118 Facts About President Monroe

James Monroe was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825.

President Monroe is perhaps best known for issuing the Monroe Doctrine, a policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas while effectively asserting US dominance, empire, and hegemony in the hemisphere.

President Monroe served as governor of Virginia, a member of the United States Senate, US ambassador to France and Britain, the seventh Secretary of State, and the eighth Secretary of War.

President Monroe left the Senate in 1794 to serve as President George Washington's ambassador to France but was recalled by Washington in 1796.

President Monroe unsuccessfully challenged Madison for the Democratic-Republican nomination in the 1808 presidential election, but in 1811 he joined Madison's administration as Secretary of State.

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President Monroe's presidency was concurrent with the Era of Good Feelings.

In 1823, President Monroe announced the United States' opposition to any European intervention in the recently independent countries of the Americas with the President Monroe Doctrine, which became a landmark in American foreign policy.

President Monroe was a member of the American Colonization Society, which supported the colonization of Africa by freed slaves, and Liberia's capital of Monrovia is named in his honor.

President Monroe's father Spence Monroe was a moderately prosperous planter and slave owner who practiced carpentry.

President Monroe's mother was the daughter of James Jones, who immigrated from Wales and settled in nearby King George County, Virginia.

Also among James President Monroe's ancestors were French Huguenot immigrants, who came to Virginia in 1700.

At age 11, President Monroe was enrolled in Campbelltown Academy, the lone school in the county.

President Monroe attended this school only 11 weeks a year, as his labor was needed on the farm.

President Monroe's mother died in 1772, and his father two years later.

President Monroe became involved in the opposition to Lord Dunmore, the colonial governor of Virginia, and took part in the storming of the Governor's Palace.

In early 1776, about a year and a half after his enrollment, President Monroe dropped out of college and joined the 3rd Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army.

President Monroe was assigned to the staff of General William Alexander, Lord Stirling.

On Jones's advice, President Monroe returned to Williamsburg to study law, becoming a protege of Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson.

President Monroe established a messenger network to coordinate with the Continental Army and other state militias.

Still unable to raise an army due to a lack of interested recruits, President Monroe traveled to his home in King George County, and thus was not present for the British raid of Richmond.

President Monroe resumed studying law under Jefferson and continued until 1783.

President Monroe was not particularly interested in legal theory or practice, but chose to take it up because he thought it offered "the most immediate rewards" and could ease his path to wealth, social standing, and political influence.

President Monroe was admitted to the Virginia bar and practiced in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

President Monroe was the daughter of Hannah Aspinwall Kortright and Laurence Kortright, a wealthy trader and former British officer.

President Monroe sold his small Virginia plantation in 1783 to enter law and politics.

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President Monroe incurred debts by his lavish and expensive lifestyle and often sold property to pay them off.

President Monroe believed that slavery had become a permanent part of southern life, and that it could only be removed on providential terms.

President Monroe feared for public safety in the United States during the era of violent revolution on two fronts.

President Monroe was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1782.

President Monroe had served a total of three years when he finally retired from that office by the rule of rotation.

In 1784, President Monroe undertook an extensive trip through Western New York and Pennsylvania to inspect the conditions in the Northwest.

President Monroe resigned from Congress in 1786 to focus on his legal career, and he became an attorney for the state.

In 1787, President Monroe won election to another term in the Virginia House of Delegates.

In 1788, President Monroe became a delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention.

Henry recruited President Monroe to run against Madison for a House seat in the First Congress, and he had the Virginia legislature draw a congressional district designed to elect President Monroe.

President Monroe stood firmly with Jefferson in opposing Hamilton's strong central government and strong executive.

The Democratic-Republican Party coalesced around Jefferson and Madison, and President Monroe became one of the fledgling party's leaders in the Senate.

President Monroe helped organize opposition to John Adams in the 1792election, though Adams defeated George Clinton to win re-election as vice president.

President Monroe experienced several early diplomatic successes, including the protection of US trade from French attacks.

President Monroe used his influence to win the release of Thomas Paine and Adrienne de La Fayette, the wife of the Marquis de Lafayette.

Months after President Monroe arrived in France, the US and Great Britain concluded the Jay Treaty, outraging both the French and President Monroe—not fully informed about the treaty prior to its publication.

Washington decided President Monroe was inefficient, disruptive, and failed to safeguard the national interest.

Jefferson and Madison urged President Monroe to run for Congress, but President Monroe chose to focus on state politics instead.

