One big factor was the War of 1812 and the Hartford Convention. New England was the Federalist stronghold, and New England Federalists convened in 1814-1815 to discuss, among other issues, secession from the union and creating a separate peace. Jefferson's Embargo Act and Madison's war with Great Britain were bad for the New England merchant economy. When the war quickly ended with the Treaty of Ghent and the Battle of New Orleans, the Federalists were fairly discredited. In the bigger picture though, the rise of Jeffersonian democracy and westward expansion replaced the Federalists' elitism and Eurocentrism/Anglophilia leading to the Jeffersonian Republicans' "Era of Good Feelings" until the rise of the two-party system between the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs.