James Monroe

For other people named James Monroe, see James Monroe (disambiguation).
James Monroe
5th President of the United States
In office
March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1825
Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins
Preceded by James Madison
Succeeded by John Quincy Adams
8th United States Secretary of War
In office
September 27, 1814 – March 2, 1815
President James Madison
Preceded by John Armstrong, Jr.
Succeeded by William H. Crawford
7th United States Secretary of State
In office
April 2, 1811 – March 4, 1817
President James Madison
Preceded by Robert Smith
Succeeded by John Quincy Adams
12th and 16th Governor of Virginia
In office
December 28, 1799 – December 1, 1802
Preceded by James Wood
Succeeded by John Page
In office
January 16, 1811 – April 2, 1811
Preceded by George William Smith
Succeeded by George William Smith
United States Minister to the United Kingdom
In office
April 18, 1803 – February 26, 1808
Nominated by Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by Rufus King
Succeeded by William Pinkney
United States Minister to France
In office
May 28, 1794 – September 9, 1796
Nominated by George Washington
Preceded by Gouverneur Morris
Succeeded by Charles C. Pinckney
United States Senator
from Virginia
In office
November 9, 1790 – March 29, 1794
Preceded by John Walker
Succeeded by Stevens Thomson Mason
Delegate to the Congress of the Confederation
from Virginia
In office
November 3, 1783 – November 7, 1786
Preceded by New seat
Succeeded by Henry Lee
Personal details
Born (1758-04-28)April 28, 1758
Monroe Hall, Virginia, British America
Died July 4, 1831(1831-07-04) (aged 73)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting place Hollywood Cemetery
Richmond, Virginia
Political party Democratic-Republican
Spouse(s) Elizabeth Kortright (m. 1786; her death 1830)
Children 3
Residence Ash Lawn
Alma mater College of William and Mary
Profession Lawyer
Planter
College Administrator
Religion Episcopalian
Signature Cursive signature in ink
Military service
Allegiance  United States of America
Service/branch Continental Army
Virginia Militia
Years of service 1775–1777 (Army)
1777–1780 (militia)
Rank Major (Army)
Colonel (militia)
Battles/wars American Revolutionary War
 • Battle of Trenton

James Monroe (/mənˈroʊ/; April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was the fifth President of the United States, serving between 1817 and 1825. Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States and the last president from the Virginian dynasty and the Republican Generation.[1] Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Monroe was of the planter class and fought in the American Revolutionary War. He was wounded in the Battle of Trenton with a musket ball to his shoulder. After studying law under Thomas Jefferson from 1780 to 1783, he served as a delegate in the Continental Congress. As an anti-federalist delegate to the Virginia convention that considered ratification of the United States Constitution, Monroe opposed ratification, claiming it gave too much power to the central government. He took an active part in the new government, and in 1790 he was elected to the Senate of the first United States Congress, where he joined the Jeffersonians. He gained experience as an executive as the Governor of Virginia and rose to national prominence as a diplomat in France, when he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. During the War of 1812, Monroe held the critical roles of Secretary of State and the Secretary of War under President James Madison.[2]

Facing little opposition from the fractured Federalist Party, Monroe was easily elected president in 1816, winning over 80 percent of the electoral vote and becoming the last president during the First Party System era of American politics. As president, he bought Florida from Spain and sought to ease partisan tensions, embarking on a tour of the country that was generally well received. With the ratification of the Treaty of 1818, under the successful diplomacy of his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the United States extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, giving America harbor and fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest. The United States and Britain jointly occupied the Oregon Country. In addition to the acquisition of Florida, the landmark Treaty of 1819 secured the border of the United States along the 42nd Parallel to the Pacific Ocean and represented America's first determined attempt at creating an "American global empire".[3] As nationalism surged, partisan fury subsided and the "Era of Good Feelings" ensued until the Panic of 1819 struck and dispute over the admission of Missouri embroiled the country in 1820. Nonetheless, Monroe won near-unanimous reelection.

Monroe supported the founding of colonies in Africa for freed slaves that would eventually form the nation of Liberia, whose capital, Monrovia, is named in his honor. In 1823, he announced the United States' opposition to any European intervention in the recently independent countries of the Americas with the Monroe Doctrine, which became a landmark in American foreign policy. His presidency concluded the first period of American presidential history before the beginning of Jacksonian democracy and the Second Party System era. Following his retirement in 1825, Monroe was plagued by financial difficulties. He died in New York City on July 4, 1831.

Early life

Marker designating the site of James Monroe's birthplace in Monroe Hall, Virginia

James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758, in his parents' house located in a wooded area of Westmoreland County, Virginia. The site is marked and is one mile from the unincorporated community known today as Monroe Hall, Virginia. The James Monroe Family Home Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[4] His father Spence Monroe (1727–1774) was a moderately prosperous planter who also practiced carpentry. His mother Elizabeth Jones (1730–1774) married Spence Monroe in 1752 and they had several children.[5]

His paternal great-grandfather Patrick Andrew Monroe emigrated to America from Scotland in the mid-17th century. In 1650 he patented a large tract of land in Washington Parish, Westmoreland County, Virginia. Among James Monroe's ancestors were French Huguenot immigrants, who came to Virginia in 1700.[5]

Education

First tutored at home by his mother Elizabeth, between the ages of 11 and 16, the young Monroe studied at Campbell town Academy, a school run by Reverend Archibald Campbell of Washington Parish. There he excelled as a pupil and progressed through Latin and mathematics faster than most boys his age. John Marshall, later Chief Justice of the United States, was among his classmates.

