PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE--THE MAN OF DOCTRINE

By Edwin Cooney

Today, April 28, 2008, is the two-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of James Monroe--our fifth president. The only thing most Americans know about him is that he was the president who issued the “Monroe Doctrine” in 1823 that has ever since been the cornerstone of American Foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere.

The dictionary offers several definitions of the word doctrine. The most relevant one is: “A statement of fundamental government principle especially in the area of international affairs”.

The Monroe Doctrine forbids all European powers to engage in future colonization in the Western Hemisphere. Hence, since the public issuance of that doctrine in his annual message to Congress (now called the President’s State of the Union address) in December of 1823, James Monroe’s name has been permanently linked to the United States determination to protect the sovereignty of all nations in both North and South America.

Born to Spence and Elizabeth Jones Monroe of Westmoreland County, Virginia, James Monroe grew up on a Virginia plantation with his older sister Elizabeth and three brothers, Andrew, Spence and Joseph. In March 1776, Monroe left William and Mary College to join a Virginia regiment of George Washington’s Continental Army. Once the regiment was sufficiently trained, it joined the main army in New York where it fought the Battle of White Plains that September.

Temporarily abandoning New York City to the British, Washington retreated inland with his army. Monroe was with General Washington that frigid Christmas night in 1776 when, under the protection of darkness, the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River to attack British forces encamped at Trenton, New Jersey.

The attack, which surprised a combination of British and Hessian forces who were drunk with “Christmas cheer,” was successful, but the charge which young Monroe led on a cannon emplacement nearly cost Monroe his life. Hit in a shoulder by a musket ball, he had to be carried from the battlefield and might have bled to death if it had not been for the services of a Dr. Riker who had just joined the army.

By December 1778, Monroe had decided to return to Virginia to see if he could recruit enough men to fashion a regiment of his own. Although he failed to do that, in 1780 Governor Thomas Jefferson appointed him a Virginia military commissioner with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. By 1782, young Monroe was in the State Assembly and, by age 27 in 1785, was in the national Congress under the Articles of Confederation.

By 1786, the tall, handsome Monroe, a man who stood slightly over six feet with a large frame, broad shoulders, wide blue-gray eyes, a high forehead, a large nose and dimpled chin, had captured the affections of a New York City born statuesque raven-haired beauty by the name of Elizabeth Kortright. He married her that February 16th and they would ultimately have two daughters, Eliza and Maria.

Although he was one of those Virginians who opposed adoption of the newly drafted constitution, Monroe soon came around to wholehearted acceptance of it once it was ratified. In the fall of 1788, he ran for Congress in a friendly contest with one of his neighbors, James Madison, and lost the race to Madison by a mere three hundred votes. Thus, Madison and Monroe are the only two presidents to have run against one another for an office which wasn’t that of President of the United States.

From 1790 to 1794, Monroe, then in his early thirties, represented Virginia in the U.S. Senate. In late 1794, President Washington sent Monroe to Paris to represent our government. We had declared our neutrality in the war that was then being fought between France and Britain. Monroe, like Jefferson and Madison, favored the French to the British. He lavished such praise on the French government during the speech he made presenting his credentials that he was rebuked in a later message from Secretary of State Timothy Pickering.

Young Monroe’s relationship with President Washington wasn’t aided when Thomas Paine, whom Minister Monroe helped get released from a French Revolutionary prison, publicly blasted President Washington once he was free. (You’ll recall that Thomas Paine was the author of that great patriotic book Common Sense, which had so inspired the colonists’ struggle for independence from Great Britain.) Paine, who had been arrested for publicly opposing France’s execution of King Louis XVI, blamed Washington’s neutrality policy for his prolonged imprisonment by the French government. Once President Washington determined that Minister Monroe wasn’t sufficiently defending our neutrality policy with sufficient vigor to the French government, he recalled Minister Monroe. Undoubtedly, President Washington, now retired, realized that Monroe was bitter when he failed to pay a courtesy call to Mount Vernon on his way back to his own plantation Oak Hill. The two men were never again friendly.

