In 1820, James Monroe ran for president effectively unopposed, winning every electoral vote but one. This episode explores how Monroe set out to eliminate political parties during the Era of Good Feelings, roughly 1815 to 1825, and why his vision of national unity proved to be a mirage.

We look at the collapse of the Federalists after the War of 1812 and the Hartford Convention, Monroe’s strategy of starving them of patronage while adopting their economic policies, and his goodwill tours, including a famous visit to Boston in an old Revolutionary War uniform. Then we follow how the Panic of 1819, the Missouri Crisis, and a cabinet of rivals splintered his coalition.

• Why the Federalist Party collapsed after opposing the War of 1812
• How Monroe froze out Federalists while embracing the Second Bank of the United States and protective tariffs
• The 1817 Boston visit that inspired the phrase Era of Good Feelings
• How the Panic of 1819 and the Missouri Crisis exposed deep divisions without party discipline
• Why the four-way 1824 election paved the way for Jacksonian democracy