James Monroe: “The Last Cocked Hat”

April 28, 2016 — Leave a comment

James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758 in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His father Spence Monroe was a moderately prosperous planter and carpenter whose family emigrated from Scotland in the mid-1600s. James was tutored by his mother Elizabeth Jones Monroe and then attended Campbelltown Academy between 1769 and 1774.

At age 16 James went to William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia but dropped out after a couple of months to fight in the American Revolution. His first act of rebellion was to join several classmates in June of 1775 to raid the arsenal of the British royal governor, they escaped with weapons and supplies that they turned over to the Virginia militia. He was the youngest member of the small band of patriots.

As an 18-year-old Lieutenant, James crossed the Delaware River with George Washington on December 26, 1776 and was seriously wounded at the Battle of Trenton. He carried shrapnel in his shoulder for the rest of his life. He received a promotion to captain for his gallantry under fire and after recovering from his wound returned to the army in 1777. During the winter of 1777-78 he wintered at Valley Forge with George Washington’s army.

When he received an appointment to lieutenant colonel by Virginia legislature in January 1779 he resigned from the Continental Army. James began studying law under Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson in 1780, he would become his political mentor and friend. In gratitude to Jefferson, James wrote his mentor saying, “I feel that whatever I am at present in the opinion of others or whatever I may be in future has greatly arose from your friendship.”

He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1782 to 1783 and was active in the management of the western lands. When the new American government couldn’t pay soldiers they gave them land and James’ military service earned him over 5,000 acres of land in Kentucky. From 1783 to 1786 he was a Delegate to the Confederation Congress.

On February 16 1786 James married Elizabeth Kortright, the teenage daughter of a New York merchant. The couple moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia, James practiced law for three years before moving to Albemarle County, Virginia. His wife and two daughters, Eliza and Maria, would accompany him on nearly all his official travel, including diplomatic assignments in France and Great Britain.

In February 1789, James acquired 800 acres of land that would later become the site of the University of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson had been urging Madison and Monroe to settle near him in Albemarle County since the summer of 1784. James took up residence on his property in August, 1789.

James ran for a House seat in 1790 but was defeated by James Madison and was elected by the Virginia legislature as a United States Senator. In 1792 he joined Madison and Jefferson to form the Democratic-Republican Party, which opposed Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists who were fighting for increased federal power.

In 1793 James purchased “Highland” plantation, 3,500 acres adjacent to Jefferson’s Monticello. The house was completed in December of 1799.

The following year President George Washington appointed James as minister to France to improve relations with them. He had some success but the relations soured when the Jay’s Treaty, an agreement between the U.S. and Britain was signed. James, who was critical of the treaty, was released from his post by Washington in 1796.

From 1799 through 1802 he served as Governor of Virginia until President Thomas Jefferson requested that he return to France. Both Jefferson and Madison (the Secretary of State) believed that only James had the reputation and experience to complete the delicate negotiations involved in buying from France a port at the mouth of the Mississippi. “All eyes, all hopes are now fixed on you,” Once in France James learned that French leader Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to sell the entire Louisiana Territory for $15 million, not only New Orleans. James and the U.S. minister to France, Robert R. Livingston, signed the Louisiana Purchase agreement themselves without presidential approval, effectively doubling the size of the United States.

From 1803 to 1807 he served as the Minister to England and Spain and drafted a treaty that would help strengthen the bonds between Britain and the United States. President Jefferson did not approve the treaty because it didn’t stop Britain’s practice of capturing American sailors for its own navy. James was upset by Jefferson’s actions and his friendship with both Jefferson and Madison soured.

Still angry about how his treaty was handled by Jefferson and Madison, in 1808 he ran for president against Madison but lost.

His friendship with Jefferson resumed and finally through Jefferson’s efforts he resumed his friendship with Madison in May of 1810. The following January, he was elected as the Governor of Virginia again, but held the office for only three months due to Madison offering him the secretary of state post in March of 1811.

While serving as Secretary of State he became convinced that a declaration of war against Great Britain was the best option to change offensive British policies. Along with Madison, James encouraged Congress to issue a war declaration, which came on June 17, 1812. Madison transferred James temporarily to the post of secretary of war. Like Jefferson, Monroe believed that America’s successful prosecution of the war depended on an invasion of Canada and drew up plans for an army of 30,000 soldiers. Anti-Virginia grumbling in the Senate prevented James’s confirmation as secretary of war but his successor was a disaster who appointed generals who bungled the invasion of Canada. Madison responded to the crisis by once again naming James secretary of war who supplied the means for resisting British thrusts at Baltimore and New Orleans.