Upon the death of his father in 1774, Monroe inherited his small plantation and slaves, officially joining the ruling class of the planter elite in what had become the slave society of Virginia.[6] Sixteen years old, he began forming a close relationship with his maternal uncle, the influential Judge Joseph Jones, who had been educated at the Inns of Court in London and was the executor of his father's estate. That same year, Monroe enrolled in the College of William and Mary. At the time, most students were charged with excitement over the prospect of rebellion against King George III.

Military service in the Revolutionary War and serious wounding

Battle of Trenton and Hessian guns seized by Virginians led by Captain William Washington and Lt. Monroe who were severely wounded

In early 1776, about a year and a half after his enrollment, Monroe dropped out of college and joined the 3rd Virginia Regiment (established December 28, 1775) in the Continental Army where his background as a college student and the son of a well-known planter enabled him to obtain an officer's commission. He never returned to earn a degree.[7] In June 1775, after the battles of Lexington and Concord, Monroe, and some other William and Mary students joined 24 older men in raiding the arsenal at the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg. They used the loot of 200 muskets and 300 swords to arm the Williamsburg militia.

Although Andrew Jackson served as a courier in a militia unit at age thirteen, Monroe is regarded as the last U.S. President who was a Revolutionary War veteran, since he served as an officer of the Continental Army and took part in combat.[8] With the rest of Washington's army, Monroe's regiment was chased off Long Island in the fall of 1776 and down the length of New Jersey crossing the Delaware River in December 1776. Down to mere days before their enlistments expired, the Army's commander, General Washington decided that only a bold step could save the Army and the revolutionary cause from oblivion. Washington ordered his force, that had shrunk 90% since the Battle of Brooklyn which is also known by the wider name, Battle of Long Island, and down to under 3,000 effective soldiers, to cross the Delaware River on Christmas Day 1776 in the Battle of Trenton. Monroe and his regiment crossed over and marched through a Nor'easter snow storm north and then east towards Trenton. Along the way, the soldiers were spotted by a young patriot doctor, John Riker, whose dogs had been awakened in the pre-dawn early morning. Riker volunteered to lend his medical bag to the efforts saying that as many doctors as possible would be needed fearing severe casualties from a clash with the battle-tested German-speaking Hessian professional mercenary soldiers. Avoiding detection, the Americans approached the center of Trenton from north and south. When the Hessians sounded the alarm, they tried to get several of their artillery pieces in action to pour grapeshot into the Americans marching down towards the homes they had commandeered. Knowing that this would slow the assault, after a volley of artillery fire, Lieutenant Monroe and General Washington's cousin, Captain William Washington and their men rushed to seize the guns before they could fire. Both young officers were severely wounded. Captain Washington was badly wounded in both hands, and young Lieutenant James Monroe was carried from the field bleeding badly after he was struck in the left shoulder by a musket ball, which severed an artery. It would be the young volunteer doctor, John Riker who clamped the artery, keeping him from bleeding to death and saving the life of a man who would go on to achieve so much in politics both as a Virginian and on the national stage as a future President.[9] The wounded soldier, Monroe was sent home to Virginia to nurse his injuries. The Battle of Trenton would be Monroe's only battle as he would spend the next three months recuperating from his wound. In John Trumbull's painting Capture of the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton, Monroe can be seen lying wounded at left center of the painting. In the famous painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware, Monroe is depicted holding the American flag.[10]

After recuperating from his wound, he was appointed as a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia, and tasked to recruit and lead a regiment, but the regiment was never raised. He returned to Williamsburg in September of 1779 and studied law with George Wythe, and then moved to Richmond to study law with Thomas Jefferson. In 1780 the British invaded Richmond, and as Governor, Jefferson commissioned Monroe as a colonel to command the militia raised in response and act as liaison to the Continental Army in North Carolina.[11][12]

Monroe resumed studying law under Jefferson, and continued until 1783.[13][14] Monroe was not particularly interested in legal theory or practice, but chose to take it up because he thought that it offered "the most immediate rewards" and could ease his path to wealth, social standing, and political influence.[14] After passing the bar, he practiced law in Fredericksburg, Virginia.[15]

Marriage and family

James Monroe married Elizabeth Kortright (1768–1830),[16] daughter of Laurence Kortright and Hannah Aspinwall Kortright, on February 16, 1786, in New York City. He had met her while serving with the Continental Congress, which then met in New York, the temporary capital of the new nation. After a brief honeymoon on Long Island, New York, the Monroes returned to New York City to live with her father until Congress adjourned. The Monroes had the following children:

Plantations and slavery

Oak Hill Mansion

Monroe sold his small inherited Virginia plantation in 1783 to enter law and politics. Monroe later fulfilled his youthful dream of becoming the owner of a large plantation and wielding great political power, but his plantation was never profitable. Although he owned much more land and slaves and speculated in property, he was rarely on-site to oversee the operations. Overseers treated the slaves harshly to force production, but the plantations barely broke even. Monroe incurred debts by his lavish and expensive lifestyle and often sold property (including slaves) to pay them off.[20]