In 1798 President Monroe published A View of the Conduct of the Executive, in the Foreign Affairs of the United States: Connected with the Mission to the French Republic, During the Years 1794,5, and 6.

President Monroe followed the advice of his friend Robert Livingston who cautioned him to "repress every harsh and acrimonious" comment about Washington.

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The investigators immediately dropped the matter, and President Monroe promised Hamilton he would keep the matter private.

President Monroe added that interview to his notes, and sent the entire set to a friend, possibly Thomas Jefferson, for safekeeping.

Five years later, shortly after President Monroe was recalled from France, Callender published accusations against Hamilton based on those notes.

President Monroe began to give State of the Commonwealth addresses to the legislature, in which he highlighted areas in which he believed the legislature should act.

President Monroe led an effort to create the state's first penitentiary, and imprisonment replaced other, often harsher, punishments.

In 1800, President Monroe called out the state militia to suppress Gabriel's Rebellion, a slave rebellion originating on a plantation six miles from the capital of Richmond.

Federalists were likewise suspicious of President Monroe, some viewing him at best as a French dupe and at worst a traitor.

President Monroe considered using the Virginia militia to force the outcome in favor of Jefferson.

Shortly after the end of Monroe's gubernatorial tenure, President Jefferson sent Monroe back to France to assist Ambassador Robert R Livingston in negotiating the Louisiana Purchase.

Many of the sailors they impressed had never been British subjects, and President Monroe was tasked with persuading the British to stop their practice of impressment.

President Monroe found little success in this endeavor, partly due to Jefferson's alienation of the British minister to the United States, Anthony Merry.

President Monroe was severely pained by the administration's repudiation of the treaty, and he fell out with Secretary of State James Madison.

On his return to Virginia in 1807, Monroe received a warm reception, and many urged him to run in the 1808 presidential election.

Out of deference to Jefferson, President Monroe agreed to avoid actively campaigning for the presidency, but he did not rule out accepting a draft effort.

President Monroe did not publicly criticize Jefferson or Madison during Madison's campaign against Federalist Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, but he refused to support Madison.

President Monroe won 3,400 votes in Virginia, but received little support elsewhere.

President Monroe returned to the Virginia House of Burgesses and was elected to another term as governor in 1811, but served only four months.

Madison hoped that President Monroe, an experienced diplomat with whom he had once been close friends, would improve upon the performance of the previous Secretary of State, Robert Smith.

On taking office, President Monroe hoped to negotiate treaties with the British and French to end the attacks on American merchant ships.

President Monroe had long worked for peace with the British, but he came to favor war with Britain, joining with "war hawks" such as Speaker of the House Henry Clay.

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The US Navy did experience several successes after President Monroe convinced Madison to allow the Navy's ships to set sail rather than remaining in port for the duration of the war.

President Monroe allowed Adams leeway in setting terms, so long as he ended the hostilities and preserved American neutrality.

President Monroe resigned as Secretary of State on October 1,1814, but no successor was ever appointed and thus from October 1814 to February 28,1815, President Monroe effectively held both Cabinet posts.

Now in command of the war effort, President Monroe ordered General Andrew Jackson to defend against a likely attack on New Orleans by the British, and he asked the governors of nearby states to send their militias to reinforce Jackson.

President Monroe called on Congress to draft an army of 100,000 men, increase compensation to soldiers, and establish a new national bank to ensure adequate funding for the war effort.

Months after President Monroe took office as Secretary of War, the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.

President Monroe decided to seek the presidency in the 1816 election, and his war-time leadership had established him as Madison's heir apparent.

President Monroe had strong support from many in the party, but his candidacy was challenged at the 1816 Democratic-Republican congressional nominating caucus.

President Monroe received 183 of the 217 electoral votes, winning every state but Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware.

President Monroe largely ignored old party lines in making federal appointments, which reduced political tensions and augmented the sense of "oneness" that pervaded the United States.

President Monroe made two long national tours to build national trust.

President Monroe appointed a geographically balanced cabinet, through which he led the executive branch.

President Monroe chose to retain Benjamin Crowninshield of Massachusetts as Secretary of the Navy and Richard Rush of Pennsylvania as Attorney General.

An experienced diplomat, Adams had abandoned the Federalist Party in 1807 in support of Thomas Jefferson's foreign policy, and President Monroe hoped that the appointment would encourage the defection of more Federalists.

President Monroe believed that the young nation needed an improved infrastructure, including a transportation network to grow and thrive economically, but did not think that the Constitution authorized Congress to build, maintain, and operate a national transportation system.

