1822

 

__________

“Surely our government may get on and prosper without the existence of parties. I have always considered their existence as the curse of the country.” 

President James Monroe.

__________

Charleston, South Carolina home.

May: President Monroe writes to James Madison, complaining of fractious elements in Congress:

such a state of things as has existed here during the last Session, nor have I personally ever experienced so much embarrassment and mortification. Where there is an open contest with a foreign enemy, or with an internal party, in which you are supported by just principles, the course is plain, and you have something to cheer and animate you to action, but we are now blessed with peace, and the success of the late war has overwhelmed the Federal party, so that there is no division of that kind to rally any persons together in support of the administration. (24/508)

 

He added: 

Surely our government may get on and prosper without the existence of parties. I have always considered their existence as the curse of the country, of which we had sufficient proof, more especially in the late war. Besides, how keep them alive, and in action? The causes which exist in other countries do not here. We have no distinct orders. (24/508)

 

Monroe favored increasing the tariffs to protect American industry, and also asked for Congress to appropriate money to repair the Cumberland Road. 

He also supported the Colonization Society, insisting that objections to manumission and the ultimate demise of slavery would be lifted only when the “free blacks, who lived by pilfering, corrupted slaves, and produced such pernicious consequences” were removed from the United States. (24/522)

 

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July 2: In Charleston, South Carolina, a slave named Denmark Vesey has done his best to foment a revolt. 

On this day, he and five others are hanged. 

At trial, however, Vesey has said that he was wiling to die in the fight for the liberty of his own people, like ___. 

NOTE TO TEACHERS:  It always worked to ask classes who they thought Vesey would have compared himself to. Answer: George Washington.

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“The next best point, a consolidated government.” 

October: Thomas Jefferson adds a note of warning, in a letter to Albert Gallatin: 

You are told indeed that there are no longer parties among us. that they are all now amalgamated. the lion and the lamb lie down together in peace. do not believe a word of it. the same parties exist now as ever did. No longer indeed under the name of Republicans and Federalists. The latter name was extinguished in the Battle of New Orleans. those who wore it finding monarchism a desperate wish in this country, are rallying to what they deem the next best point, a consolidated government. although this is not yet avowed (as that of monarchism, you know, never was) it exists decidedly, and is the true key to the debates in Congress, wherein you see many, calling themselves Republicans, and preaching the rankest doctrines of the old Federalists. (24/509)