1816 and 1817 United States House of Representatives elections 1816 and 1817 United States House of Representatives elections Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 15th Congress were held in the various states between April 1816 (in New York) and August 14, 1817 (in North Carolina). The Congress first met on December 1, 1817. The Democratic-Republican Party made significant gains during this election cycle, which helped to usher in what is known as the Era of Good Feelings under President James Monroe, who was elected that year. The Federalist Party was in a state of collapse, in part because of the secessionist doctrine espoused by some
James Monroe Unlike Jefferson, Monroe was rarely attacked as an atheist or infidel. In 1832 James Renwick Willson, a Reformed Presbyterian minister in Albany, New York, criticized Monroe for having "lived and died like a second-rate Athenian philosopher." Monroe owned dozens of slaves. According to William Seale, he took several slaves with him to Washington to serve at the White House from 1817 to 1825. This was typical of other slaveholders, as Congress did not provide for domestic staff of the presidents at that time. As president of Virginia's constitutional convention in the fall of 1829, Monroe reiterated his belief that slavery