Monroe, James

Monroe, James (1758–1831),5th President of the U.S. (1817–25), was born in Virginia, left William and Mary College to become a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and afterward studied law under Jefferson, who remained his model and mentor in matters of policy. In the Virginia legislature (1782–83) and the Continental Congress (1783–86), he upheld Jeffersonian principles and favored a balance between federal and state powers. He opposed the adoption of the Constitution, as a member of the Virginia Convention (1788), fearing the central government would be too powerful. Elected to the U.S. Senate (1790–94), he was bitterly critical of Washington's administration and of Hamilton in particular. His ministry to France (1794–96) ended in recall because of his excessive sympathy with the French Revolution and his failure to follow Washington's instructions. He published his version of the controversy in A View of the Conduct of the Executive, in the Foreign Affairs of the United States (1797). Still popular in his own state, he was its governor (1799–1802) and in 1803 was appointed by Jefferson as an envoy to France and Spain. He participated in the negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase, and went to England in an attempt to settle various disputes between that country and the U.S. Again governor of Virginia (1811), he resigned to become Madison's secretary of state (1811–17). He was also secretary of war (1814–15) and was prominent in the events of the War of 1812 and the subsequent peace. Monroe was virtually unopposed in the presidential elections of 1816 and 1820, and the period of his administration, because of the apparent absence of partisan controversy, is known as the “era of good feelings.” The principal events were the adoption of the Missouri Compromise, the Seminole War by which the U.S. acquired Florida, and the framing by Secretary of State J.Q. Adams of the U.S. foreign policy known as the Monroe Doctrine. The Writings of James Monroe have been published in seven volumes (1898–1903). Fragmentary reminiscences written in his old age were put together as an Autobiography in 1959.