to labor sources being unstable. The Cotton Gin had also cause slavery to go back up in numbers because of the needed workers for the Cotton Gin's they needed more slaves to work. The Cotton becoming so popular had led to socioeconomic imbalance in the south, while Democracy was just taking place. Another negative affect this had was the majority of the south was taken over by minority of wealthy plantation owners. The Cotton Gin's negative affects certainly put somewhat of a tole on the US.

Washington's address, Summary and Analysis

XYZ Affairs and Alien and Sedition Acts

1. The XYZ affairs created more tension between France and America. When the three men that John Adams appointed top negotiate with France traveled to do so, they were forced to communicate through three French agents. Or other known as agents, "X, Y ,Z". This angered Adams very much when he that this had happened, this being one of the first problems he has had to face as president. France then refused to negotiate with the American's in any way unless they paid them a $250, 000 bribe and a very large loan as well. This made the Americans seem much lower in class than France, which created much more tension between them as well. This then led to Adams declaring war as the army was tripled in size, a navy was appointed and 40 war ships were created to take on France. This preparation to go to war with France never ended up turning into a war, John Adams intelligently did not go to war, but congress did stop commercial trade with France.

2. The Federalists were not justified in passing the Alien and Sedition Acts, these acts were a violation to the Constitution. This gave the right to the government to just throw anyone into jail that looked like a threat, that is completely judgemental and wrong. That is not a proper way to punish someone and it should not have been passed.

3. Kentucky and Virginia were very justified in their response to the Alien and Sedition Acts as they disagreed with them. They did not agree with Congress passing these acts in any way as this forced people to move to Thomas Jefferson's republican party. In response to these acts being passed, Jefferson and Madison wrote acts against the acts they then sent their resolutions to all the states. Kentucky and Virginia being two states that had given them positive feedback.

Communist View

1. This text book gives a Communist view of the Constitution to the Soviet students. This view is saying that the Constitution has more power over the people rather than being power for the people. It is also emphasizes the fact that upper class has total domination over the lower class.

2. Two examples of of facts from the excerpt is one, when the article recognizes that the Constitution was supplemented by the Bill of Rights and that this law recognizes the rights of the citizens. Another fact that this excerpt shows is, that the members of the Supreme Court are appointed for life, even if the president is in a different political party than they are in. There are also examples of opinions shown in this excerpt as well. One is, when the article states: "The American Constitution reinforced the domination of the large upper class and slave holders." This meaning the constitution gives more power to the upper class rather than the lower class. One other opinion is when the article states: "So-called bourgeois democracy was established in North America under the name "popular sovereignty" (democracy), but it is actually the rule of the bourgeoisie." This excerpt reflects a bias against the United States because it is saying that our Constitution completely takes advantage of the people and their rights. This says that the upper class has total authority over the lower class, which can be true in some cases, but not completely.


3. I disagree with the communist view of the constitution, I believe the Constitution helps make our government strong and keeps order and rule equal. This communist article was blown out of proportion and I do not agree with a majority of what they say.

Bill of Rights: students

Some students may think that the Bill of Rights is far too much of an important and large document to affect what they do in school, but they are wrong. As far as freedom of expression goes, we are pretty limited as to what students can do once they walk into the doors of the school. As well as with everything else, but at the same time we do have some freedom inside of the school, as long as it is not disruptive in any way. The Bill of Rights may be extremely powerful and seem out of our reach for us, but it affects us and what we are able and not able to do when we are on school grounds. Without the Bill of Rights, schools would not have as much order or organization as far as the rules go. The schools most likely base the rules they make in the handbook off of the Bill of Rights, but on a different level.

View on the Electoral College

The Electoral College has it's positive and negative effects on the government and the people. Many people debate as to whether we should keep this in our voting system or not, as this seems to have more negative effects to it than anything. This is because it's been around for so long, it's easy to criticize. Some strength's of this system is that it creates balance between the national and state government and is also just one huge vote, instead of a million smaller votes. This also creates influence and power, which is very important because it gives the state power instead of individual power. One other strength is that it is constitutionally based and dismisses popular election. With those many strengths, there are also many weaknesses. One is only a few states get all the attention, preferably the larger states because if one can take 11 certain states, they win the election. Also, one state can change the entire election, which doesn't seem fair and only Maine and Nebraska can split votes which is not fair either. Seeing the the large number of pros and cons, my opinion is that we should keep, but modify the Electoral College. I believe that we should keep it because it's based on our original government document, the constitution. I think we should change that one state can switch around the entire election and also that only Maine and Nebraska can split votes. I think that if two states can split votes, other states should have that opportunity as well. I also think that getting 11 states and winning is unfair, that should be eliminated from the rules. This helps keep balance between the national and state governments, therefore it shouldn't be removed all together, just modified to make more people happier with it.