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James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831)
was the fifth (1817–1825) President of the
United States|President of the United States. He
is the author of the Monroe Doctrine, although his
United States Secretary of State|Secretary of
State, John Quincy Adams, convinced Monroe that
the original statement be expanded, and therefore
softened, so as to be more palatable to the powers
of Europe. There is confusion that Adams conceived
the Doctrine himself, which is not true, although
he did work with Monroe to flesh out the original
concept.

== Early years ==

Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Monroe
attended the school of Campelltown Academy in
Viginia and then attended the College of William
and Mary, fought with distinction in the
Continental Army, and practiced law in
Fredericksburg, Virginia. His father Spence Monroe
(ca. 1727-1774) was a carpenter, joiner, and
modest tobacco planter. He and his wife, Elizabeth
Jones (born ca. 1729) had significant land
holdings, but little money. 

As a youthful politician, he joined the
anti-Federalists in the Virginia Convention which
ratified the Constitution, and in 1790, an
advocate of Jeffersonian policies, was elected
United States Senate|United States Senator. As
Minister to France in 1794-1796, he displayed
strong sympathies for the French cause; later,
with Robert R. Livingston and under the direction
of President Thomas Jefferson, he helped negotiate
the Louisiana Purchase.

== Presidency ==

Following the War of 1812, Monroe was elected
president in the U.S. presidential election,
1816|election of 1816, and U.S. presidential
election, 1820|re-elected in 1820. Monroe, the
last American Revolutionary War veteran to serve
as president, was almost uncontested in his two
elections.



Monroe made 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. Both of
these individuals are considered outstanding
leaders of their time.

Monroe's presidency was later labeled "The Era of
Good Feelings", in part because partisan politics
were almost nonexistent. The United States
Federalist Party|Federalist Party had died out,
and the rift between the United States Democratic
Party|Democratic Party and the United States Whig
Party|Whig Party had not yet happened. Practically
every politician belonged to the United States
Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republican
Party.

Unfortunately these "good feelings" did not
endure, although Monroe, his popularity
undiminished, followed nationalist policies.
Across the facade of nationalism, ugly sectional
cracks appeared. A painful economic depression
undoubtedly increased the dismay of the people of
the Missouri Territory in 1819 when their
application for admission to the Union as a slave
state failed. An amended bill for gradually
eliminating slavery in Missouri precipitated two
years of bitter debate in Congress. 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. 

Monroe is probably best known for the Monroe
Doctrine, which he delivered in his message to
Congress on December 2, 1823. In it, he proclaimed
the Americas should be free from future European
colonization and free from European interference
in sovereign countries' affairs. It further stated
the United States's intention to stay neutral in
European wars and wars between European powers and
their colonies but to consider any new colonies or
interference with independent countries in the
Americas as hostile acts toward the United States.
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. 

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland|United Kingdom, with its powerful navy,
also opposed reconquest of Latin America and
suggested that the United States join in
proclaiming "hands off." Ex-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's 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.

==Post-Presidency==

Upon leaving the White House after Monroe's
presidency expired on March 4, 1825, James Monroe
had racked up debts over the years of public life.
As a result, he was forced to sell off his
Highland plantation (now known as Ash
Lawn-Highland) to pay off the debts, since then he
never financially recovered, his wife's poor
health made matters worse. As a result, he and his
wife Elizabeth Kortright Monroe|Elizabeth lived in
Oak Hill until Elizabeth's death on September 23,
1830. Upon Elizabeth's death, Monroe moved to live
with his daughter Maria Hester Monroe Gouverneur
in New York City and died there peacefully from
heart failure and tuberculosis on July 4, 1831; 55
years after the Declaration of Independence
(United States)|Declaration of Independence was
proclaimed and 5 years after the death of
Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. He was
originally buried in New York but, in 1858 he was
reinterred in the Hollywood Cemetery at Richmond,
Virginia.