Monroe was a wealthy Loudoun County plantation owner who owned numerous slave plantations including Oak Hill in Aldie.[21] Monroe was an absentee slaveholder in that he had his overseers run the plantations while he lived elsewhere.[21] Overseers moved or separated slave families from different Monroe plantations in accordance with production and maintenance needs of each satellite plantation.[21] One of Monroe's slaves named Daniel often ran away from Monroe's plantation in Albermarle County, to visit other slaves or separated family members.[22] Monroe commonly referred to Daniel as a "scoundrel" and described the "worthlessness" of Daniel as a runaway slave.[22] Monroe's practice of moving and separating slave families was common treatment of slaves in the South.[22]

Early political career

Virginia politics

Monroe was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1782. He was elected to Congress in November 1783 and served in Annapolis until Congress left for Trenton in June 1784. He had served a total of three years when he finally retired from that office by the rule of rotation.[23] By that time, the government was meeting in the temporary capital of New York City.

In Virginia, the struggle in 1788 over the ratification of the proposed Constitution involved more than a simple clash between federalists and anti-federalists. Virginians held a full spectrum of opinions about the merits of the proposed change in national government. George Washington and James Madison were leading supporters; Patrick Henry and George Mason were leading opponents. Those who held the middle ground in the ideological struggle became the central figures. Led by Monroe and Edmund Pendleton, these "federalists who are for amendments," criticized the absence of a bill of rights and worried about surrendering taxation powers to the central government. Virginia ratified the Constitution in June 1788, largely because Monroe, Pendleton and followers suspended their reservations and vowed to press for changes after the new government had been established.[24]

Virginia narrowly ratified the Constitution. Monroe ran for a House seat in the First Congress but was defeated by Madison. In 1790 he was elected by the Virginia legislature as United States Senator. He soon joined the "Democratic-Republican" faction led by Jefferson and Madison, and by 1791 was the party leader in the Senate.[25]

Ambassador to France

The earliest preserved portrait of James Monroe as Minister Plenipotentiary to France in 1794.

Monroe resigned his Senate seat after being appointed Minister to France in 1794.[26] As ambassador, Monroe secured the release of Thomas Paine in revolutionary France after his arrest for opposition to the execution of Louis XVI. The government insisted that Paine be deported to the United States.[27]

Monroe arranged to free all the Americans held in French prisons. He also gained the freedom of Adrienne de La Fayette and issued her and her family American passports (they had been granted citizenship by the U.S. government for contributions during the Revolution.) She used that for travel to her husband, imprisoned in Olmutz.[28]

A strong friend of the French Revolution, Monroe tried to assure France that George Washington's policy of strict neutrality did not favor Britain. But American policy had come to favor Britain, and Monroe was stunned by the United States' signing of the Jay Treaty in London. With France and Britain at war, the Jay Treaty alarmed and angered the French. Washington had differences with Monroe and discharged him as Minister to France, claiming his "inefficiency, disruptive maneuvers, and failure to safeguard the interests of his country."[29]

Monroe had long been concerned about foreign influence on the presidency. He was alarmed by the Spanish diplomat Don Diego de Gardoqui, who in 1785 tried to convince Congress to allow Spain to close the Mississippi River to American traffic for 30 years. Spain controlled much of the Mississippi since taking over former French territory, including the important port of New Orleans. Monroe thought that Spain could have endangered the U.S. retention of its Southwest and caused the dominance of the Northeast.[30] Monroe believed in both a strong presidency and the system of checks and balances.

In the 1790s he fretted over an aging George Washington being too much influenced by close advisers such as Alexander Hamilton, whom Monroe thought too close to Britain. He was humiliated by Washington's criticism for his support of revolutionary France as minister to the nation.[31]

Governor of Virginia and diplomat

Out of office, Monroe returned to practicing law in Virginia until elected governor there as a Democratic-Republican, his first term serving from 1799 to 1802. He was reelected Virginia's governor in 1811.[32] He called out the state militia to suppress Gabriel's Rebellion. Gabriel and 26 other enslaved people who participated were all hanged for treason. Monroe thought that foreign and Federalist elements had created the Quasi War of 1798–1800 and were behind efforts to prevent the election of Thomas Jefferson as president in 1800. As governor he considered using the Virginia militia to force the outcome in favor of Jefferson.[33] Federalists were likewise suspicious of Monroe, some seeing him as at best a French dupe and at worst a traitor.[34]

President Jefferson sent Monroe to France to assist Robert R. Livingston in negotiating the Louisiana Purchase. Monroe was then appointed Minister to the Court of St. James's in London from 1803 to 1807. In 1806 he negotiated a treaty with Great Britain, known as the Monroe–Pinkney Treaty. It would have extended the Jay Treaty of 1794 which had expired after ten years. Jefferson had fought the Jay Treaty intensely in 1794–95 because he felt it would allow the British to subvert American republicanism. The treaty had produced ten years of peace and highly lucrative trade for American merchants, but Jefferson was still hostile. When Monroe and the British signed a renewal in December 1806, Jefferson decided not to even submit it to the Senate for ratification. Although the new treaty called for ten more years of trade between the United States and the British Empire and gave American merchants guarantees that would have been good for business, Jefferson refused to give up the potential weapon of commercial warfare against Britain and was unhappy that it did not end the hated British practice of impressment of American sailors. Jefferson did not attempt to obtain another treaty, and as a result, the two nations drifted from peace toward the War of 1812.[35] After the failure of the treaty, Monroe returned to the United States in 1807. Monroe was deeply hurt by the administration's repudiation of the treaty, and Monroe fell out with Secretary of State James Madison.[36]

