Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-12
1DU INCIDENTS IN AMERICAN
 HISTORY
PRESIDENT MONROES TOUR OF
 THE FAST
THE EAST

PRESlDENI I MONhOE D 1OOh Of
 THE EAST
 Two months after James Monroe | was inagurate1 president of the United States in 1877, he had completed his Cabinet and other preliminary work, when he announced his intention of visiting all the forts and posts along the seaboard from Baltimore to Port land westward to Detroit About the end of May, accordingly, he set out, spent the first Sunday in Baltimore, visited the battle-ground where Ross was killed, examined Fort McHenry, and then took a steamer for Philadel- phia.
 His intention was to make the jour ney tour of duty. He could, he said, under such conditions, assume no style in regard to his countrymen other than that of fellow citizen. But the people were determined to treat him not as he wished to be treated, but as the chosen ruler of a great and prosperous nation.
 Since the days of Washington he was the first president to make an official visit. Since the days of Adams no president had ever entered New York or New England, nor, indeed, so much as crossed to the north bank of the Potomac save to go to Washington. The appearance of Monroe. there l fore, in the cities of the Middle and i Eastern States aroused an outburst of enthusiasm which turned his tourn of duty into a triumphal progress. Men | of both parties joined in giving him such a welcome as had never been extended to any of his predecessors. 1 At Philadelphia, at Trenton, at New Brunswick his approach was heralded l by the discharge of cannon. He was met on the outskirts of the towns by the municipal authorities but the mil itia and by crowds of people, all eager to behold a president an1 escorted through the streets to the sound of ringing bells.
 While in New York he took the jour- ney to West Point and visite1 the fired from two guns taken by the
 corps he commanded at the battle of Trenton. The further he traveled the greater became the enthusiasm. At New Haven, to which he travelled by l steamboat, a newspaper said: '"The
 demon of party for a time departed and gave place to a general outburst of national feeling"
 At Bristol, R. l., he found the path
 to the house where he was to par
 take of refreshments strewn with roses
 and when he departed the ladies show
 cred them upon him. After bidding farewell to Rhode Island Monroe
 crossed the boundary into Massachu
 sets, where he was met at Dedham by
 one of the governors aides and wal
 escorted with the utmost ceremony tt
 Boston neck where the municipal auth.
 critics squadrons of cavalry foot militia
 and thousands of citizens on horse.
 back and in carriages awaited hi!
 coming.
 Every inhabitant of Boston. iron the school children to the governor seemed determined to do their utmos to entertain the president. The si1
 days of his stay were marked by al
 uninterrupted succession of breakfasts
 dinners, reception, excursion, congrat
 ulatory addTes9es and every kind oi civic and military honor.
 In no city in the land had part, hatred been so savage as in thi , stronghold of federalism. With tn arrival of Monroe however, the com
 rnunity suddenly realized that peac l had removed old cuses of animosity , and that issues which two years be fore had been vital were then extinct
 A Boston journal stated that durinj the jubilee many persons met at festiv
 boards in pleasant converse, whor f party politics had long severed. r What took plce at Boston was bu l an example of what had already take g place everywhere. When, therefore
 the Boston Centinel dubbed the time the era of good feeling, the whol
 country recognized the fitness of tn s epithet, and used it and the eigh
 years of Monroe's administration hay D in cdhsequence, ever since been know . by that name.
 1 From Boston Monroe pursued hi : way eastward through Lynn, Salen f Beverly, York, Dover, to Portsmouth | | where he turned westward and, cross f ing New Hampshire and Vermontf wen t down Lake Champlain by steamboa | to Plattshurg. and So tn Ogdensburi