University of Virginia Library

JAMES MONROE,

Fifth President of the United States, was born April 28, 1758, and died
July 4, 1831, in his 74th year.

His birth was in Westmoreland county, Virginia, and he was a lineal
descendant of one of the first patentees of that province. His father was
Spruce Monroe, a well-known and wealthy planter of Westmoreland
county.

At the time Independence was declared, James Monroe was a student
in William and Mary College. Without finishing his course there he entered
the army as a cadet. His military career, though brief, was glorious.

He gave his young manhood to his country's service in the hour of
her adversity; he joined her standard when others were deserting it; he repaired
to Washington's headquarters when the army had dwindled to the
verge of dissolution, and Great Britian was pouring her native troops and
foreign mercenaries by thousands upon our coasts; he was one of the
heroes who followed Washington in his perilous mid-winter journey across
the Delaware; he fought at Harlem, at White Plains, and at Trenton,
and was wounded in the last named engagement.

He was promoted for gallantry on the field, and returned to the army
to serve as aide-de-camp to Lord Sterling, through the campaign of 177778,
taking part in the engagements of Brandywine, Germantown and
Monmouth.

After this campaign Monroe left the army, and engaged in the study of
law, with Thomas Jefferson. In 1781 he served as a volunteer with the
Virginia forces, when that State was invaded by the armies of Cornwallis
and Arnold, and at the request of the governor of Virginia he visited the
more Southern States, 1780, to collect military information.

In 1782 he was elected a member of the Virginia legislature, and by
the legislature appointed a member of the executive council. June 9,
1783, he was elected to the House of Representatives, where he took his
seat on the 13th of December following. He continued a member of this
body until the close of the session of 1786.

In the last named year he married a daughter of Lawrence Kortright,
of New York City, and took up his residence in Frederickburg, Spottsylvania
county, Virginia. He was elected to a seat in the Virginia legislature,
and served three years.

In 1790 he was chosen United States Senator, and served until 1794.
He was then appointed to succeed Gouveneur Morris as minister at the
French Court. The appointment was made upon the recommendation of
President Washington and one of the first acts of President Adams was to
recall Monroe.

During Monroe's ministry in France, his views upon the question of the
neutrality of the United States in the war between England and France,
then the paramount subject of consideration in America, were not in
harmony with the administration, and his course of action was severely
censured, and his national popularity for a time decreased.

Virginia, however, stood by the son of her soil. His own county,
immediately upon his arrival home, returned him to the State legislature,
and the votes of the people transferred him thence to the gubernatorial
chair. As governor he served three years (1799-1802), the term limited
by the State constitution.

In 1802 he visited France, appointed by Jefferson as envoy extraordinary
to act with Mr. Livingstone at the court of Napoleon. He
assisted in the negotiations for the purchase of Louisiana, and then joined

Mr. Pinckney in Spain, to assist in the settlement of some boundary questions.
In 1807 he went from Spain to England, to protest against the
impressment of American seamen, and with Mr. Pinckney to negotiate
a treaty with Great Britain. Five years had now been given by Mr.
Monroe to public duties abroad, and finding no success attending his efforts
to ratify a treaty with Great Britain, he returned to America, reaching
home in the closing month of 1807.

At the next State election he was again called to the chief magistracy
of the Commonwealth of Virginia, which office he filled until, in 1811,
he was called to a seat as Secretary of State, in the cabinet of President
Madison. This office 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 more arduous
duties of Secretary of the War Department.

On the retirement of President Madison, in 1817, James Monroe was
chosen fifth President of the United States, and in 1821, was re-elected
without opposition. His opponent in the canvass of 1816 was Rufus
King, of New York, who received only 34 electoral votes, Mr.
Monroe receiving 183. Only one vote was cast against him at his second
election, one of the New Hampshire electors voting for John Quincy
Adams. Monroe's electoral vote was 228.

The distinguishing act of President Monroe's administration, at least
that in which posterity is most interested, was the assertion of what has
since become known as "The Monroe Doctrine." It was first formulated
by President Monroe in his annual message to Congress in 1824.

"The occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in
which the rights of the United States are involved, that the American
continents, 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 powers."

In popular language, and in the widest sense of the words, this may be
interpreted as: "America for Americans," including, of course, all who
choose to become American citizens.

During his administrations Monroe encouraged the army, increased the
navy, protected commerce, and infused vigor and efficiency in every
department of the public service. March 4, 1825, he retired to his residence
of Oak Hill, in Loudoun county, Virginia.

In the winter of 1829-30, he presided over a convention called to revise
the constitution of Virginia, but an increasing indisposition necessitated
his withdrawal from the convention before its labors were ended, and he
never again participated in public affairs. In the summer of 1830 his
beloved wife died, and he was unable to bear the solitude of the home her
presence had so many years brightened. He removed to New York City,
making his home with his son-in-law, Samuel L. Gouveneur, where the
few remaining months of his life were passed.

Mr. Monroe had been a poor financier in personal matters. Although
he had inherited considerable property, and his wife had
brought him as much more, and although he had received $350,000
for public services, in his last days pecuniary embarassments were
added to his bodily infirmities, and his old age was harassed by debt.
In 1858 the remains of ex-President Monroe were removed, with great
pomp, from New York to Richmond, Virginia, and on July 5th were
re-interred in Hollywood cemetery.

The members of President Monroe's cabinet were: Secretary of
State, John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, 1817-1825; Secretary
of the Treasury, Wm. H. Crawford, of Georgia, 1817-1825; Secretary
of War, Geo. Graham, ad interim; John C. Calhoun, of South
Carolina, December, 1817, to March, 1825. (President Monroe tendered
this position to Isaac Shelby, governor of Kentucky, who did
not qualify, and in December, 1817, declined the office on account of
advanced age.) Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin W. Crowninshield,
of Massachusetts, March, 1817, to November, 1818; Smith Thompson,
of New York, November, 1818, to December, 1823; Samuel L. Southard,
of New Jersey, December, 1823, to March, 1825. Attorney General,
Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, March to November, 1817;
William Wirt, of Virginia, November, 1817, to March, 1825. The
office of Postmaster General for these eight years was filled by Return
Jonathan Meigs, March, 1817, to June, 1823, then by John McLean,
of Ohio, until March, 1825.