The Jeffersonians now made several concessions to the
manufacturers, and with their support linked to that of the
agriculturists Jeffersonian democracy flourished without any
potent opposition. The second war with England lent it a doubtful
luster but the years immediately following the war restored
public confidence. Trade flourished on the sea. The frontier was
rapidly pushed to the Mississippi and beyond into the vast empire
which Jefferson had purchased. When everyone is busy, no one
cares for political issues, especially those based upon
philosophical differences. So Madison and Monroe succeeded to the
political regency which is known as the Virginia Dynasty.

This complacent epoch culminated in Monroe's "Era of Good
Feeling," which proved to be only the hush before the tornado.
The election of 1824 was indecisive, and the House of
Representatives was for a second time called upon to decide the
national choice. The candidates were John Quincy Adams, Andrew
Jackson, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford. Clay threw his
votes to Adams, who was elected, thereby arousing the wrath of
Jackson and of the stalwart and irreconcilable frontiersmen who
hailed him as their leader. The Adams term merely marked a
transition from the old order to the new, from Jeffersonian to
Jacksonian democracy. Then was the word Republican dropped from
the party name, and Democrat became an appellation of definite
and practical significance.

By this time many of the older States had removed the early
restrictions upon voting, and the new States carved out of the
West had written manhood suffrage into their constitutions. This
new democracy flocked to its imperator; and Jackson entered his