Notes |
- "ENCYCLOPEDIA: MONROE, James
(1758?1831), fifth president of the U.S. (1817?25). One of thefounders of the Jeffersonian Republican party, Monroe served asminister to France and to Great Britain and as secretary of stateunder President James Madison. He was co-negotiator of the LouisianaPurchase and author of the Monroe Doctrine.
Early Life.
Born in Westmoreland Co., Va., on April 28, 1758, the son of a modestplanter, Monroe entered William and Mary College in July 1774, leavingin the spring of 1776 to serve in the 3d Virginia Regiment during theAmerican Revolution. He fought in the battles of New York anddistinguished himself in the vanguard action at Trenton, N.J., wherehe was wounded. At Valley Forge he held the rank of colonel as an aideto Gen. William Alexander. Returning to Virginia in 1780, he studiedlaw with Thomas Jefferson, who became his lifelong friend, patron, andmajor intellectual influence. Monroe was elected to the Virginia Houseof Burgesses in 1782. As a delegate (1783?86) to the ContinentalCongress he organized opposition to the Jay-Gardoqui proposals (whichwould have blocked U.S. use of the Mississippi River) and framed thesystem of territorial government incorporated into the NorthwestOrdinance. Although an advocate of a strong central government, heopposed ratification of the Constitution because he thought it gavetoo much power to the Senate.
In 1789 Monroe moved to a plantation in Albemarle Co., where he andJefferson were neighbors. His wife, Elizabeth Kortright (c. 1763?1830)of New York, whom he had married in 1786, was one of the greatbeauties of the day. She was later known for the atmosphere ofelegance and formality she brought to the White House.
Service Under Washington and Jefferson.
Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1790, Monroe joined RepresentativeMadison and Secretary of State Jefferson in founding the Republicanparty to oppose the fiscal program of Secretary of the TreasuryAlexander Hamilton. In order to please the Republicans, PresidentGeorge Washington appointed Monroe minister to France in 1794. Hispro-French sympathies, however, which conflicted with the policy ofthe administration, led to his recall two years later. Monroe thendefended himself in a pamphlet that attacked Washington?s foreignpolicy.
As governor of Virginia from 1799 to 1802, Monroe acted decisively tocheck a slave rebellion (Gabriel?s Rebellion) in 1802. In 1803Jefferson, by then president, named him special envoy to France toassist Robert R. Livingston, the resident minister, in negotiating thepurchase of Louisiana. From 1803 to 1807 Monroe was minister to GreatBritain, and in 1806, aided by special envoy William Pinkney(1764?1822), he negotiated a treaty providing for limited relaxationof British wartime restrictions on U.S. trade with Europe. Jefferson,however, refused to accept a settlement that did not include a ban onBritish impressment of American seamen. This led to an estrangementbetween Monroe and his friends, President Jefferson and Secretary ofState Madison, that was healed only in 1811, when Madison, who hadsucceeded Jefferson as president, appointed Monroe his secretary ofstate.
Widely respected by the younger generation of politicians for hispractical sense and his ability to harmonize conflicting interests,Monroe established a good working relationship with Congress and wonRepublican support for administration policy as the U.S. becameinvolved in the War of 1812. When the British captured Washington,D.C., in 1814, Monroe was made secretary of war in place of JohnArmstrong (1758?1843), who was blamed for the fiasco. A capableadministrator, he restored morale and rushed reinforcements to helpGen. Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans.
Monroe as President.
In 1816 the Republican congressional caucus chose Monroe as itspresidential nominee, and he won an overwhelming victory over hisFederalist opponent, Rufus King. Adopting a conciliatory policy, helaunched the Era of Good Feeling, hoping to terminate the partywarfare he regarded as destructive of representative government.