In 1816, Monroe ran for president as a Democratic-Republican and won the election. When he was sworn into office on March 4, 1817 he became the first U.S. president to have his ceremony outdoors and give his inaugural address to the public.

He served as the fifth President of the United States for two terms from 1817 to 1825. After his inauguration, James made a presidential tour of the states, the first tour since George Washington. While he toured the Southern States he was the first president to travel on a steamboat. The effort to connect with citizens led a journalist to called James’ time in office the “Era of Good Feeling.” The United States recently achieved victory during the War of 1812 and it was growing quickly and offering new opportunities to its citizens. Additionally, fighting between the Democratic-Republicans and Federalists was finally ending due to the Federalist Party starting to dissolve.

One issue James had to contend with during his first term in office was deteriorating relations with Spain. Conflicts arose between the U.S. military in Georgia, pirates, and Native Americans in the Spanish-held territory of Florida. James was able to successfully address the problem in 1819 by negotiating the purchase of Florida for $5 million, further expanding U.S. territories.

Slavery was also becoming a contentious issue during his presidency. The North had banned slavery, but the Southern states still supported it. When Missouri wanted to join the Union in 1818 the North wanted it to be declared a free state while the South wanted it to be a slave state. Finally, an agreement was made allowing Missouri to join the Union as a slave state and Maine to join as a free state. The Missouri Compromise soon followed, outlawing slavery in the Louisiana Territory above the parallel 36°30′ north, excluding the state of Missouri. Although James didn’t think Congress had the constitutional authority to impose such conditions on Missouri’s admission to the Union, he signed the Missouri Compromise in 1820 in an effort to avoid civil war.

James’ ran unopposed in the 1820 election and won all the Electoral College votes but one. This was the last time the United States saw a candidate run without serious opposition, James was the only president besides Washington to do so. Monroe was helped by his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams with foreign policy and he wanted to exert the growing power of the U.S. in the world arena and make a statement of support for free governments in the Americas.

His second term inauguration speech in 1821 would later become known as the “Monroe Doctrine.” John Quincy Adams helped write the policy which stated that the Americas should be free from future European colonization, and that any interference with independent countries in the Americas would be considered a hostile act toward the United States.

The only foreign capital in the world named after a United States president was founded in 1821. Monrovia, Liberia was a colony established by the American Colonization Society as a destination for freed black Americans. James’s father left him in possession of slaves in 1774 and although he was opposed to slavery, he believed that freeing his slaves was irresponsible. He, like other slave owners had a paternalistic philosophy which resulted in the protection of family units and providing medical care.

He was the last president to dress in the Revolutionary War era style and it earned him the nickname “The Last Cocked Hat.” On New Year’s Day, 1825, at his last annual White House reception he made a pleasing impression upon a Virginia lady who shook his hand: “He is tall and well formed. His dress plain and in the old style…. His manner was quiet and dignified. From the frank, honest expression of his eye … I think he well deserves the encomium passed upon him by the great Jefferson, who said, ‘Monroe was so honest that if you turned his soul inside out there would not be a spot on it.’ “

By the time his two-term presidency ended, James had served his country for 50 years, holding more elected public offices than any president before or after him. He even held two positions in James Madison’s presidential cabinet at the same time (Secretary of State and Secretary of War), the only person in history to have held two cabinet positions at once.

Due to financial hardships he sold Highland Plantation to the Bank of the United States in 1828. In the same year he fell from horseback which increased his ill health. He worked from 1829 until his death on an autobiography, he refused to let attacks on his administration go unanswered. Upon his wife’s death in September of 1830 he moved to New York to live with his daughter, Maria and her husband.

The last of the Founding Fathers died on July 4, 1831, at the age of 73, exactly five years after his fellow presidents and friends Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

On the 100th anniversary of his birth, his body was moved from New York City and re-interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.


Links
James Monroe
James Monroe’s Highland
Monroe Doctrine 1823
13 Facts About Founding Father James Monroe

Videos

Disney The American Presidents: James Monroe
President James Monroe Biography
James Monroe: An American Life
James Monroe Museum
James Monroe Facts and Biography
Books

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness

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James Monroe: The American Presidents Series: The 5th President, 1817-1825

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James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity

http://amzn.to/1rryzRY

Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, The Bill of Rights, and The Election that Saved a Nation

http://amzn.to/1qIkMFP

James Monroe: Fifth President 1817-1825 (Getting to Know the U.S. Presidents

http://amzn.to/1SksCjD

 

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