University of Virginia Library

LXXX.

LXXX. JAMES MONROE.

LXXX. Governor.

LXXX. December 1, 1779, to December 1, 1802.

James Monroe, twice Governor of Virginia, and twice
President of the United States, held the reins of government
in state and national affairs at important periods, and administered
the high offices to which he was called with prudence,
ability, and a complete devotion to the public good. He
was the son of Spence Monroe, a planter descended from
Captain Monroe, an officer in the British Army under the
reign of Charles I., who emigrated to Virginia in 1632.
James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia,
April 28, 1758. He was educated at William and Mary College,
which institution he left in 1776, to enter the army as a
cadet. Not waiting to finish his course of education, he
offered himself to his country's service in the time of her
adversity. He was soon commissioned Lieutenant, and took
an active part in the campaign on the Hudson. In the
attack on Trenton, at the head of a small detachment, he
captured one of the British batteries. On this occasion he
received a ball in the shoulder, and was promoted to a captaincy
for gallantry on the field. He returned to the army
to serve as Aide-de-Camp to Lord Stirling, with the rank of
Major, taking part in the campaigns of 1777 and 1778, and
distinguishing himself in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown,
and Monmouth. By accepting the place of Aide to
Lord Stirling, James Monroe lost his rank in the regular
line, and failing in his efforts to re-enter the army as a commissioned
officer, he returned to Virginia to study law under
the direction of Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of the
state. When the British appeared soon afterwards in Virginia,

Monroe exerted himself in organizing the militia of
the lower counties, and served as a volunteer with the Virginia
forces raised to meet the invading armies of Arnold and
Cornwallis. In 1782 he was elected to the Assembly of Virginia
from King George County, and was appointed by that
body a member of the Executive Council at the age of
twenty-three.

On June 9, 1783, he was elected to the House of Representatives,
of which body he continued a member until the
close of the session of 1786.

In 1785 he married a daughter of Lawrence Kortright, of
New York, a lady celebrated for her beauty and accomplishments,
and after the expiration of his term in Congress,
being ineligible for the next three years, Monroe settled in
Fredericksburg, Virginia.

In 1787 he was re-elected to the General Assembly, and
in 1788 was chosen a delegate to the Virginia Convention to
decide upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In
1785, when in Congress, he had advocated an extension of
the powers of that body and moved to invest it with authority
to regulate trade between the states. This led to the
Convention at Annapolis and the subsequent adoption of the
Federal Constitution at the famous Convention held in Philadelphia,
1787. But, when that instrument was presented to the
Virginia Convention for ratification, James Monroe opposed
its adoption, fearing that without amendment it would confer
too much power upon the general government. The course
of the minority in Convention was approved by the great
mass of the people of Virginia, and Monroe was chosen
United States Senator in 1790. Here he was a prominent
representative of the anti-Federal party until the end of his
term in 1794. In this year he was appointed to succeed
Gouverneur Morris as Minister to France. Reaching Paris
August 2, shortly after the fall of Robespierre, Monroe was
received by the National Convention of France in full session,
on the 15th, with enthusiastic demonstrations of respect.
The occasion ended by the President of the Convention giving
Monroe "the accolade," or national embrace, and the Assembly

decreed that the flags of the United States and of France
should be displayed together in the hall of the Convention.
But, Monroe's marked exhibition of sympathy with the French
Republic, displeased the home administration, as John Jay
had been sent to England to negotiate a treaty, which these
expressions were calculated to impede. So, with charges
that he had transcended instructions on the one hand, and
failed to present the Jay Treaty in its true character to the
French Government on the other, in December, 1796, Monroe
was recalled. On his return to America, he published a
"View of the Conduct of the Executives in the Foreign
Affairs of the United States," which explained his position
in the trying circumstances in which he had been placed.
His own county, immediately upon his arrival, returned him
to the state Legislature, and in 1799 he was elected Governor
of Virginia.

The first year of Governor Monroe's administration was
marked by the historic event known as "Gabriel's Insurrection."
The immediate cause of this affair was never traced,
but its sinister design, though imperfectly conceived and
wholly frustrated, has made it a dark page in the annals of
Virginia. At mid-day on the 30th August, 1800, Governor
Monroe was informed that the slaves in the neighborhood of
Richmond would rise that night, would murder their masters
and families, proceed to Richmond, be joined there by other
slaves, when they would seize the public arms and ammunition,
kill the whites, and take possession of the city. This
timely warning, together with the providential interposition
of a storm which made certain streams impassable, frustrated
this wicked plan. The plot was fully exposed, and it was
satisfactorily demonstrated that a general insurrection of the
slaves in the state was contemplated. The ring-leaders were
caught and executed on the 12th and 15th of September, and
"Gabriel," the chief conspirator, suffered death in January
following. Governor Monroe's action in this crisis was
prompt and decisive. He called at once several regiments of
state militia into service, and by viligance and determination
crushed and extinguished "Gabriel's Insurrection."

An event occurred in the last year of this term of Governor
Monroe which must be briefly noted here. On July 6, 1802,
in Winchester, Virginia, a Revolutionary hero of uncommon
fame passed away. "Daniel Morgan, of Virginia rifle
renown—served everywhere, surrendered nowhere, served to
the end of the war—died July 6, 1802," is the short but telling
tribute paid this brave soldier in the "Records of the
Revolutionary War." He was born in New Jersey in 1737,
and at an early age came to Virginia. He was a private
soldier under Braddock in 1755, and when the Revolutionary
War broke out he joined the army under Washington, at
Cambridge, and commanded a corps of riflemen. He accompanied
Arnold to Quebec, and distinguished himself greatly
in the siege of that city. Later he was appointed to the
command of the 11th Virginia Regiment, in which was incorporated
his rifle corps. Winning ever laurels at the North,
he became even more brilliant in his exploits when ordered
to the South, and as a partisan officer won such fame that,
after his victory at the Cowpens, Congress voted him a gold
medal. After the war he was elected a member of Congress,
but resided chiefly on his estate in Clarke County, Virginia.
He died in Winchester, Virginia, and the following is the
inscription upon the simple slab which covers his grave:

The occurrences of 1802, during Governor Monroe's first
term in that office, would be imperfectly chronicled if the
date of Daniel Morgan's death did not recall the lustre he
shed upon the annals of Virginia.

At the close of his term as Governor, James Monroe was
appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the French government,
to negotiate in conjunction with the resident Minister, Mr.
Livingston, the purchase of Louisiana, or a right of depot
for the United States on the Mississippi. This was soon

accomplished, and in two weeks the "Territory of Orleans"
and "District of Louisiana" were secured for the sum of $15,000,000.
In the same year, 1802, Monroe was commissioned
Minister Plenipotentiary to England, and whilst in the midst
of important diplomatic negotiations, he was directed to proceed
to Madrid, as Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary,
to adjust the boundaries of Louisiana. Failing to
accomplish this, in 1806 he was recalled to England to act
with Mr. Pinckney in further negotiation for the protection
of American seamen, and to secure a treaty with Great
Britain. The treaty was concluded, but not proving satisfactory
to the President, it was sent back for revisal. All
efforts to effect this failed, and Monroe returned to America.

The time for the election of President was now approaching,
and Monroe's name was brought forward by a considerable
body of the Republican party, but, for reasons satisfactory
to himself, Monroe withdrew from the canvass. In 1810 he
was again elected to the General Assembly of Virginia, and
in 1811 was for a second time chosen the chief executive of
the state. On the 25th November, 1811, he was selected by
President Madison as Secretary of State, and was succeeded
by George William Smith, Lieutenant-Governor, in the office
of Governor. The position of Secretary of State he held
until the close of President Madison's second term, with the
exception of about six months (the last months of the second
war with Great Britain), when he discharged the arduous
duties of Secretary of War. He devoted his time and talents
with great energy to the trusts confided to him, and infused
order and efficiency into the departments under his charge.
Finding the public credit much impaired at the time of the
siege of New Orleans, he pledged his private means as subsidiary
to the credit of the government, and enabled the city
to successfully oppose the forces of the enemy.

At the end of Madison's term in 1817, James Monroe
succeeded to the presidency of the United States, and in 1821
was re-elected without opposition. Although many important
measures mark James Monroe's two terms as President of
the United States, none will be more interesting to the student

of American history than the promulgation in his message of
December 2, 1823, now generally known as the "Monroe
Doctrine." He said:

On March 4, 1825, Monroe retired from office and returned
to his home at Oak Hill, in Loudoun County, Virginia. He
was chosen a Justice of the Peace, and as such sat in the
county court—a beautiful illustration of the untrammeled
principles of this Republic, that a man should be deemed
worthy to represent its interests at the courts of the great
powers of the civilized world; that he should be twice
selected as the chief executive of his own state, and twice
chosen to preside over the councils of the nation; and yet,
after these high honors, that he should feel it no falling off
to sit as a modest Justice of the Peace, and in this narrower
sphere hold out the scales of Right and Wrong.

In 1829 James Monroe became a member of the Virginia
Convention to revise the old Constitution, and was chosen to
preside over its meetings, but ill-health compelled him to
resign this position and return to his home at Oak Hill. His
wife died in 1830, and in the summer of that year he removed
to the residence of his son-in-law, Samuel L. Gouverneur, in
New York City, where, in a few short months, he finished
his earthly course. His life had been a long consecration to
the service of his country, and he had enjoyed in an unusual
degree the gratitude of his countrymen; honors crowded upon
him, and the influence of his large understanding, benevolence,
integrity, and simplicity, won for the period of his
greatest power, the enviable title of "The era of good feeling."
With pomp and reverence his remains were removed to Richmond,
Virginia, in 1858, and laid to rest in his native state,
on July 5, in Hollywood cemetery.