Read complete books and articles on: James Monroe

Monroe, James - 1758–1831, 5th President of the United States (1817–25), b. Westmoreland co., Va.

Early Life

Leaving the College of William and Mary in 1776 to fight in the American Revolution, he served in several campaigns and was wounded (Dec., 1776) at the battle of Trenton. He later studied law (1780–83) under Thomas Jefferson, and the friendship that sprang up between

Monroe, James - 1758–1831, 5th President of the United States (1817–25), b. Westmoreland co., Va.

Early Life

Political and Diplomatic Career

Monroe was elected to the Virginia legislature in 1782 and served (1783–86) in the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation. He was not a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and in his own state he supported Patrick Henry in opposing the Constitution, which seemed to him to create a government so centralized that it encroached on states' rights.

Under the new government, he served (1790–94) in the U.S. Senate, where he proved himself an outstanding lieutenant of Jefferson and a vigorous opponent of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Federalists. Appointed (1794) minister to France in the hope that his Francophile sympathies would smooth the ruffled relations between the two nations, he did nothing to lessen French resentment over Jay's Treaty, and he was recalled in 1796.

Governor of Virginia from 1799 to 1802, he was sent (1802) by President Jefferson to France as a special envoy. There he assisted Robert R. Livingston (1746–1813; see Livingston, family) during negotiations (1803) for the Louisiana Purchase. The next year, in Spain, he aided Charles Pinckney in the unsuccessful negotiations with the Spanish government. A later mission, to England, was even more disastrous. Monroe and William Pinkney struggled to arrive at a commercial treaty to end the disputes between Great Britain and the United States over shipping, but they could get no concessions, and Jefferson did not even submit the treaty they drafted (1806) to the Senate for approval.

In 1808, Monroe made a bid for the presidential nomination. He thus alienated James Madison, but the estrangement did not last long, and Monroe, after serving again as governor of Virginia, was Madison's Secretary of State (1811–17). For a time he was also Secretary of War (1814–15), after the dismissal of John Armstrong.

Presidency and the Monroe Doctrine

In 1816 Monroe obtained the presidential nomination and was easily elected. During his first administration, serious differences over the question of slavery in the territories were accommodated by the Missouri Compromise, which Monroe signed despite his sympathy for the South in this matter. In foreign affairs a number of settlements were reached. The Rush-Bagot agreement with Great Britain (1817) provided for mutual limitation of armaments on the Great Lakes, and the U.S.-Canadian boundary question was also settled. U.S. possession of the Floridas was confirmed by Andrew Jackson's campaigns and a treaty with Spain (1819).

In the 1820 election, despite economic depression, Monroe lost only one vote in the electoral college that reelected him. Late in 1823, he issued what came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine, one of the most important principles of U.S. foreign policy. Although this declaration was as much the work of Monroe's Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, as of the President himself, the initiative for presenting it in the annual message to Congress was Monroe's. The experiment of the American Colonization Society in settling Liberia was undertaken with Monroe's blessing, and Monrovia was named for him.

At the end of his term Monroe retired to his estate, Oak Hill, near Leesburg, Va. In 1829 he presided over the Virginia constitutional convention and supported the conservatives on suffrage and slavery. He died during a visit to New York City.

Bibliography

Monroe's writings were edited by S. M. Hamilton (7 vol., 1898–1903, repr. 1969). See his autobiography (ed. with introd. by S. G. Brown, 1959); biographies by G. Morgan (1921, repr. 1969), A. Styron (1945), and W. P. Cresson (1946, repr. 1971); studies by L. Wilmerding (1960) and H. Ammon (1971).

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12 of the Best Books and Articles on: James Monroe

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Lives of James Madison and James Monroe, Fourth and Fifth Presidents of the United States (1850) » Read Now
by John Quincy Adams. 424 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...THE LIVES OF JAMES MADISON AND JAMES MONROE, , FOURTH AND FIFTH PRESIDENTS...106 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE , 197 NOTICES...which formed the Constitution, by James Monroe and...
2.

Presidents from Washington through Monroe, 1789-1825: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents (Chap. 5 "James Monroe") » Read Now
by Amy H. Sturgis. 199 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This work offers the best of both worlds: broad analysis of the first five presidential administrations and specific excerpts from original documents supporting and opposing the presidents' positions. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe speak for...
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This work offers the best of both worlds: broad analysis of the first five presidential administrations and specific excerpts from original documents supporting and opposing the presidents' positions. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe speak for themselves as they argue for their positions on the key political, social, and economic issues of their time in excerpts from primary sources. Excerpts from opposing positions on each issue give the presidents' critics a voice. An explanatory overview of each issue will help students to understand the argument and the context of the issue and to apply critical thinking skills to their understanding. The section on each president includes entries on 4-5 key issues of his administration, from the president's title at the beginning of Washington's administration to American Indian removal at the close of Monroe's term.
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3.

My Fellow Americans: Presidential Addresses That Shaped History (Chap. 3 "The Monroe Doctrine: The Whispered Warning") » Read Now
by James C. Humes. 288 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The presidency, in Theodore Roosevelt's famous words, is a "Bully Pulpit." Humes, a former White House speechwriter, here gives us a unique perspective on presidential speech writing. No other book has examined the major presidential addresses--their construction and their impact--as history, and no...
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The presidency, in Theodore Roosevelt's famous words, is a "Bully Pulpit." Humes, a former White House speechwriter, here gives us a unique perspective on presidential speech writing. No other book has examined the major presidential addresses--their construction and their impact--as history, and no one has studied the presidency from this vantage point. This is a vital study of American political history seen through the prism of selected presidential addresses. It reveals how presidents used major addresses to give a theme for their administration, to introduce history-making legislation or programs, or to rally a majority of the nation behind their policies.
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4.

