in 1816 James Monroe of the Democratic Republican Party was elected president almost unanimously for the first time the opposing Federalist Party had not nominated a candidate for the presidency the Federalist had been losing popularity for several years ever since they opposed America's entry in the war of 1812 when rose triumphs signaled their final collapse the Federalists never again took the White House and they began declining and declining and declining and after the war of 1812 the Federalist Party essentially disappeared and for a brief period known as the era of good feelings there was only one party and therefore there was no great political contest Monroe took advantage of his new spirit of nonpartisan harmony choosing men from both the Democratic Republican and the Federalist parties to be in his cabinet for Secretary of State he chose John Quincy Adams a member of the Federalist Party not Monroe's party Adams was responsible for the major diplomatic successes of Monroe's administration the acquisition of Florida from Spain and the famous Monroe Doctrine it was even a newspaper from traditionally Federalist New England that gave the period it's famous name the era of good feelings the phrase actually comes from the Boston newspaper James Monroe goes for a trip up to Boston and as he enters Boston a newspaper heralds his arrival with a headline that says the era of good feelings historians have argued a bit some have said that the era of good feelings arrived with Munro and left with Munro it ends for a variety of reasons partially it ends because of the panic of 1819 when the United States experiences this rather massive economic panic that ends the economic boom that had begun in the aftermath of the war of 1812 but the era of good feelings also dwindles because of the rise of the second American party system which develops in the early 1820s [Music]