==Cabinet==



{| cellpadding="1" cellspacing="4"
style="margin:3px; border:3px solid #000000;"
align="left"
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|OFFICE||align="left"|NAME||align="le
ft"|TERM
|-
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|President of the United
States|President||align="left" |James
Monroe||align="left"|1817–1825
|-
|align="left"|Vice President of the United
States|Vice President||align="left"|Daniel
Tompkins||align="left"|1817–1825
|-
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
State|Secretary of State||align="left"|John Quincy
Adams||align="left"|1817–1825
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of the
Treasury|Secretary of the
Treasury||align="left"|William H.
Crawford||align="left"|1817–1825
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
War|Secretary of War||align="left"|George Graham
(soldier)|George Graham (ad
interim)||align="left"|1817
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|John C.
Calhoun||align="left"|1817–1825
|-
|align="left"|Attorney General of the United
States|Attorney General||align="left"|Richard
Rush||align="left"|1817
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|William
Wirt||align="left"|1817–1825
|-
|align="left"|Postmaster General of the United
States|Postmaster General||align="left"|Return
Meigs||align="left"|1817–1823
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|John
McLean||align="left"|1823–1825
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of the
Navy|Secretary of the Navy||align="left"|Benjamin
Crowninshield||align="left"|1817–1818
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|John C.
Calhoun||align="left"|1818–1819
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Smith
Thompson||align="left"|1819–1823
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Samuel L.
Southard||align="left"|1823–1825
|-
|}



== Supreme Court appointments ==
Monroe appointed the following Justices to the
Supreme Court of the United States:

* Smith Thompson - 1823

== States Admitted to the Union ==
* Mississippi – December 10, 1817
* Illinois – December 3, 1818
* Alabama – December 14, 1819
* Maine – March 15, 1820
* Missouri – August 10, 1821

==Trivia==
Monroe remains the only president to have held two
Cabinet secretary positions. He served as
Secretary of State and Secretary of War under
James Madison.

== See also ==
* U.S. presidential election, 1816
* U.S. presidential election, 1820
* List of places named for James Monroe
* Oak Hill (plantation)|Oak Hill Plantation
* American Colonization Society

== External links ==
*http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/monroe
pa.htm The Papers of James Monroe at the Avalon
Project (includes Inaugural Addresses and other
materials)
*http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Monroe.
html Monroe Doctrine and related resources at the
Library of Congress
*http://www.algerclan.org/cgi-bin/igmget.cgi/n=Alg
er?I8949 A genealogical profile of the President
*http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jm5.
html White House Biography

start box
succession box | title=List of United States
Senators from Virginia|United States Senator from
Virginia | before=John Walker | after=Stevens T.
Mason | years=1790–1794
succession box | title=U.S. Minister
Plenipotentiary to France | before=Gouverneur
Morris | after=Charles Cotesworth Pinckney |
years=1794–1796

succession box | title=Governor of Virginia |
before=John Tyler, Sr. | after=George William
Smith | years=1811
succession box | title=United States Secretary of
State | before=Robert Smith (U.S.
politician)|Robert Smith | after=John Quincy Adams
| years=April 2, 1811 – September 30,
1814;
February 28, 1815 – March 4, 1817

succession box | title=United States Secretary of
War | before=John Armstrong, Jr. | after=William
H. Crawford | years=1814–1815

succession box | title=Democratic-Republican Party
(United States)|Republican Party President of the
United States|Presidential candidate| before=James
Madison | after=John Quincy Adams,
Henry
Clay,
William Harris Crawford,
Andrew
Jackson (a)| years=U.S. presidential
election, 1816|1816 (won), U.S. presidential
election, 1820|1820 (won)

succession box | title=President of the United
States | before=James Madison | after=John Quincy
Adams | years=March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1825

succession footnote| marker=(a)|
footnote=The Democratic-Republican Party (United
States)|Republican Party split in 1824, fielding
four separate candidates.

end box

start box
USpresidents | before=James Madison|Madison |
after=John Quincy Adams|J.Q. Adams|
years=1817–1825

end box

USSecState