Monroe drew into his cabinet three of the leading men of the day: JohnQuincy Adams as secretary of state, William H. Crawford as secretaryof the treasury, and John C. Calhoun as secretary of war. His greatestachievements as president lay in foreign affairs. In 1819 he pressuredSpain into ceding Florida and making a generous settlement of theLouisiana boundary. When Spain?s American colonies rebelled, acoalition of European powers threatened to intervene and restoreSpanish authority. In 1822 the British foreign secretary GeorgeCanning proposed a joint declaration opposing European intervention.Monroe opted instead for an independent declaration of policy (laterknown as the Monroe Doctrine), which he embodied in his annual messageto Congress in 1823. He announced that the U.S. would regardinterference in American affairs as an unfriendly act and that thewestern hemisphere was closed to further European colonization. Thelatter statement, designed to check Russian expansion on the Pacificcoast, was Adams?s contribution.
Monroe?s most important domestic achievement lay in constructing achain of coastal fortifications to prevent future invasions. A drop infederal revenues after the financial panic of 1819 led Congress tocurtail this program.
In 1820 the harmony of the Era of Good Feeling was ended by the crisisover slavery in Missouri and the bitter conflict over the presidentialsuccession. Monroe welcomed the compromise that admitted Maine as afree state and excluded slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of36? 30?. During his second term the intense rivalry over thepresidential succession led to a decline in support for hisadministration, causing the failure of an Anglo-American accord to banthe international slave trade and also of Monroe?s efforts to protectIndian treaty rights.
Retirement.
After leaving the White House, Monroe lived at Oak Hill in LoudounCo., Va. Heavily in debt, he was threatened by bankruptcy untilCongress appropriated $30,000 to settle claims for expenses during hisdiplomatic missions. His last public act was to preside over theVirginia Constitutional Convention of 1829. He died July 4, 1831, athis daughter?s home in New York City. He was buried in New York, butreinterred in Richmond, Va., in 1858. H.A., HARRY AMMON, MA.,Ph.D.
For further information on this person, see the section Monroe, James.
An article from Funk & Wagnalls? New Encyclopedia. ? 2005 WorldAlmanac Education Group. A WRC Media Company. All rights reserved.Except as otherwise permitted by written agreement, uses of the workinconsistent with U.S. and applicable foreign copyright and relatedlaws are prohibited."
Internet: THE HISTORYCHANNELhttp://www.historychannel.com/thcsearch/thc_resourcedetail.do?encyc_id=216768
ENCYCLOPEDIA: MONROE DOCTRINE,
statement of U.S. policy on the activities and rights of Europeanpowers in the western hemisphere, made by President James Monroe inhis seventh annual address to the U.S. Congress on Dec. 2, 1823; iteventually became one of the foundations of U.S. policy in LatinAmerica. Because it was not supported by congressional legislation oraffirmed in international law, Monroe?s statement initially remainedonly a declaration of policy; its increasing use and popularityelevated it to a principle, specifically termed the Monroe Doctrinefor the first time after the mid-1840s.
The Original Statement.
In his two most notable pronouncements, Monroe asserted that Europeanpowers could no longer colonize the American continents and that theyshould not interfere with the newly independent Spanish Americanrepublics. He specifically warned Europeans against attempting toimpose monarchy on independent American nations but added that theU.S. would not interfere in existing European colonies or in Europeitself. The last point reaffirmed George Washington?s Farewell Addressin 1796, in which he urged the U.S. to avoid entangling alliances.
By thus separating Europe from America, Monroe emphasized theexistence of distinct American and specifically U.S. interests. Herejected the European political system of monarchy, believing that noAmerican nation would adopt it and that its presence anywhere in thewestern hemisphere endangered the peace and safety of the young U.S.He also implied that the U.S. alone should complete the remainingsettlement of North America.
Despite the boldness of his assertions, Monroe provided no means toensure the enforcement of his ideas, although he knew that GreatBritain, with its powerful navy, also opposed European intervention inSpain?s struggle to restore its colonies.
Further Development in the 19th Century.
As far as the U.S. was concerned, the Monroe Doctrine meant littleuntil the 1840s, when President James Polk used it to justify U.S.expansion. In 1845 he invoked the doctrine against British threats inCalifornia and Oregon, as well as against French and British effortsto prevent the U.S. annexation of Texas. In 1848 Polk warned thatEuropean involvement in the Yucat?n could cause the U.S. to takecontrol of the region. Despite Polk?s use of the doctrine and itsincreasing popularity in the 1850s, the American Civil War greatlyreduced its effectiveness during the 1860s; hence, Spain?sreacquisition of the Dominican Republic (1861) and France?sintervention in Mexico (1862?67) went largely unopposed.
