In 1812, South Carolina's own Sen. John C. Calhoun led a war hawk movement in Congress to deliver a declaration of war against the British to President Madison, officially beginning the War of 1812. Words cannot describe the despair that enveloped the nation as the United States slipped into another war with Great Britain just 30 years after the end of the American Revolution. But that all changed with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the war in 1814. A feeling of victory and unity swept across the nation. Even the two-party political system went away during this era of history. There was no more Federalist Party, just the single Democratic-Republican political party. This sense of national unity was so great that historians refer to this period of American history as the Era of Good Feelings. Doesn’t the “Era of Good Feelings” sound like the most pleasant time to be alive?

Reading about this period of history makes me wonder what historians will call the era of history in which we currently live. The political discourse, the racial tension, the fake news, the swelling national debt, the corruption and everything else has left the country with deep divisions and not-so-good feelings. There is a shortage on hope and significant rise in skepticism of people and institutions. Maybe historians will take requests and you can make submissions of names for this period of history. I have a few ideas; I’m sure you do, too.