James Monroe, it turns out, was a total blank in my memory department. Except for the famous “Monroe Doctrine,” (which I couldn’t remember that much about), he was a complete enigma. Of course, after reading about four other presidents, I was surprised to see Monroe popping up pretty continuously and it made me wonder how I could have missed him before. He’s actually present through the entire thing…the Revolution, the new nation, the government, the Presidency. Wow. He was a Founding Father that I didn’t even really know existed! Who was this diamond in the rough anyways? In anticipation, I went to the library and got The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger (Da Capo Press: Philadelphia, 2009). It was newly published, not too long (around the mid-300s mark), and had gotten decent reviews on Amazon. Everything checked out. Beginning to read, I was hoping to see what colonial America was like to James Monroe, our fifth President.
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nd then I had to stop reading. In the prologue alone, I learned that the author not only thought Monroe was the Greatest President Ever but maybe the Greatest Man Ever. It was like man-love times one hundred. Ugh! According to Unger, all the other presidents up to that point (except Washington, apparently) were chopped liver when compared to the incomparable and brilliant Mr. Monroe! “Washington’s three successors—John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison—were mere caretaker presidents who left the nation bankrupt, its people deeply divided, its borders under attack, its capital city in ashes” (p. 2) Yes, this was page 2. While I was not crazy about Adams, Jefferson or Madison, this bold statement by Unger really annoyed me. I’ve read about those presidents and though they had many issues, they weren’t that bad! Even Elizabeth Monroe was highlighted by Unger’s discriminating pen. “All but unknown to most Americans, Elizabeth Monroe was America’s most beautiful and most courageous First Lady” (p. 4) Did he just say that?? All in all, I found the prologue nauseating and hoped the rest of the book would be better.
It wasn’t. I will discuss the tone of the book later (and believe me, I have puh-lenty of ammo) but for right now, I’ll focus, just like Harlow Giles Unger, on James Monroe. But I have to laugh because this is how the first chapter begins “The world was awash with war when James Monroe was born in the spring of 1758” (p. 7). That sort of overdramatic crap simply oozes throughout the book and makes reading extremely difficult. What the author meant by Monroe’s world being “awash in war” was that he was born during the French and Indian War and the area in which he was born was affected by it. James was born to a middle-class family on a small farm in Virginia, where his father kept the family afloat by providing extra work in carpentry and building. James started school at the age of 11 and was 14 when his mother and father died, leaving him, the oldest son, to care for his four siblings. Thankfully there was a wealthy uncle, Joseph Jones, in the picture to take over some of the family responsibilities. With his uncle’s aid, Monroe was able to attend William and Mary to study law which was cut short when he enlisted in the Continental Army.
He was a part of the action in New York, apparently routing the British almost singlehandedly. Because of the Virginia sharpshooters, “for the first time in the war, American soldiers saw British troops fall and run. Monroe and the Virginians let out a cheer and left the encounter with a newfound swagger. The quiet boy from Monroe Creek had found his voice” (p. 23) The victory was short-lived however with a general retreat across New Jersey for the Continental army but Monroe reappeared, crossing the Delaware with Washington to land a surprise attack on the British in Trenton, NJ. Monroe was shot which left him “on the ground dying in pool of his own blood” (p. 26) but he was saved. He was promoted to Captain and an aide to Lord Stirling, where he became friends with Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette. During the Battle of Brandywine, Monroe proved extremely valuable. “Instead of firing at one or two enemy soldiers on the front line, he changed the tide of battle—maybe even the war—standing at the rear with his general, ready to ride through a hail of fire with messages and orders to and from brigade commanders or the commander in chief, shifting positions of large bodies of men” (p.28) Sheesh…that’s a lot of words basically telling us that Monroe did not actually fight in the battle but gallantly held up the rear. The Battle of Monmouth was next and would be Monroe’s last military engagement of the war.
Even though the war was still raging, he returned to William and Mary to finish his degree and, in the process, became a protégé of Governor Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson appointed Monroe a colonel in the Virginia militia, giving him duties that set up a network of communication between the states. This network doesn’t seem to have helped Virginia though because a few months later the British sacked and burned the capital at Richmond.
Once the war ended, Monroe decided to join the General Assembly in Virginia, thus beginning his long political career, and almost simultaneously, was admitted to the bar. Despite these blessings, financial problems beset him, causing him to sell the farm where he grew up. It must be noted here that a lot of people were having financial troubles during this time. You see, under the Articles of Confederation, each state was able to issue its own currency, which either made currency scarce or caused serious inflation. Monroe was land-rich but money-poor.
After his stint was up with the General Assembly, Monroe was voted to Congress, where almost penniless, he moved up in with Jefferson at Annapolis. Monroe stepped out early as a champion of western expansion and the rights of the United States to western Americans. “Although he failed to score any victories in Congress, his became one of the most prominent—and ominous—voices in the nation, expostulating on issues that few state leaders had dared to face” (p. 59). In the meantime, Congress moved on up to New York City and we come to one of the “great—yet little known—love stories in early American history” (p. 4).
“The New York-born daughter of British Army Captain Lawrence Kortright, Elizabeth Kortright was stunning—a natural beauty, superbly educated, a gifted artist and musician” (p. 61). Of this “great” love story, Unger doesn’t tell us much. Monroe met Elizabeth at the wedding of Elbridge Gerry and although she was a decade younger than he, they were soon married in New York. Because he was so poor, Monroe decided to retire from public life (it didn’t pay very much) and take his new wife down to the small house purchased by his uncle in Fredericksburg, Virginia to resume his pursuit of the law. He was able to establish a lucrative law practice which was just as well, since Elizabeth gave birth to their first child, Eliza.
The new Constitution of the United States was ratified in Virginia in 1788 (opposed by Monroe) and soon after, James Madison beat Monroe in the first ever election to the House of Representatives. Monroe, instead, was elected as a Senator from Virginia and the whole family moved to Philadelphia, where the US government was stationed. Unfortunately, Unger takes this moment to give us an idea of what this would mean for Elizabeth. “She fretted that fashion trends might have passed her by and outmoded her wardrobe, but her doting husband reassured her that her beauty alone would make her the most elegant lady in Philadelphia” (p. 87). I sincerely hope that Mrs. Monroe was not too embarrassed in her old clothes.
The beginning of the French Revolution and the subsequent war between England and France forced President Washington to reevaluate each alliance and declare the United States neutral. To make American neutrality more palatable, Washington appointed James Monroe, an avowed Francophile, ambassador to France. The entire Monroe clan was excited that their new home would be in gay Paree, forgetful of the fact that a Reign of Terror was presently being carried out on that soil. Still James, Elizabeth, and little Eliza made the journey and were soon settled in the French capital. Monroe was able to use some of his popularity to see to the release of Adrienne de Lafayette (wife of the Marquis) from prison. This act would engender the good will of the Lafayettes towards the Monroes for the rest of their lives. After Jay’s Treaty (ending hostilities with England) was signed, the French bonhomie evaporated and Monroe found himself returning to the United States in some indignity. “Racked by anger and bitterness, he felt he had been deceived by two secretaries of state [Randolph and Pickering] and abandoned by the president he had revered since his boyhood [Washington]” (p. 126). But when Monroe got home, the presidency had already changed with John Adams heading up the government.
He decided to take up law again.
In 1799, Monroe was elected governor of Virginia, where he went about revamping the governor’s role in the state’s politics. He did such a good job at it (introducing a ‘state-of-the-state address’ and destroying slave rebellions) that he was reelected three times. “He now stood as America’s most brilliant state leader, having transformed the Virginia governorship into the state’s most powerful office and metamorphosed into the nations second-most-influential figure—one of two heirs apparent to President Jefferson” (p. 145). In 1802, war again loomed on the horizon and Jefferson turned to his friend, Monroe, to become a special commissioner to France. He was given instructions that he should purchase New Orleans and let the powers of Europe know that the United States was to be giving free right of trade on the Mississippi River.
Back in France, Monroe worked with American ambassador, Robert Livingston, on the possible sale of New Orleans. However, Napoleon had other plans. Frustrated with the decimation of his plans to conquer the US through New Orleans, he badly needed money and on impulse, asked if the US was willing to buy the “whole of Louisiana” (p. 159). “Three weeks after the Monroes reached Paris, Monroe and Livingston, all but ripped up their instructions and signed an agreement with Barbe-Marbois, transferring French sovereignty over Louisiana to the United States” (p. 163).
Back in the United States, Jefferson’s Embargo Act had just gone into effect and the whole nation was in an uproar. Monroe, again bitter and angry over the way his affairs were handled in Europe, decided at once to challenge James Madison in the 1808 presidential elections. His lack of money, however, made the whole idea totally unsuitable and he failed to win the nomination while James Madison indeed went on to become the President. This failure caused Monroe to retire to his house in the Virginia countryside, where he decided to become a gentleman farmer and somehow erase his debt. Gentleman farming wasn’t all it was cracked up to be so Monroe jumped at the chance to be governor of Virginia once again.
When it rains, it pours. Soon after Monroe was established as the new governor, Madison sent him a proposal where he was invited to be the very coveted Secretary of State in Madison’s cabinet. With seeming humility, Monroe accepted the high office and moved his family to the new capital, Washington City (soon to be Washington DC). His duties included meeting with the French and British ambassadors about the war in Europe, the impressment of American ships and sailors, and the closure of European ports to American goods. The situation between the US and Great Britain steadily worsened, culminating in a declaration of war on April 1, 1812, which left the United States in a precarious position—you see, the nation wasn’t ready. The army and navy were pitifully small, the United States government had no power to tax the people nor was there a Bank of the United States in which to draw funds from. Plus sections of the American population were adamantly opposed to the war, mainly in New England where trade would be affected.
Defeats followed on land but the tiny United States navy prevented a general loss with a few important wins at sea. British ships began raiding the area around the Chesapeake even going so far as to burn Alexandria, directly downriver from Washington City. The Secretary of War, Brigadier General John Armstrong, was convinced that Washington City would never be a target of the British, focusing instead head for Baltimore. His tunnel vision would lead to the capture and burning of Washington on August 24, 1814. Monroe, during these days, worked overtime and was everywhere trying to help. This next quote is classic. “He set up a camp cot to let him sleep on the job, but he never slept on the job” (p. 247) Clearly James Monroe was an early version of Chuck Norris. “He was everywhere, immersing himself in every detail of the city’s defense; all but hauling logs into the breastworks himself. He was an inspiring presence that rallied citizen spirits—bound the best of them as one to save their city from further assault” (p. 247). It just keeps getting better.
Unger allows us to assume that since Madison was a broken man after this and the rest of the American population were more akin to chickens with their heads cut off, that it was Monroe’s sheer willpower that kept total chaos from ensuing. Without his help, though, the American commissioners in Europe concluded the Treaty of Ghent with the British that upheld the status quo ante bellum (meaning that everything went back to the way it was before the war). Also without Monroe’s help, General Jackson and his rag tag army of Americans absolutely mauled the British at the Battle of New Orleans, killing over 2,000 British troops.
“The war quickly became a distant memory, as Americans happily embraced the greatest peacetime prosperity they had experienced in the more than thirty-two years since victory at Yorktown” (p. 255). Monroe then ran for President in the 1816 elections and won in a pretty hefty victory, becoming the fifth President of the United States of America. His first term began innocuously enough. Termed the “Era of Good Feelings” by a New England newspaper, Monroe was able to unite the Federalists and Republicans together for the first time. With this end in mind, Monroe decided to emulate Washington and take a tour of the nation, beginning in New England. Everything was going so well that he even abolished taxes! National improvements began with new roads and even a canal near Erie, PA. James Monroe was reelected to the presidency in a nearly unanimous decision. But this unlimited prosperity was already dying.
Two major issues occurred that contributed to the demise of the “Era of Good Feelings.” “Early in 1819, however, the nation’s first financial panic introduced some decidedly ill feelings into the Era of Good Feelings” (p.296). The Panic of 1819 was the first wedge that occurred during Monroe’s administration. The Panic was induced by a land speculation “bubble,” where investors bought and sold land in return for bank notes. However, no one checked whether the land that was sold was actually theirs to sell or not. These fraudulent land sales induced the US Government to demand that the banks back the paper notes that they were giving out, which in turn lead to thousands of bank closings and to thousands of people losing their savings.
Secondly, with the advent of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, the biggest national export became cotton and the reliance on slavery increased. Slavery might have died a natural death but cotton did not need skilled workers to grow it—any five-year-old could pick it. Thus, the issue of slavery became a very big deal and no more so then when Missouri, in 1819, asked to become a state. The crisis was averted with the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which stated that Missouri could be admitted as a slave state as long as Maine was admitted as a free state…oh and all future states below the 36/30 latitude line would be slave states, henceforth.
More bad news for Monroe was a-coming. The Secretary of the Treasury read the figures wrong and instead of a surplus, the country had a very big deficit instead. Also when he brought harmony between the political parties, Monroe was basically shooting himself in the foot. “In effect, Monroe had created political anarchy and, in doing so, he not only rendered himself politically impotent, he permitted new divisions based on personal political ambitions to form between political leaders” (p. 310). His cabinet also began to fight amongst itself while new South American countries were clamoring for recognition even while the European nations were trying to win them back. In the midst of all this though, Monroe, with the help of his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, was able to announce to Congress and to the world that the Western Hemisphere was off limits to the European powers and the United States would forcibly step in should this warning be disregarded. The famous “Monroe Doctrine” had arrived.
Monroe stepped down as President after two terms, with John Quincy Adams winning the presidency in the heated 1824 election. Monroe then moved his family back to his estate in Virginia, Oak Hill, in preparation for his retirement, only then realizing that his financial issues had never been resolved and were still waiting for him. He had to sell his other Virginian farm, some land in Kentucky, and he also had to ask Congress for all the back pay that was owed him from his diplomatic missions. He was elected to the Virginia constitutional convention which he attended with both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison but he was forced to resign due to ill health and the death of his wife, Elizabeth, in September 1829. He collapsed soon afterwards and had to be taken to New York City to live with his oldest daughter, Eliza. He died there at 73 years of age on July 4, 1831.
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