Era of Good Feelings
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The Era of Good Feelings marked a period in the political history of the United States that reflected a sense of national purpose and a desire for unity among Americans in the aftermath of the War of
Independence Day Celebration in Centre Square by John Lewis Krimmel, 1819
Election Day in Philadelphia by John Lewis Krimmel, 1815
President James Monroe, portrait by John Vanderlyn, 1816
Jacksonian democracy
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Jacksonian democracy was a 19th-century American political ideology centered on expanding the political power of the “common man,” opposing entrenched elites, and asserting popular control over govern
The first inauguration of Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Property qualifications for suffrage 1830
George Caleb Bingham's The County Election depicts democracy in action in Missouri c. 1852, showing an "all-male polling place where voting would go on for two or three days to allow farmers to come in to the county seat" to cast their non-secret ballots. According to the Saint Louis Art Museum, Bingham's painting uses figures ranging from a newly naturalized citizen to a grizzled veteran to a couple of local drunks to demonstrate "the democratic ideal must be embraced even though uninformed votes could prevail."