Monroe, James

MONROE, JAMES. (1758–1831). Continental army officer and fifth president of the United States. Virginia. Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on 28 April 1758, Monroe was the son of a modestly prosperous family. He entered the College of William and Mary in 1774 but left on 28 September 1775 to enlist as a second lieutenant in Colonel Hugh Mercer's Third Virginia Regiment. He volunteered to accompany Thomas Knowlton and his rangers in attempting to encircle the British light infantry at Harlem Heights on 16 September 1776. Monroe also fought at White Plains (28 October) and at Trenton (26 December), where he helped to lead the vanguard and was seriously wounded. He was promoted to major on 20 November 1777 and named aide-de-camp to William Alexander (Lord Stirling). He fought at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth before resigning on 20 November 1778.

In 1780 Monroe began studying law under Thomas Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, and stayed with him until 1783. He was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1782 and later sat in the Confederation Congress (1783–1786). In 1786 he married Elizabeth Kortwright, the daughter of a New York City merchant who was a Loyalist officer. He was a member of the state convention that ratified the Constitution and was a prominent anti-Federalist. He served as a U.S. Senator (1790–1794), minister to France (1794–1796), governor of Virginia (1799–1802 and 1811), negotiator for the Louisiana Purchase (1803), minister to Great Britain (1803–1807), secretary of state (1811–1817), secretary of war (1814–1815), and president (1817–1825). The most notable accomplishments during his two terms as president were in foreign affairs, including the acquisition of Florida and the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine (2 December 1823).

SEE ALSO Harlem Heights, New York; Trenton, New Jersey.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ammon, Harry. James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.

                              revised by Harold E. Selesky