The Monroe Doctrine: Meanings and Implications, in Presidential Studies Quarterly » Read Now
by Mark T. Gilderhus. 9 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
5.

Jefferson's Madison vs. Jefferson's Monroe, in Presidential Studies Quarterly » Read Now
by Andrew Burstein. 15 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, History, Entire Library
6.

Governor James Monroe and Southampton Slave Resistance of 1799, in The Historian » Read Now
by Arthur Scherr. multiple pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
7.

Presidential Campaigns (Chap. Eight "1816 Monroe: Another Virginia Victory" and Chap. Nine "1820 Monroe's Quiet Re-Election") » Read Now
by Paul F. Boller Jr. 458 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
8.

To Provide for the General Welfare: A History of the Federal Spending Power (Chap. 7 "Monroe's Turn") » Read Now
by Theodore Sky. 442 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
9.

The American Union and the Problem of Neighborhood: The United States and the Collapse of the Spanish Empire, 1783-1829 » Read Now
by James E. Lewis Jr. 306 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
10.

Entangling Alliance: Politics & Diplomacy under George Washington (Chap. Eleven "School for Scandal: James Monroe in Paris") » Read Now
by Alexander Deconde. 538 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...XI. SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL: JAMES MONROE IN PARIS 342 XII...172. 39 "Jefferson to James Monroe, Paris, June 17, 1785", in Ford...treaty-making power in letters to "James...
11.

The Age of Federalism ("Monroe in Paris" begins on p. 498) » Read Now
by Stanley Elkins, Eric McKitrick. 925 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

When Thomas Jefferson took the oath of office for the presidency in 1801, America had just passed through twelve critical years, years dominated by some of the towering figures of our history and by the challenge of having to do everything for the first time. Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Adams...
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When Thomas Jefferson took the oath of office for the presidency in 1801, America had just passed through twelve critical years, years dominated by some of the towering figures of our history and by the challenge of having to do everything for the first time. Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Adams, and Jefferson himself each had a share in shaping that remarkable era--an era that is brilliantly captured in The Age of Federalism. Written by esteemed historians Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism gives us a reflective, deeply informed analytical survey of this extraordinary period. Ranging over the widest variety of concerns--political, cultural, economic, diplomatic, and military--the authors provide a sweeping historical account, keeping always in view not only the problems the new nation faced but also the particular individuals who tried to solve them. As they move through the Federalist era, they draw subtly perceptive character sketches not only of the great figures--Washington and Jefferson, Talleyrand and Napoleon Bonaparte--but also of lesser ones, such as George Hammond, Britain's frustrated minister to the United States, James McHenry, Adams's hapless Secretary of War, the pre-Chief Justice version of John Marshall, and others. They weave these lively profiles into an analysis of the central controversies of the day, turning such intricate issues as the public debt into fascinating depictions of opposing political strategies and contending economic philosophies. Each dispute bears in some way on the broader story of the emerging nation. The authors show, for instance, the consequences the fight over Hamilton's financial system had for the locating of the nation's permanent capital, and how it widened an ideological gulf between Hamilton and the Virginians, Madison and Jefferson, that became unbridgeable. The statesmen of the founding generation, the authors believe, did "a surprising number of things right." But Elkins and McKitrick also describe some things that went resoundingly wrong: the hopelessly underfinanced effort to construct a capital city on the Potomac (New York, they argue, would have been a far more logical choice than Washington), and prosecutions under the Alien and Sedition Acts which turned into a comic nightmare. No detail is left out, or left uninteresting, as their account continues through the Adams presidency, the XYZ affair, the naval Quasi-War with France, and the desperate Federalist maneuvers in 1800, first to prevent the reelection of Adams and then to nullify the election of Jefferson. The Age of Federalism is the fruit of many years of discussion and thought, in which deep scholarship is matched only by the lucid distinction of its prose. With it, Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick have produced the definitive study, long awaited by historians, of the early national era.
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12.

American Statesmen: Secretaries of State from John Jay to Colin Powell (Discussion of James Monroe begins on p. 373) » Read Now
by Edward S. Mihalkanin. 572 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The Secretary of State is in charge of defining and implementing U.S. foreign policy. While that role has weakened some over the past fifty years, a mere roll call of illustrious past Secretaries of State invokes the position's importance. Thomas Jefferson, Henry Kissinger, John Quincy Adams...
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The Secretary of State is in charge of defining and implementing U.S. foreign policy. While that role has weakened some over the past fifty years, a mere roll call of illustrious past Secretaries of State invokes the position's importance. Thomas Jefferson, Henry Kissinger, John Quincy Adams, William Jennings Bryan, Henry Clay, James Madison, George C. Marshall, George Schultz, and Daniel Webster are just a few of the Secretaries profiled within these 65 entries. Arranged A-to-Z, each essay is multifaceted, offering information personal, professional, and political. The majority of each piece deals with foreign policy ideas before he or she became the Secretary, what American foreign policy was like while in office, and the major foreign policy issues during tenure. Each piece concludes with a concise and useful bibliography.
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