1808 election and the Quids

The Democratic-Republican Party was increasingly factionalized, with "Old Republicans" or "Quids" denouncing the Jefferson administration for abandoning true republican principles. The Quids, seeing that Monroe's foreign policy had been rejected by Jefferson, tried to enlist Monroe in their cause. The plan was to run Monroe for president in the 1808 election in cooperation with the Federalist Party, which had a strong base in New England. John Randolph of Roanoke led the Quid effort to stop Jefferson's choice of James Madison. However, the regular Democratic-Republicans overcame the Quids in the nominating caucus, kept control of the party in Virginia, and protected Madison's base. Monroe was not a candidate for president, and Madison was elected.[37] After the election Monroe quickly reconciled with Jefferson, but did not speak with Madison, a former friend, until 1810.[36]

Secretary of State and Secretary of War

Monroe returned to the Virginia House of Burgesses and was elected to another term as governor in 1811, but only served four months. In April 1811, Madison appointed Monroe as Secretary of State in hopes of shoring up the support of the more radical factions of the Democratic-Republicans.[36] Monroe had little to do with the War of 1812, as President Madison and the War Hawks in Congress were dominant. The war went very badly, and when the British burned the U.S. Capitol and the White House on August 24, 1814, Madison removed John Armstrong as Secretary of War and turned to Monroe for help, appointing him Secretary of War on September 27.[38] Monroe resigned as Secretary of State on October 1, but no successor was ever appointed and thus from October 1, 1814 to February 28, 1815, Monroe effectively held both Cabinet posts. Monroe formulated plans for an offensive invasion of Canada to win the war, but a peace treaty was ratified in February 1815, before any armies moved north. Monroe therefore resigned as Secretary of War on March 15, 1815 and was formally reappointed Secretary of State. Monroe stayed on at State until March 4, 1817, when he began his term as the new President of the United States.[2]

Presidential elections of 1816 and 1820

The Congressional nominating caucus experienced little opposition during the administrations of Jefferson and Madison, but this situation changed in the election year of 1816. An indeterminate number of anti-Virginia Republicans, led by the New York delegation, objected to the caucus system along with the Federalists. Disorganization and failure to agree on William H. Crawford, Daniel Tompkins, Henry Clay or another possible contender weakened opposition to Monroe. The boycott by Virginia delegates of the March 12 caucus removed the chances of Monroe's opponents, and he received the caucus nomination four days later.[39] With the Federalist Party in disarray due to the unpopularity of their opposition to the War of 1812, Monroe easily won the election.[40] The Federalists did not even name a candidate, though Rufus King of New York did run in opposition to Monroe under the Federalist banner.[40] King carried only Connecticut, Delaware, and Massachusetts and won only 34 of 217 electoral votes cast.[40]

The collapse of the Federalists left Monroe with no organized opposition at the end of his first term, and he ran for reelection unopposed,[40] the only president other than Washington to do so. A single elector from New Hampshire cast a vote for John Quincy Adams, preventing a unanimous vote in the Electoral College.[40]

Presidency

BEP engraved portrait of Monroe as President.

BEP engraved portrait of Monroe as President.

Domestic policies

Democratic-Republican Party dominance

Monroe largely ignored old party lines in making appointments to lower posts, which reduced political tensions and enabled the "Era of Good Feelings", which lasted through his administration. He made two long national tours in 1817 to build national trust. Frequent stops on these tours allowed innumerable ceremonies of welcome and expressions of good will. The Federalist Party continued to fade away during his administration; it maintained its vitality and organizational integrity in Delaware and a few localities, but lacked influence in national politics. Lacking serious opposition, the Democratic-Republican Party's Congressional caucus stopped meeting, and for practical purposes the Democratic-Republican Party stopped operating.[41]

Domestic troubles

Monroe's popularity remained undiminished even when he followed difficult nationalist policies at a time when the country's commitment to nationalism started to show serious fractures. The Panic of 1819 caused a painful economic depression. The application for statehood in 1819 by the Missouri Territory as a slave state failed. An amended bill for gradually eliminating slavery in Missouri precipitated two years of bitter debate in Congress. The Missouri Compromise bill of 1820 resolved the struggle, pairing Missouri as a slave state with Maine, a free state, and barring slavery north of latitude 36/30' N forever. The Missouri Compromise lasted until 1854, when Stephen A. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed it. In 1857 Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney held that it had always been unconstitutional, as part of the Dred Scott decision.

Cumberland Road

Congress demanded high subsidies for internal improvements, such as for the improvement of the Cumberland Road, during Monroe's presidency.[42] Monroe vetoed the Cumberland Road Bill, which provided for yearly improvements to the road, because he believed it to be unconstitutional for the government to have such a large hand in what was essentially a civics bill deserving of attention on a state by state basis. This defiance underlined Monroe's populist ideals and added credit to the local offices that he was so fond of visiting on his speech tours.[43]

Indigenous American policies

Main article: Seminole Wars

Monroe sparked a constitutional controversy when, in 1817, he sent General Andrew Jackson to move against Spanish Florida to pursue hostile Seminole Indians and punish the Spanish for aiding them. News of Jackson's exploits ignited a congressional investigation of the 1st Seminole War. Dominated by Democratic-Republicans, the 15th Congress was generally expansionist and more likely to support the popular Jackson. Ulterior political agendas of many congressmen dismantled partisan and sectional coalitions, so that Jackson's opponents argued weakly and became easily discredited. After much debate, the House of Representatives voted down all resolutions that condemned Jackson in any way, thus implicitly endorsing Monroe's actions and leaving the issue surrounding the role of the executive with respect to war powers unanswered.[44]

Monroe believed that the Indians must progress from the hunting stage to become an agricultural people, noting in 1817, "A hunter or savage state requires a greater extent of territory to sustain it than is compatible with progress and just claims of civilized life."[45] His proposals were to speed up the assimilation process, but were ignored by Congress.[46]

Foreign policy

Spanish Florida

Relations with Spain over the purchase of Spanish Florida proved to be troublesome, especially after Andrew Jackson invaded that territory on what he believed to be the president's authorization, which Monroe later denied giving. But largely through the skillful work of John Quincy Adams, a treaty, known as the Adams-Onis Treaty, was signed with Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the United States in return for the assumption of $5,000,000 (about $92,592,593 in 2014 dollars) in claims and the relinquishment of any claims to Texas.[47] Florida was ceded to the U.S. in 1821.

Monroe Doctrine

Main article: Monroe Doctrine

After the Napoleonic wars (which ended in 1815), almost all of Spain's and Portugal's colonies in Latin America revolted and declared independence. Americans welcomed this development as a validation of the spirit of Republicanism. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams suggested delaying formal recognition until Florida was secured. The problem of imperial invasion was intensified by a Russian claim to the Pacific coast down to the fifty-first parallel and simultaneous European pressure to have all of Latin America returned to its colonial status.

Monroe informed Congress in March 1822 that permanent stable governments had been established in the United Provinces of the River Plate (the core of present-day Argentina), Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. Adams, under Monroe's supervision, wrote the instructions for the ministers (ambassadors) to these new countries. They declared that the policy of the United States was to uphold republican institutions and to seek treaties of commerce on a most-favored-nation basis. The United States would support inter-American congresses dedicated to the development of economic and political institutions fundamentally differing from those prevailing in Europe. The articulation of an "American system" distinct from that of Europe was a basic tenet of Monroe's policy toward Latin America. Monroe took pride as the United States was the first nation to extend recognition and to set an example to the rest of the world for its support of the "cause of liberty and humanity".

Monroe formally announced in his message to Congress on December 2, 1823, what was later called the Monroe Doctrine. He proclaimed that the Americas should be free from future European colonization and free from European interference in sovereign countries' affairs. It further stated the United States' intention to stay neutral in European wars and wars between European powers and their colonies, but to consider new colonies or interference with independent countries in the Americas as hostile acts toward the United States.[48]

Although it is Monroe's most famous contribution to history, the speech was written by Adams, who designed the doctrine in cooperation with Britain.[49] Monroe and Adams realized that American recognition would not protect the new countries against military intervention to restore Spain's power. In October 1823, Richard Rush, the American minister in London, advised that Foreign Secretary George Canning was proposing that the U.S. and Britain jointly declare their opposition to European intervention. Britain, with its powerful navy, also opposed re-conquest of Latin America and suggested that the United States join in proclaiming a "hands off" policy. Galvanized by the British initiative, Monroe consulted with American leaders and then formulated a plan with Adams. Ex-Presidents Jefferson and Madison counseled Monroe to accept the offer, but Adams advised, "It would be more candid ... to avow our principles explicitly to Russia and France, than to come in as a cock-boat in the wake of the British man-of-war." Monroe accepted Adams' advice. Not only must Latin America be left alone, he warned, but also Russia must not encroach southward on the Pacific coast. "...the American continents," he stated, "by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European Power."

The Monroe Doctrine at the time of its adoption thus pertained more to the Russians in North America than to the former Spanish colonies. The result was a system of American isolationism under the sponsorship of the British navy. The Monroe Doctrine held that the United States considered the Western Hemisphere as no longer a place for European colonization; that any future effort to gain further political control in the hemisphere or to violate the independence of existing states would be treated as an act of hostility; and finally that there existed two different and incompatible political systems in the world. The United States, therefore, promised to refrain from intervention in European affairs and demanded Europe to abstain from interfering with American matters. There were few serious European attempts at intervention.[49]

Administration and Cabinet

Monroe made balanced Cabinet choices, naming a southerner, John C. Calhoun, as Secretary of War, and a northerner, John Quincy Adams, as Secretary of State. Both proved outstanding, as Adams was a master diplomat[50] and Calhoun completely reorganized the War Department to overcome the serious deficiencies that had hobbled it during the War of 1812.[51] Monroe decided on political grounds not to offer Henry Clay the State Department, and Clay turned down the War Department and remained Speaker of the House, so Monroe lacked an outstanding westerner in his cabinet. Monroe was the only president in the 19th century to complete two full terms with the same Vice President.

The Monroe Cabinet
Office Name Term
President James Monroe1817–1825
Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins1817–1825
Secretary of State John Quincy Adams1817–1825
Secretary of Treasury William H. Crawford1817–1825
Secretary of War John C. Calhoun1817–1825
Attorney General Richard Rush1817
William Wirt1817–1825
Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Crowninshield1817–1818
Smith Thompson1819–1823
Samuel L. Southard1823–1825

Judicial appointments

Monroe appointed one Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States, Smith Thompson. He appointed 21 other federal judges, all to United States district courts, as no vacancies occurred on the one circuit court existing at the time.

States admitted to the Union

Post-presidency

Monroe once owned a farm at the location of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville

When his presidency ended on March 4, 1825, James Monroe resided at Monroe Hill, what is now included in the grounds of the University of Virginia. He had operated the family farm from 1788 to 1817, but sold it in the first year of his presidency to the new college. He served on the college's Board of Visitors under Jefferson and under the second rector James Madison, both former presidents, almost until his death.

Monroe had racked up many debts during his years of public life. He sold off his Highland Plantation (now called Ash Lawn-Highland). It is now owned by his alma mater, the College of William and Mary, which has opened it to the public as an historic site. Throughout his life, he was not financially solvent, and his wife's poor health made matters worse.[52]

He and his wife lived in Oak Hill, Virginia, until Elizabeth's death on September 23, 1830. In August 1825, the Monroes had received the Marquis de Lafayette and President John Quincy Adams as guests there.[53]

Death

Monroe's grave at Hollywood Cemetery. John Tyler's grave is visible in the background.

Upon Elizabeth's death in 1830, Monroe moved to New York City to live with his daughter Maria Hester Monroe Gouverneur who had married Samuel L. Gouverneur in the White House. Monroe's health began to slowly fail by the end of the 1820s and John Quincy Adams visited him there in April 1831.[54] Adams found him alert and eager to discuss the situation in Europe, but in ill health. Adams cut the visit short when he thought he was tiring Monroe.

Monroe died there from heart failure and tuberculosis on July 4, 1831, thus becoming the third president to have died on Independence Day, July 4. His death came 55 years after the U.S. Declaration of Independence was proclaimed and 5 years after the death of two other Founding Fathers who became Presidents: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Monroe was originally buried in New York at the Gouverneur family's vault in the New York City Marble Cemetery. Twenty-seven years later, in 1858, the body was re-interred to the President's Circle at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. The James Monroe Tomb is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

Religious beliefs

"When it comes to Monroe's thoughts on religion," Bliss Isely notes, "less is known than that of any other President." No letters survive in which he discussed his religious beliefs. Nor did his friends, family or associates comment on his beliefs. Letters that do survive, such as ones written after the death of his son, contain no discussion of religion.[55]

Monroe was raised in a family that belonged to the Church of England when it was the state church in Virginia before the Revolution. As an adult, he frequently attended Episcopal churches, though there is no record he ever took communion. Some historians see "deistic tendencies" in his few references to an impersonal God.[56] 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."[57]

As Secretary of State, Monroe dismissed Mordecai Manuel Noah in 1815 from his post as consul to Tunis because he was Jewish.[58] Noah protested and gained letters from Adams, Jefferson, and Madison supporting church-state separation and tolerance for Jews.[59]

Monroe may have believed in an interactive God for he said:

"If we persevere...we can not fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence...My fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor."[60]

Slavery

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.[61]

On October 15, 1799, as some slave traders tried to transport a group of slaves from Southampton to Georgia, the slaves revolted and killed the traders.[62] According to Scheer's article on the subject, a nearby slave patrol responded and killed ten slaves on the spot in extrajudicial killings without the benefit of trial. Of the initial group, the patrol took five slaves alive. They were tried in an oyer and terminer court without the benefit of a jury,[63] and four were convicted. (The fifth pleaded benefit of clergy and was flogged and branded). Governor Monroe postponed the slaves' executions to check their identities; he granted a pardon to one, and allowed two to hang. The fourth died in jail from exposure to the cold. Scheer says that Monroe "help[ed] secure a modicum of civil protection for slaves sentenced to death for capital crimes."[64]

When Monroe was Governor of Virginia in 1800, hundreds of slaves from Virginia planned to kidnap him, take Richmond, and negotiate for their freedom. Due to a storm on August 30, they were unable to attack. What became known as Gabriel's slave conspiracy became public knowledge.[65]

In response, Governor Monroe called out the militia; the slave patrols soon captured some slaves accused of involvement. Sidbury says some trials had a few measures to prevent abuses, such as an appointed attorney, but they were "hardly 'fair'". Slave codes prevented slaves from being treated like whites, and they were given quick trials without a jury.[66] Monroe influenced the Executive Council to pardon and sell some slaves instead of hanging them.[67] Historians say the Virginia courts executed between 26 and 35 slaves. None of the executed slaves had killed any whites because the uprising had been foiled before it began.[62]