During the 1870s and ?80s the doctrine took on new meaning. The U.S.began to interpret it both as prohibiting the transfer of Americanterritory from one European power to another and as granting the U.S.exclusive control over any canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacificoceans through Central America. The latter claim was recognized byGreat Britain in the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901). The U.S. continuedto expand the meaning of the doctrine when President Grover Clevelandsuccessfully pressured Great Britain in 1895 to submit its boundarydispute with Venezuela to arbitration.
The Monroe Doctrine in the 20th Century.
In 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt claimed that the U.S. couldintervene in any Latin American nation guilty of internal or externalmisconduct. Roosevelt?s corollary to the Monroe Doctrine justifiedsubsequent U.S. intervention in Caribbean states during theadministrations of Presidents William Taft and Woodrow Wilson.
In the 1920s, and especially in the 1930s, the U.S. reduced thedoctrine?s scope by favoring action in concert with the other Americanrepublics. This emphasis on Pan-Americanism continued during and afterWorld War II with the Act of Chapultepec (1945) and the Rio Pact(1947), which declared that an attack on one American nation was anattack on all. The formation of the Organization of American States(1948) was designed to achieve the aims of the Monroe Doctrine throughPan-Americanism. Subsequently, however, fear of communism in LatinAmerica prompted the U.S. to return to unilateral actions againstGuatemala (1954), Cuba (1961), and the Dominican Republic (1965),without consulting its Latin American allies.
Effect.
As a component of foreign policy, the Monroe Doctrine has hadconsiderable effect and has had strong support in the U.S., in partbecause it promoted U.S. interests. The doctrine has served otherAmerican nations too, particularly because it asserts their right toindependence. Because the doctrine as originally formulated made noclear distinction between the interests of the U.S. and those of itsneighbors, however, the U.S. has used it to justify intervention inthe internal affairs of other American nations. Given growing U.S.anxiety about the unstable politics of Latin American countries,intervention has been especially prevalent and controversial in the20th century. R.S., RANDALL SHROCK, Ph.D.
For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, section1153. Monroe Doctrine.
An article from Funk & Wagnalls? New Encyclopedia. ? 2005 WorldAlmanac Education Group. A WRC Media Company. All rights reserved.Except as otherwise permitted by written agreement, uses of the workinconsistent with U.S. and applicable foreign copyright and relatedlaws are prohibited.
http://www.historychannel.com/thcsearch/thc_resourcedetail.do?encyc_id=216770
Presidential Places
James Monroe
Hollywood Cemetery
Maps and Directions: Yahoo! Maps
Tip: "Can I get there from here?" Click on Driving Directions underthe Yahoo! Map.
Description: James Monroe's gravesite is located in Hollywood Cemetarynear Richmond, Virginia
Address: 412 S Cherry St; Richmond, VA 23220
Phone Number: (804) 648-8501
Grave Photos and Map: Findagrave.com
Credit: "Presidential Sites: A Directory of Places Associated withPresidents of the United States" by William G. Clotworthy
Presidential Places
James Monroe
The James Monroe Birth Place
Map: Yahoo! Maps
Tip: "Can I get there from here?" Click on Driving Directions underthe Yahoo! Map.
Description: There is a marker located by the road. The birth site islocated on a 70 arce piece of land currently owned by Westmorelandcounty. The birthplace of James Monroe was dismantled before 1850, butan outline of the house site is marked. Open to the public. The markeris located about 1 mile from Monroe Hall, VA.
Address: Monroe Hall; Virginia SR 205; Westmoreland County nearColonial Beach, VA 22443.
Related Web Site: Monroe Birthplace, Westmoreland County
Credit: "Presidential Sites: A Directory of Places Associated withPresidents of the United States" by William G. Clotworthy
|