Sparks Commentary: James Monroe: Famous for the Monroe Doctrine

In 1823, President James Monroe gave one of his annual addresses to Congress on December 2nd. In this address, he announced that “the American continents, 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 powers” (Source: Text of the Monroe Doctrine). This was the famous “Monroe Doctrine,” the most iconic aspect of his administration. Some have argued that it had more to do with Monroe’s Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams – who would later succeed Mr. Monroe as president. But, either way, it is clear that Mr. Monroe approved it – which is why the doctrine still (rightly) bears his name. Many have argued that James Monroe was one of our Founding Fathers, and that he was thus “the last Founding Father president.” His presidency is today remembered by history as the “Era of Good Feelings.” (More about that later.) But who was this man? Why was he so important? And where exactly did he come from? These are the questions that this post will attempt to answer.

James Monroe

Early life and career, including being an unknown Founding Father of the United States

James Monroe was born in 1758, in what was then the British colony of Virginia. The United States of America did not yet exist at that time. James Monroe had four siblings. Their father opposed the infamous Stamp Act. But the parents both died in the 1770s. This left 16-year-old James Monroe in charge of the family. He inherited slaves from his parents. Monroe was forced to leave school for a time, but later enrolled in the College of William & Mary. When the American Revolution broke out, Monroe served in the Continental Army. In the later part of the war, he studied law under Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was already famous as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. James Monroe soon served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and then as a delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention. But, unlike many of the other delegates, James Monroe opposed ratifying the United States Constitution. Like George Mason and Patrick Henry, Monroe was suspicious of the “proposed Constitution,” and was thus labeled as an “Anti-Federalist.” Nonetheless, in 1790, James Monroe was elected to the still-new United States Senate. Monroe opposed the Federalist Party, and thus became a leader of the opposing Democratic-Republican Party (not to be confused with modern Democrats or Republicans). James Monroe also served as George Washington’s ambassador to France, during the years of the French Revolution. However, Mr. Washington recalled Monroe in 1796. In 1799, James Monroe was later elected the Governor of Virginia. Monroe supported the presidential campaign of his old friend Thomas Jefferson in 1800.

James Monroe

Monroe negotiates the Louisiana Purchase, and becomes Madison’s Secretary of State

Soon, Thomas Jefferson appointed James Monroe as a special envoy to France. France was then fighting the Napoleonic Wars, and needed some cash to continue waging these wars. Thus, James Monroe was then able to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase with them. This doubled the size of the young United States, and got some much-needed cash for Napoleon Bonaparte. James Monroe also served as Thomas Jefferson’s ambassador to Britain (then a complicated job), but fell out with James Madison after Madison rejected a treaty that Monroe had negotiated. Thomas Jefferson was planning to leave the White House in 1808. Thus, the field was open in the Democratic-Republican Party. Both James Madison and James Monroe were then running for the nomination, but the nomination instead went to Mr. Madison. The Federalist Party was defeated in this election, so James Madison then became president. The Federalists had only elected one president, which was John Adams. But the Federalist Party, although still active, was now on its way out. Thus, even Adams – and his son John Quincy Adams – were now abandoning the Federalist Party wholesale. Instead, the Adams father and son were now joining the “Democratic-Republican Party,” the party that they had once opposed.

James Monroe

After James Madison retires, James Monroe enters the White House in 1816

Madison would later appoint Monroe as his Secretary of State in 1811. For a brief time during the War of 1812, Monroe served as both Madison’s Secretary of State and his Secretary of War. Thus, James Monroe gained prominence for his wartime leadership. Following the precedent set by Jefferson, President Madison was now planning to retire after two terms. This left the field open to other Democratic-Republican candidates in 1816, including James Monroe. The Federalist side did not formally nominate a presidential ticket in 1816, but Senator Rufus King of New York soon emerged as their de facto candidate. On the Democratic-Republican side, one of the candidates was William H. Crawford, Monroe’s 1815 replacement as Madison’s Secretary of War. (But again, Monroe had been retained as Secretary of State.) But both Jefferson and Madison supported James Monroe over Crawford. Thus, James Monroe soon gained the Democratic-Republican nomination anyway in 1816. Federalist candidate Rufus King won 30.9% of the popular vote, and 15.7% of the electoral vote. As a Democratic-Republican, James Monroe won 68.2% of the popular vote, and 84.3% of the electoral vote. Thus, James Monroe had just been elected the fifth president of the United States.

James Monroe

Monroe is re-elected in 1820, with some brief comments upon his presidency

The Federalists soon collapsed as a national political force, and were not able to field any presidential candidate (even a de facto one) in 1820. Thus, there was no major party to oppose Monroe’s bid for re-election that year. It was effectively a one-party election, the only one since George Washington. Therefore, James Monroe won 80.6% of the popular vote in 1820, and won 90.7% of the electoral vote that year. James Monroe would have won even more of the electoral vote, except that some of his electors had died before the appointed time without being replaced. There was also a “faithless elector” (more about those here), who instead voted for John Quincy Adams – despite being pledged for Monroe. No one since then has ever received a higher share of the electoral vote. This is why the era is sometimes referred to as the “Era of Good Feelings.” I will allow Wikipedia to sum up both of his terms for me. That is, James Monroe “signed the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri as a slave state and banned slavery from territories north of the 36°30′ parallel. In foreign affairs, Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams favored a policy of conciliation with Britain and a policy of expansionism against the Spanish Empire. In the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain, the United States secured Florida and established its western border with New Spain. In 1823, Monroe announced the United States' opposition to any European intervention in the recently independent countries of the Americas with the Monroe Doctrine, which became a landmark in American foreign policy. 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.” (Source: Their page on James Monroe) But, following the precedents of Jefferson and Madison, James Monroe declined to run for a third term. The Democratic-Republicans instead nominated two candidates in 1824, which were John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. (Andrew Jackson would only later be a Democrat.) Neither candidate won a majority of the popular vote, but Andrew Jackson won a plurality of it. And neither candidate won a majority of the electoral vote. Thus, crucially, the Twelfth Amendment required the election to instead be decided by the House of Representatives. Thus, the election eventually went to John Quincy Adams anyway, who was then Monroe’s Secretary of State. Adams may have been the man who was the true architect of the “Monroe Doctrine” – although, again, Monroe deserves some credit (maybe even significant credit) for approving it.

James Monroe

Conclusion: He was an above-average president, remembered for the “Era of Good Feelings”

Immediately, James Monroe retired from politics. But he was plagued by personal financial difficulties. Like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe died on the Fourth of July – although Monroe died in the year 1831, during the Andrew Jackson presidency. As Wikipedia notes, “Historians have generally ranked him as an above-average president,” and I tend to agree. Again, he is especially famous as the namesake of the “Monroe Doctrine,” and his presidency (again) tends to be remembered as the “Era of Good Feelings.” It was followed by the “Jacksonian Era,” another major period in American history. Despite its name, it began when John Quincy Adams entered the White House, not when Andrew Jackson took office four years later.

“We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.”

– The Monroe Doctrine, expressed by James Monroe (then the President of the United States) in his Seventh Annual State of the Union Address (2 December 1823)

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