As president of Virginia's constitutional convention in the fall of 1829, Monroe reiterated his belief that slavery was a blight which, even as a British colony, Virginia had attempted to eradicate. "What was the origin of our slave population?" he rhetorically asked. "The evil commenced when we were in our Colonial state, but acts were passed by our Colonial Legislature, prohibiting the importation, of more slaves, into the Colony. These were rejected by the Crown." To the dismay of states' rights proponents, he was willing to accept the federal government's financial assistance to emancipate and transport freed slaves to other countries. At the convention, Monroe made his final public statement on slavery, proposing that Virginia emancipate and deport its bondsmen with "the aid of the Union."[68]

Monroe was part of the American Colonization Society formed in 1816, the members of which included Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson. They found common ground with some abolitionists in supporting colonization. They helped send several thousand freed slaves to the new colony of Liberia in Africa from 1820 to 1840. Slave owners like Monroe and Jackson wanted to prevent free blacks from encouraging slaves in the South to rebel. With about $100,000 in Federal grant money, the organization also bought land for the freedmen in what is today Liberia.[69] The capital of Liberia was named Monrovia after President Monroe.[70]

Honors and memberships

Monroe was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in April 1818.[71]

Legacy and memory

$100 silver certificate depicting Monroe 
Presidential Dollar of James Monroe 
First Monroe Postage stamp, Issue of 1904 
Statue of Monroe at Ash Lawn-Highland 
Monroe Hall at the University of Virginia; Monroe once owned the land on which the university sits. 

