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Government & LawIndustrial Age

1816 U.S. presidential election

1816

James Monroe defeats Rufus King, the last Federalist presidential candidate, as the Federalist Party collapses.

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The story

In 1816 Secretary of State James Monroe of Virginia, a Revolutionary War veteran, won the presidency for the Democratic-Republicans with 183 electoral votes. Rufus King of New York, the last candidate the Federalists ever backed for president, carried only Massachusetts, Connecticut and Delaware, for 34 votes. Monroe was the third Virginian in a row to follow John Adams, part of the run of presidents later called the Virginia dynasty.

The Federalists had ruined themselves during the War of 1812. New England delegates met at the Hartford Convention in the winter of 1814 to 1815 to demand constitutional changes, and some talked of secession. Their complaints reached Washington just as news arrived of Andrew Jackson's victory at New Orleans and the peace treaty, and the party looked disloyal. Meanwhile the Republicans had adopted Federalist ideas they once fought, chartering a second national bank in 1816 and passing a protective tariff. With little left to argue about, a Boston newspaper soon named the period the 'Era of Good Feelings.'

Why it mattered

Ended the Federalist Party as a national force, leaving one party in national politics.
Opened the Era of Good Feelings, during which Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine.
Set the stage for the split of 1824, when rival Republicans fought over the succession.

Sources

1816 Electoral College Results National Archives
The Brief Period, 200 Years Ago, When American Politics Was Full of Good Feelings Smithsonian Magazine

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Documentarchives.gov

1816 Electoral College Results

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BookGeorge Dangerfield

The Era of Good Feelings

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election of 1816 Monroe Federalist collapse lecture

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At a glance

When: Fall 1816
Where: The 19 states, with Indiana voting for the first time
Key people: James Monroe (elected president)
Rufus King (Federalist candidate)
Daniel D. Tompkins (elected vice president)

183 to 34Monroe's electoral vote margin over Rufus King

3states carried by the Federalists

266earlier events it rests on

2later events that depend on it

Couldn't have happened without

1812 U.S. presidential election1812

ImportantMadison's wartime term and the Federalists' antiwar stand set up Monroe's easy succession.

War of 18121812

EssentialFederalist opposition to the war and the Hartford Convention left the party discredited.

Led to

1820 U.S. presidential election1820

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