His many accomplishments included serving as Governor of Virginia from 1799 to 1803, Envoy to France (where, along with Robert Livingston, he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon early in 1803), Minister to Britain from 1803 to 1807, and, once again, serving as the Governor of Virginia from January until March 1811. These experiences led to his appointment as Secretary of State under President James Madison in April 1811.

Monroe’s tenure as Secretary of State would be dominated by the War of 1812. The war would see British forces invade Washington D.C. and set fire to both the Executive Mansion and the Capitol Building. While Dolley Madison was saving George Washington’s portrait, James Monroe was saving government documents (including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution) by ordering their removal to a safe place in Virginia. For a time during the war, Monroe served as both Secretary of State and Secretary of War.

By 1816, although there was some pressure to allow someone other than a Virginian to occupy the presidency, there was widespread agreement among Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans, that James Monroe was the right man to replace the retiring Madison. So, losing only three states to Federalist candidate Rufus King of New York, he was elected President.

James Monroe entered the presidency during what the Boston Sentinel termed “The Era of Good Feelings”. The old Federalist Party had been absorbed by the “National Democratic Party” of which the warm and amiable Monroe was the unchallenged head.

Accomplishments of the Monroe administration during the president’s two terms (1817 -- 1825) include:

--The Settlement of boundary lines between Canada and the United States;
--Victory in the first Seminole War which led to the Adams-Onis Treaty in which Spanish Florida was purchased by the United States;
--Passage of the Missouri Compromise which allowed for the admission of a slave state and a free state during American westward expansion and also banned slavery in the Louisiana territory above 36° 30’ latitude;
--The establishment of Liberia by the American Colonization Society for the population of freed blacks which included a capital called Monrovia to honor President Monroe.

Then, of course, there was Monroe’s nearly unanimous 1820 reelection.

The Monroe Doctrine was, ultimately, the lasting achievement of James Monroe’s administration. Although many are quick to point out that John Quincy Adams was its architect, it should also be noted that presidents, not state secretaries, assume blame or credit for actions of their administrations.

James Monroe was generally regarded as a warm, patient man with a special capacity to put people at ease. Although not brilliant and often charged with being easily manipulated by those of stronger will, he was seen by others as generally wise in the decisions he made once he’d carefully considered all aspects of a problem. President Monroe, however, holds the rather dubious distinction of being the only president to have been physically assaulted by a frustrated cabinet member: Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford. Crawford was politically ambitious, a very capable administrator, and on the verge of a stroke which would end all ambitions. He became frustrated with Monroe’s slowness or unwillingness to approve some of Crawford’s patronage appointments and raised his cane during an Executive Mansion meeting late in President Monroe’s second term. Once the incident was over and Crawford had duly apologized, the two men shook hands.

The Monroe family was unpretentious and private. When James and Elizabeth Monroe’s youngest daughter became the first presidential daughter to be married in the Executive Mansion, only forty-two guests were invited, most of who consisted of family members and close friends.

On March 4, 1825, the Monroe Administration came to an end. However, the Monroe family, with the undoubted hospitality of the newly elected John Quincy Adams, remained at the Executive Mansion for three weeks due to Mrs. Monroe’s delicate health. The nature of Mrs. Monroe’s health problem has never been revealed, but the year following their return to Oak Hill, Virginia, Elizabeth Monroe collapsed into the fireplace sustaining extensive burns. She lived until September of 1830. Upon her passing, the former president moved to New York City to live with daughter Maria and her husband.

On Monday, July 4th, 1831 at about 3 p.m., James Monroe became the third of our first five presidents to die on our national birthday. Just five years previously, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had died within hours of each other on the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress.

James Monroe, like his fellow countrymen, was weaned a British subject and like them he changed. He lived simply and worked conscientiously. His “Doctrine” for protecting the sovereignty of other nations set America’s agenda for generations to come. Who could have done more?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY