Message of President James Monroe at the commencement of the first
session of the 18th Congress The Monroe Doctrine
Unrestricted. (NWL-46-PRESMESS-18AE1-1)
James Monroe
5th President of the United States
JAMES MONROE was born on April 28,
1758 in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He was one of five children of Spence
Monroe and Elizabeth Jones who were both natives of Virginia. The Monroe’s
lived on a small farm and young James walked several miles each day to attend
the school of Parson Campbell, who taught him the stern moral code that he
followed throughout his life.
When he was 16, Monroe entered the College of William and Mary. During his
first year there, his father died and the cost of his education and his
guardianship was taken over by his uncle, Judge Joseph Jones, who became his
trusted advisor. The year was 1774 and the colonies were moving ever closer to
war with Great Britain. Young Monroe was finding it difficult to concentrate on
his studies and in 1775, he left college to go to war. He became a lieutenant
and during the Battle of Trenton, his captain was wounded and the command was
given to him. However, he too was wounded at that battle and while recovering he
was named aide-de-camp to Major General Lord Stirling. He fought with George
Washington at Valley Forge and in 1779, and now a major, Monroe was commissioned
to lead a militia of Virginia regiment as a lieutenant colonel. However, his
unit was never formed and his military career was at its end. He became an aide
to Thomas Jefferson, who was the Governor of Virginia at this time. He also
became Jefferson’s student in the study of law and with Jefferson’s
guidance, he began to see what course his life would take.
In 1782, at the age of 24, Monroe was elected to the Virginia State
Legislature. He was the youngest member of the Executive Council and in 1783,
was elected to the United States Congress that was meeting in New York City. He
served in Congress for three years and during this time he became interested in
the settlement of the “western” lands between the Allegheny Mountains and
the Mississippi River. He was chairman of two important expansion committees –
one dealing with travel on the Mississippi River and the other involving the
government of the western lands.
Congress was meeting at that time in New York City, and while there Monroe
met Elizabeth Kortright, whom he married on February 16, 1786. The couple had
three children: Eliza Kortright Monroe (1786-1835), James Spence Monroe
(1799-1800), and Maria Hester Monroe (1803-1850).
In October, 1786, Monroe resigned from Congress and settled in
Fredericksburg, Virginia with his new bride. He was elected to the town council
and once again to the Virginia Legislature. He was a delegate to the Virginia
convention to ratify the new Constitution and was strongly opposed, feeling that
it was a threat to fee navigation of the Mississippi. He voted against the
constitution, but once it was ratified he accepted the new government without
any misgivings.
In 1789, the Monroe’s moved to Albemarle County, Virginia. Their estate,
Ash Lawn, was very near Jefferson’s estate, Monticello. In 1790, he was
elected to a recently vacated seat in the United States Senate and was named to
a full six-year term the following year. In the spring of 1794, Monroe accepted
the diplomatic position of Minister Plenipotentiary to France. His assignment
was to help maintain friendly relations with France despite efforts to remain on
peaceful terms with France’s enemy, Great Britain. Monroe was recalled in
September 1796 and felt he had been betrayed by his opponents who used him to
appease France while they made great concessions to Britain in Jay’s Treaty
that the United States had signed in 1794. He remained bitter about it for the
rest of his life.
Monroe returned home in June 1797 and after two years of retirement from
public office, he was elected governor of Virginia, a position that he served
from 1799 until 1803. His great friend and mentor, Thomas Jefferson had been
elected President in 1800 and in 1803, Monroe was sent back to France to help
Robert R. Livingston complete the negotiations for the acquisition of New
Orleans and West Florida. The French Emperor, Napoleon I, offered to sell
instead the entire Louisiana colony and although the Americans were not
authorized to make such a large purchase, they began negotiations. In April
1803, the Louisiana Purchase was concluded, more than doubling the size of the
nation. Monroe spent the next two years in useless negotiations with Britain and
Spain and returned to the United States in late 1807.
Monroe returned to Virginia politics and once more served in the legislature
and was elected Governor for a second time. In 1811, Monroe became President
Madison’s Secretary of State and when the War of 1812 was declared, he loyally
supported Madison. He served as Secretary of State throughout the war and
simultaneously served as Secretary of War for the latter part. He was back in
uniform at the time of the British attack on Washington and led the Maryland
militia in an unsuccessful attempt to hold off the British at Bladensburg. On
December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed ending the war. In 1815,
Monroe returned to the normal peacetime duties of Secretary of State.
Monroe was the logical presidential nominee at the end of Madison’s second
term, and he won the election easily. On March 4, 1817 James Monroe took his
oath of office. Some of the notable events of his term were: Congress fixed 13
as the number of stripes on the flag to honor the original colonies; the
boundary between Canada and the United States was fixed at the 49th parallel.;
Spain ceded Florida to the United States in exchange for the cancellation of $5
million in Spanish debt; The Missouri Compromise, admitted Missouri as a slave
state, but forbade slavery in any states carved from the Louisiana Territory
north of 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude. By the end of his first term,
Monroe’s administration had been one of high idealism and integrity and his
personal popularity was at an all time high. Monroe was virtually unopposed for
reelection. He carried every state and received every electoral vote cast with
the exception of one, cast by a New Hampshire elector for John Quincy Adams.
With the exception of the Monroe Doctrine, Monroe’s second term as
president was relatively uneventful. The two principles of the Doctrine,
noncolonization and nonintervention, were not new or original. However, it was
Monroe who explicitly proclaimed them as policy and it was a keystone of foreign
policy for many years.
Monroe had no thought of seeking a third term as the election of 1824 neared.
He was 67 years old when he turned over the presidency to John Quincy Adams. He
retired to Oak Hill, Virginia. He was plagued by financial worries and he was
forced to sell his estate Ash Lawn to meet his debts. After his wife died, he
sold Oak Hill and moved to New York City to live with his youngest daughter,
Maria Hester Gouverneur and her husband. Monroe died there on July 4, 1831, the
fifty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Message of President James Monroe at the commencement of the first
session of the 18th Congress The Monroe Doctrine
Unrestricted. (NWL-46-PRESMESS-18AE1-1)
Message of
President James Monroe nominating John Quincy Adams to be Secretary of
State, William Crawford to be Secretary of the Treasury, and Isaac Shelby to be
Secretary of War. (NWL-46-MCCOOK-1(15))
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