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U.S Presidents — James Monroe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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OVERVIEW
Name: James Monroe
President: # 5 Term Number(s): 8, 9 Term Length: 8 Took Office: March 4, 1817 Left Office: March 4, 1825 Age when Elected: 58 Party: Democratic-Republican Also Known As: "The Last Cocked Hat, Era of Good Feelings President" BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Education: The College of William and Mary
Occupation: Lawyer Farmer/Planter Other Governmental Position: 7th United States Secretary of State, 8th United States Secretary of War, 16th Governor of Virginia, 12th Governor of Virginia, United States Senator from Virginia, 5th United States Minister Plenipotentiary to France, 4th United States Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain. Military Service: Major in the Continental Army Religion: Episcopal Spouse(s): Elizabeth Kortright Monroe (February 16, 1786) Children: Eliza Monroe Hay, James Spence Monroe, Maria Hester Monroe Gouverneur
Birthdate: April 28, 1758
Birthplace: Westmoreland County, Virginia Deathdate: July 4, 1831 Deathplace: New York, New York Age at Death: 73 Cause of Death: heart failure and tuberculosis Place of Internment: President's Circle at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia  Signature FIRST ELECTION
Election Year: 1816
Main Opponent: Rufus King Voter Participation: N/A
SECOND ELECTION
Election Year: 1820
Main Opponent: John Quincy Adams Voter Participation: N/A
CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS
Vice President: Daniel D. Tompkins
Secretary of State: John Quincy Adams (1817–1825) Secretary of the Treasury: William H. Crawford (1817–1825) Secretary of War: John C. Calhoun (1817–1825) Secretary of the Navy: Benjamin W. Crowninshield (1817–1818), Smith Thompson (1819–1823), Samuel L. Southard (1823–1825) Attorney General: Richard Rush (1817), William Wirt (1817–1825) Supreme Court Assignments: Smith Thompson (1823) PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHY Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1758, Monroe attended the College of William and Mary, fought with distinction in the Continental Army, and practiced law in Fredericksburg, Virginia. As a youthful politician, Monroe joined the anti-Federalists in the Virginia Convention, which ratified the Constitution. In 1790, an advocate of Jeffersonian policies, Monroe was elected United States Senator. As Minister to France from 1794 to 1796, he displayed strong sympathies for the French cause; later, with Robert R. Livingston, he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase. His ambition and energy, together with the backing of President Madison, made him the Republican choice for the Presidency in 1816. With little Federalist opposition, he easily won re-election in 1820. Monroe made unusually strong cabinet choices, naming a Southerner, John C. Calhoun, as Secretary of War, and a Northerner, John Quincy Adams, as Secretary of State. Only Henry Clay's refusal kept Monroe from adding an outstanding Westerner. Early in his administration, Monroe undertook a goodwill tour. At Boston, his visit was hailed as the beginning of an "Era of Good Feelings." Unfortunately, these "good feelings" did not endure, although Monroe, his popularity undiminished, followed nationalist policies.  The Missouri Compromise bill resolved the struggle, pairing Missouri as a slave state with Maine, a free state, and barring slavery north and west of Missouri forever. In foreign affairs, Monroe proclaimed the fundamental policy that bears his name, responding to the threat that the more conservative governments in Europe might try to aid Spain in winning back her former Latin American colonies. Monroe did not begin formally to recognize the young sister republics until 1822, after ascertaining that Congress would vote appropriations for diplomatic missions. He and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams wished to avoid trouble with Spain until it had ceded the Floridas, as was done in 1821. Great Britain, with its powerful navy, also opposed reconquest of Latin America and suggested that the United States join in proclaiming "hands off." Former Presidents Jefferson and Madison counseled Monroe to accept the offer, but Secretary 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." Some 20 years after Monroe died in 1831, this became known as the Monroe Doctrine. FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Elizabeth Kortright Monroe Strange choice, perhaps, for a patriot veteran with political ambitions and little money of his own; but Elizabeth was beautiful, and love was decisive. They were married in February 1786, when the bride was not yet 18. The young couple planned to live in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where Monroe began his practice of law. His political career, however, kept them on the move as the family increased by two daughters and a son who died in infancy. In 1794, Elizabeth Monroe accompanied her husband to France when President Washington appointed him United States minister. Arriving in Paris in the midst of the French Revolution, Mrs. Monroe took a dramatic part in saving Lafayette's wife, imprisoned and expecting death on the guillotine. With only her servants in her carriage, the American minister's wife went to the prison and asked to see Madame Lafayette. Soon after this hint of American interest, the prisoner was set free. The Monroes became very popular in France, where the diplomat's lady received the affectionate name of la belle Americaine. For 17 years Monroe, his wife at his side, alternated between foreign missions and service as governor or legislator of Virginia. They made the plantation of Oak Hill their home after he inherited it from an uncle, and appeared on the Washington scene in 1811 when he became Madison's Secretary of State. Elizabeth Monroe was an accomplished hostess when her husband took the presidential oath in 1817. Through much of the administration, however, she was in poor health and curtailed her activities. Wives of the diplomatic corps and other dignitaries took it amiss when she decided to pay no calls—an arduous social duty in a city of widely scattered dwellings and unpaved streets. Moreover, she and her daughter Eliza changed White House customs to create the formal atmosphere of European courts. Even the White House wedding of her daughter Maria was private, in "the New York style" rather than the expansive Virginia social style made popular by Dolley Madison. A guest at the Monroes' last levee, on New Year's Day in 1825, described the first lady as "regal-looking" and noted details of interest: "Her dress was superb black velvet; neck and arms bare and beautifully formed; her hair in puffs and dressed high on the head and ornamented with white ostrich plumes; around her neck an elegant pearl necklace. Though no longer young, she is still a very handsome woman." In retirement at Oak Hill, Elizabeth Monroe died on September 23, 1830; and family tradition says that her husband burned the letters of their life together. MAJOR EVENTS
1817: Mississippi joins the Union.
1818: The 49th parallel is set as the border with Canada.
1818: Illinois joins the Union.
1819: The Panic of 1819 is the first major financial crisis in the United States.
1819: As part of the Adams-Onís Treaty, Florida is relinquished to the United States by Spain. In return, the U.S. cancels $5 million in Spanish debts and the any claims to Texas.
1819: Alabama joins the Union.
1820: The Missouri Compromise is passed, forbidding slavery above parallel 36°30' north latitude.
1820: Maine joins the Union.
1821: Missouri joins the Union.
1823: The Monroe Doctrine is delivered to congress, stating that the Western Hemisphere was no longer to be colonized by European countries and that any efforts to do so would be viewed as an act of aggression. It became one of the longest-standing tenets of the United States and was later invoked by U.S. presidents: Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy, and others.
TRIVIA
1. The only non-American capital city named after a U.S. President is Monrovia, the capital city of the West African country of Liberia.
2. James Monroe was the first president to ride a steamboat.
3. Monroe’s daughter was the first to be a bride in the White House.
4. Monroe was wounded during the Revolutionary War.
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