President Monroe repeatedly urged Congress to pass an amendment allowing Congress the power to finance internal improvements, but Congress never acted on his proposal, in part because many congressmen believed that the Constitution did in fact authorize the federal financing of internal improvements.

Two years into his presidency, President Monroe faced an economic crisis known as the Panic of 1819, the first major depression to hit the country since the ratification of the Constitution in 1788.

President Monroe lacked the power to intervene directly in the economy, as banks were largely regulated by the states, and he could do little to stem the economic crisis.

When Congress finally reconvened in December 1819, President Monroe requested an increase in the tariff but declined to recommend specific rates.

President Monroe expanded trade and pacified relations with Great Britain while expanding the United States at the expense of the Spanish Empire, from which he obtained Florida and the recognition of a border across the continent.

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President Monroe pursued warmer relations with Britain in the aftermath of the War of 1812.

President Monroe was deeply sympathetic to the Latin American revolutionary movements against Spain.

President Monroe was determined that the United States should never repeat the policies of the Washington administration during the French Revolution, when the nation had failed to demonstrate its sympathy for the aspirations of peoples seeking to establish republican governments.

President Monroe did not envisage military involvement in Latin American affairs, but only the provision of moral support, as he believed that a direct American intervention would provoke other European powers into assisting Spain.

President Monroe initially refused to recognize the Latin American governments due to ongoing negotiations with Spain over Florida.

In March 1822, President Monroe officially recognized the countries of Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico, all of which had won independence from Spain.

Secretary of State Adams, under President Monroe's supervision, wrote the instructions for the ministers to these new countries.

President Monroe took pride as the United States was the first nation to extend recognition and to set an example to the rest of the world for its support of the "cause of liberty and humanity".

President Monroe argued that the British were not committed to recognizing the Latin American republics and must have had imperial motivations themselves.

President Monroe first reiterated the traditional US policy of neutrality with regard to European wars and conflicts.

President Monroe then declared that the United States would not accept the recolonization of any country by its former European master, though he avowed non-interference with existing European colonies in the Americas.

When his presidency ended on March 4,1825, James President Monroe resided at President Monroe Hill, what is included in the grounds of the University of Virginia.

President Monroe served on the university's Board of Visitors under Jefferson and under the second rector James Madison, both former presidents, almost until his death.

President Monroe incurred many unliquidated debts during his years of public life.

President Monroe was one of four delegates elected from the senatorial district made up of his home district of Loudoun and Fairfax County.

President Monroe's health began to slowly fail by the end of the 1820s.

On July 4,1831, Monroe died at age 73 from heart failure and tuberculosis, thus becoming the third president to have died on Independence Day.

President Monroe's death came 55 years after the United States Declaration of Independence was proclaimed and five years after the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

President Monroe was originally buried in New York at the Gouverneur family's vault in the New York City Marble Cemetery.

The James President Monroe Tomb is a US National Historic Landmark.

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President Monroe was raised in a family that belonged to the Church of England when it was the state church in Virginia before the Revolution.

In 1832 James Renwick Willson, a Reformed Presbyterian minister in Albany, New York, criticized President Monroe for having "lived and died like a second-rate Athenian philosopher".

President Monroe took several slaves with him to Washington to serve at the White House from 1817 to 1825.

At the convention, President Monroe made his final public statement on slavery, proposing that Virginia emancipate and deport its bondsmen with "the aid of the Union".

When President Monroe was Governor of Virginia in 1800, hundreds of slaves from Virginia planned to kidnap him, take Richmond, and negotiate for their freedom.

President Monroe called out the militia; the slave patrols soon captured some slaves accused of involvement.

President Monroe influenced the Executive Council to pardon and sell some slaves instead of hanging them.

President Monroe was active in the American Colonization Society, which supported the establishment of colonies outside of the United States for free African-Americans.

President Monroe presided over a period in which the United States began to turn away from European affairs and towards domestic issues.

President Monroe's presidency saw the United States settle many of its longstanding boundary issues through an accommodation with Britain and the acquisition of Florida.

President Monroe helped resolve sectional tensions through his support of the Missouri Compromise and by seeking support from all regions of the country.

Political scientist Fred Greenstein argues that President Monroe was a more effective executive than some of his better-known predecessors, including Madison and John Adams.

President Monroe has been depicted on US currency and stamps, including a 1954 United States Postal Service 5¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp.