"About ten o'clock I bade adieu to Mt. Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity, and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I care to express, set out for New York."

With this statement, Washington is saying that he knows it will be a hard road to travel, and that he will no longer be able to enjoy the right to secrecy, that all he does will be known, yet he still took the job. Washington took the oath of office on April 30th, 1789. Before being a president, he had been a plantation manager and a soldier. He had no real experience in government. Early in Washington's Presidency, he was careful and deliberate in his actions, and was aware for the need to build a

structure that would help future presidents. At the end of his first term, he was reelected in 1792. During the war between England and France, Washington chose to be neutral to the matter. Washington left office in 1797, when John Adams took over. This begins the first stage of my report, "forming our country."

By now, the country (for the most part) had been founded, and in came the long period of perfecting how the country ran. Monroe was a nationalist, which can be good, and bad. He began by touring the New England states, promoting the "Era of Good Feelings." He was hoping that this "Good Feeling" would eliminate political party rivalry. Monroe also led Spain to cede Florida, and define the boundaries of Louisiana, favorably to America. James Monroe is probably most famous for the Monroe Doctrine. He declared that the United States would regard any interference in the internal affairs of American states as an unfriendly act. He also included a declaration aimed at Russia stating that the American continents were closed to further colonization. America was very excited by this doctrine, but Europeans disregarded it. Monroe also set up coastal fortifications to help prevent future invasions. (Possibly the first Coast Guard) In 1819, when government budgets fell drastically, construction and execution of this plan was slowed. The "Era of Good Feelings" ended by the Missouri Crisis of 1819-1820, and Monroe ended his term with the Senate amending the agreement to suppress the international slave trade that the British government refused to ratify. Along comes John Quincy Adams in 1825. He was the first president to be the son of a previous president. He began with proposing that the Federal Government should brings the states together with a network of highways and canals, and they should fund this with money made from the sale of public lands. He wished to further the arts and sciences by building a national university, financing scientific studies, and the building of an observatory. In 1828, Andrew Jackson, along with a few others opponents of Adams, charged him with corruption and "public plunder." He was defeated, and Andrew Jackson became the president. Jackson did not believe in using Congress for policy-making, but used the power of the veto and his party leadership to take control of the country. Battles between the two main parties, the Democrats (siding with Jackson) and the National Republicans, ran rampant during Jackson's presidency. One of the greater battles was a battle centered on the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation, but, for the most part, a government sponsored monopoly. Jackson was hostile towards the bank, and Jackson charged the bank with undue economic privilege. Jackson used an "iron fist" type presidency...if he didn't like what was going on, he used his power (and often violence) to get his way. Towards the end of his term in office, after Jackson had destroyed the Second Bank of the United States, he issued a "Specie Circular" requiring that all lands have to be purchased with hard currency. Hundreds of banks and businesses failed because of this, and thousands lost their lands. The United States was put in a 5-year depression, which had been the worst so far. To make matters worse, when Martin Van Buren became president in 1837, he worsened the problems caused by Jackson. He believed that recklessness in business and overexpansion of credit was causing the crisis. He did not let another Bank of the U.S. be built, and placed government funds in state banks. He tried to assemble a separate treasury for Government transactions. He cut budgets so much that the Government ended up selling the tools they had used on public roads. He worked to expose the further expansion of slavery, and blocked the annexation of Texas because he thought it would expand slave territory, and it might bring war with Mexico. In 1841, William H. Harrison became p

Some common words found in the essay are:
Van Buren, Tyler Congress, John Adams, Federal Government, Monroe Doctrine, Mt Vernon, Civil War, James Buchanan, Bank United, Chester Arthur, federal government, vetoed bill, civil war, left office, main focus, washington left office, refused ratify, north south, james monroe, slave trade, era feelings,
Approximate Word count = 3888
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page double spaced)