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Harlow Unger, James Monroe: The Last Founding Father (2009).
  2. 1 2 Hart, Gary, 'James Monroe' (2005), p. 68
  3. ↑ Weeks, William Earl (1992). John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire. University of Kentucky Press. p. 1.
  4. ↑ Staff (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  5. 1 2 Harry Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity (1990), p. 577
  6. ↑ Peter Kolchin, American Slavery, 1611–1877, New York: Hill and Wang, 1993, p. 28
  7. ↑ Ammon, James Monroe pp 3–8
  8. ↑ "Presidential Trivia". Vernonkids.com. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
  9. ↑ Fisher, David Hackett. Washington's Crossing, ISBN 0195170342, Oxford University Press, USA, 2004, p. 247
  10. ↑ "Homes Of Virginia – Jame's Monroe's Law Office". Oldandsold.com. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
  11. ↑ Teitelbaum, Michael (2003). Profile of the Presidents: James Monroe. Compass Point Books. p. 14.
  12. ↑ Nolan, Cathal J., Hodge, Carl Cavanagh (2007). US Presidents and Foreign Policy from 1789 to the Present. ABC-CLIO, Inc. p. 45.
  13. ↑ Holmes, David R. (2006). The faiths of the founding fathers. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. p. 104. ISBN 0-19-530092-0.
  14. 1 2 Pessen, Edward (1984). The Log Cabin Myth: The Social Backgrounds of the Presidents. Yale University Press. p. 79. ISBN 0-300-03166-1.
  15. ↑ "James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library | James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library Home Page". Umw.edu. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
  16. ↑ "First Lady Biography: Elizabeth Monroe". Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  17. ↑ February 3, 1840, The Observer (London, England), page 1: "BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS...DIED... [January] 27th, at her residence in the Champs Elysees, Paris, Mrs. Elizabeth K. M. Hay, relict of the late George Hay, Esq., of Virginia, and daughter of the late James Monroe, Esq., formerly President of the United States of America.",
  18. ↑ "How many wedding ceremonies have been held at the White House?". While House History web site. The White House Historical Association. Retrieved 2011-03-13.
  19. ↑ Doug Wead (2008). "Murder at the Wedding Maria Hester Monroe". Retrieved 2011-03-13. Excerpt from All The President's Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America's First Families. Simon and Schuster. 2004. ISBN 978-0-7434-4633-4.
  20. ↑ Gerard W. Gawalt, "James Monroe, Presidential Planter," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1993 101(2): 251–272
  21. 1 2 3 Stevenson, Brenda E. (1996). Life in Black and White : Family and Community in the Slave South. Oxford University Press. p. 159.
  22. 1 2 3 Stevenson, Brenda E. (1996). Life in Black and White : Family and Community in the Slave South. Oxford University Press. p. 160.
  23. ↑ Morgan, George, The Life of James Monroe,' (1921) p. 94
  24. ↑ Jon Kukla, "A Spectrum of Sentiments: Virginia's Federalists, Antifederalists, and 'Federalists Who Are for Amendments,' 1787–1788," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1988 96(3): 276–296.
  25. ↑ Harry Ammon, James Monroe (1971) p. 89
  26. ↑ "MONROE, James – Biographical Information". United States Congress. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  27. ↑ Morgan, George (1921). The Life of James Monroe, p. 75
  28. ↑ Ammon, James Monroe pp 137–8
  29. ↑ Herbert E. Klingelhofer, "George Washington Discharges Monroe for Incompetence," Manuscripts, 1965 17(1): 26–34
  30. ↑ Ammon, James Monroe, pp. 55–56
  31. ↑ Ammon, James Monroe p. 151
  32. ↑ Morgan, George, 'The life of James Monroe', p.xvi
  33. ↑ Ammon, James Monroe p. 193
  34. ↑ Arthur Scherr, "James Monroe on the Presidency and 'Foreign Influence;: from the Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788) to Jefferson's Election (1801)," Mid-America 2002 84(1–3): 145–206
  35. ↑ Alan Axelrod, Profiles in Folly: History's Worst Decisions and Why They Went Wrong (2008) p. 154
  36. 1 2 3 Leibiger, Stuart (31 July 2012). A Companion to James Madison and James Monroe. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 489–491. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  37. ↑ David A. Carson, "Quiddism and the Reluctant Candidacy of James Monroe in the Election of 1808," Mid-America 1988 70(2): 79–89
  38. ↑ Hart, Gary, 'James Monroe' (2005), p. 52
  39. ↑ William G. Morgan, "The Congressional Nominating Caucus of 1816: the Struggle Against the Virginia Dynasty," Virginia Magazine of History & Biography 1972 80(4): 461–475
  40. 1 2 3 4 5 "America President: James Monroe: Campaigns and Elections". Miller Center of Public Affairs. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
  41. ↑ Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr., ed. History of U.S. political parties: Volume 1 (1973) pp. 24–25, 267
  42. ↑ "The administration of James Monroe." Bancroft, Hubert H., ed. (1902). "The Great Republic by the Master Historians".
  43. ↑ "Cumberland Road". Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States by the Best American and European Writers. 1899.
  44. ↑ David S. Heidler, "The Politics of National Aggression: Congress and the First Seminole War." Journal of the Early Republic 1993 13(4): 501–530.
  45. ↑ Francis Paul Prucha, The great father: the United States government and the American Indians (1986) p. 65
  46. ↑ Ammon, James Monroe, pp 536–40
  47. ↑ Ammon, James Monroe, pp 409–48
  48. ↑ Monroe, James (2016). "James Monroe's Seventh State of the Union Address". Wikisource. Retrieved 3 April 2016. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere, but with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.
  49. 1 2 Ammon, James Monroe, pp 476–92
  50. ↑ Samuel Flagg Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the foundations of American foreign policy, (1944) pp. 244–61
  51. ↑ Charles Maurice Wiltse, John C. Calhoun: Nationalist, 1782–1828 (1944) pp. 142–53
  52. ↑ "Ashlawn website". Ashlawnhighland.org. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
  53. ↑ Auguste Levasseur. Alan R. Hoffman, ed. Lafayette in America. p. 549.
  54. ↑ Jon Meacham. American Lion. p. 181.
  55. ↑ Bliss Isely, The Presidents: Men of Faith (2006) pp. 99–107, quote on p. 105
  56. ↑ Holmes, David L. (Autumn 2003). "The Religion of James Monroe". Virginia Quarterly Review 79 (4): 589–606. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
  57. ↑ "Prince Messiah's Claims to Dominion Over All Governments". Covenanter.org. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
  58. ↑ Bassett, Charles Walker; Maisel, Louis Sandy; Forman, Ira N.; Altschiller, Donald (2001). Jews in American politics. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 30. ISBN 0-7425-0181-7.
  59. ↑ Richard H. Popkin, "Thomas Jefferson's Letter to Mordecai Noah," American Book Collector 1987 8(6): 9–11
  60. ↑ "Education". monroefoundation.org.
  61. ↑ Kranish, Michael. "At Capitol, slavery's story turns full circle", The Boston GLobe, Boston, December 28, 2008.
  62. 1 2 Aptheker, Herbert (1993). American Negro Slave Revolts (6th ed.). New York: International Publishers. pp. 219–25. ISBN 978-0-7178-0605-8.
  63. ↑ Sidbury, James. "Ploughshares into swords: race, rebellion, and identity in Gabriel's Virginia, 1730–1810.", Cambridge, 1997, p. 128.
  64. ↑ Scheer, Arthur. "Governor James Monroe and Southampton Slave Resistance of 1799", The Historian, Vol. 61, 1999, available on Questia
  65. ↑ Rodriguez, Junius. "Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia", Santa Barbara, 2007, p. 428.
  66. ↑ Sidbury, James. Ploughshares into Swords: Race, Rebellion, and Identity in Gabriel's Virginia, 1730–1810, Cambridge, 1997, pp. 127–28.
  67. ↑ Morris, Thomas. "Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619–1860", 1996, p. 272.
  68. ↑ Ammon, 1990, pp 563–66
  69. ↑ Powell & Steinberg . "The nonprofit sector: a research handbook", Yale, 2006, p. 40.
  70. ↑ Ammon, 1990, pp 522–23
  71. ↑ "MemberListM". American Antiquarian Society.
  72. ↑ "William & Mary - President Monroe statue to be dedicated on William & Mary campus". wm.edu.
  73. ↑ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 212.
  74. ↑ Digital History, Steven Mintz. "Digital History". Digitalhistory.uh.edu. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
  75. ↑ Whitcomb, John; Whitcomb, Claire (May 3, 2002). Real life at the White House: 200 years of daily life at America's most famous residence (1st Routledge pbk. ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415939515. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
  76. ↑ "President James Monroe, The Last Cocked Hat, 5th President of the United States of America". listoy.com.
  77. ↑ "Presidents of the United States (POTUS)". Ipl.org. Retrieved 2011-12-05.

References

Bibliography

External links

James Monroe at Find a Grave

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