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| 1818, Oct. 20 |
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| A convention between Great Britain and the United States established the 49th parallel as the boundary between the Lake of the Woods and the Rocky Mountains. Unable to agree on a division of the Oregon country, north of the 42d parallel and west of the mountains, the convention provided for joint occupation for a period of ten years. This was renewed in 1827. | 1 |
| Fugitive slaves escaped to Florida, and raids against settlements in Georgia and Alabama led to trouble. In 1817–18, in the so-called Seminole War, Jackson invaded Florida and executed two British subjects. John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), secretary of state, demanded that Spain maintain order in Florida or cede it to the United States. Spain chose the latter because of inability to comply with the former demand. The United States agreed to pay an indemnity of $5 million to its citizens for their claims against Spain. The treaty also delimited the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase and provided for Spain's relinquishment of all claims to territory on the Pacific north of the 42d parallel. | 2 |
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| 1819 |
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| Panic of 1819. The bottom fell out of the market for agricultural products, land, and slaves. Because many new planters and farmers had purchased land and slaves on credit, the West was especially hard hit. | 3 |
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| 1819–24 |
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| The nationalism of the postwar period was emphasized by a series of notable Supreme Court decisions by Chief Justice John Marshall. In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), Cohens v. Virginia (1821), and Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), he gave judicial sanction to the doctrine of centralization of power at the expense of the states. In Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), as in the earlier case of Fletcher v. Peck (1810), the Court provided judicial barriers against democratic attacks upon property rights. | 4 |
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| 1820, March 3 |
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| The Missouri Compromise. Increasing feeling in the North against the spread of slavery resulted in strong opposition to the admission of Missouri as a slave state. The attempt to balance Missouri’s admission as a slave state by admitting Maine as a free state having failed, a compromise was arranged whereby Missouri was to be admitted without restriction as to slavery; in all the remaining portions of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36° 30', slavery was to be forever prohibited. Maine was admitted (1820) and Missouri, after careful scrutiny of its constitution by Congress, was finally admitted as a slave state (Aug. 10, 1821). | 5 |
| The public land act of 1820 established the minimum price of public lands at $1.25 per acre. | 6 |
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| 1822 |
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| Denmark Vesey's slave insurrection in Charleston, S.C., was uncovered by authorities and defeated. Several thousand blacks were believed to be involved. | 7 |
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| 1823, Dec. 2 |
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| The MONROE DOCTRINE was enunciated by the president in his annual message to Congress. The message stated that “the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers,” and that European intervention in this hemisphere could not be viewed “in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.” It also disclaimed any intention of the United States to take any part “in the wars of the European powers or in matters relating to themselves.” By this time America's merchant fleet was the second largest in the world. | 8 |
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| 1824 |
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| Presidential election, in which none of the four candidates, J. Q. Adams, Jackson, Clay, and W. H. Crawford, obtained an electoral majority, although Jackson received a plurality. In the House of Representatives, Adams was elected president. | 9 |
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| 1825, March 4–1829, March 4 |
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| JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, sixth president. | 10 |
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| 1825 |
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| COMPLETION OF THE ERIE CANAL, begun in 1817. The canal made possible the opening of the West and ensured New York's primacy as a port. | 11 |
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| 1827 |
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| Begun in New York, Freedom's Journal became the nation's first African-American newspaper. | 12 |
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| 1828, May 19 |
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| The “tariff of abominations” (an excessively high tariff) was framed by Jackson men to discredit J. Q. Adams and bring about the election of Jackson. To their surprise it passed Congress, was signed by Adams, and promptly aroused strong opposition, especially in South Carolina, where John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) penned his South Carolina Exposition (1828), which gave the classic statement of the nullification doctrine. | 13 |
| The American Peace Society was founded in New York by William Ladd. Elihu Burritt (1810–79) became the chief leader of the American peace movement. | 14 |
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| July 4 |
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| The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was begun, the first public railroad in the United States. | 15 |
| Cherokee Phoenix, the nation's first Native-American newspaper, was established by the Cherokee Nation near Calhoun, Ga. | 16 |
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