BIOGRAPHY
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On New Year's Day, 1825, at the last of his annual
White House receptions, President James Monroe made a pleasing
impression upon a Virginia lady who shook his hand:
"He is tall and well formed. His dress plain and in
the old style.... His manner was quiet and dignified. From the
frank, honest expression of his eye ... I think he well deserves the
encomium passed upon him by the great Jefferson, who said, 'Monroe
was so honest that if you turned his soul inside out there would not
be a spot on it.' "
Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1758, Monroe
attended the College of William and Mary, fought with distinction in
the Continental Army, and practiced law in Fredericksburg,
Virginia.
As a youthful politician, he joined the
anti-Federalists in the Virginia Convention which ratified the
Constitution, and in 1790, an advocate of Jeffersonian policies, was
elected United States Senator. As Minister to France in 1794-1796,
he displayed strong sympathies for the French cause; later, with
Robert R. Livingston, he helped negotiate the Louisiana
Purchase.
His ambition and energy, together with the backing of
President Madison, made him the Republican choice for the Presidency
in 1816. With little Federalist opposition, he easily won
re-election in 1820.
Monroe made unusually strong Cabinet choices, naming a
Southerner, John C. Calhoun, as Secretary of War, and a northerner,
John Quincy Adams, as Secretary of State. Only Henry Clay's refusal
kept Monroe from adding an outstanding Westerner.
Early in his administration, Monroe undertook a
goodwill tour. At Boston, his visit was hailed as the beginning of
an "Era of Good Feelings." Unfortunately these "good feelings" did
not endure, although Monroe, his popularity undiminished, followed
nationalist policies.
Across the facade of nationalism, ugly sectional
cracks appeared. A painful economic depression undoubtedly increased
the dismay of the people of the Missouri Territory in 1819 when
their application for admission to the Union as a slave state
failed. An amended bill for gradually eliminating slavery in
Missouri precipitated two years of bitter debate in Congress.
The Missouri Compromise bill resolved the struggle,
pairing Missouri as a slave state with Maine, a free state, and
barring slavery north and west of Missouri forever.
In foreign affairs Monroe proclaimed the fundamental
policy that bears his name, responding to the threat that the more
conservative governments in Europe might try to aid Spain in winning
back her former Latin American colonies. Monroe did not begin
formally to recognize the young sister republics until 1822, after
ascertaining that Congress would vote appropriations for diplomatic
missions. He and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams wished to
avoid trouble with Spain until it had ceded the Floridas, as was
done in 1821.
Great Britain, with its powerful navy, also opposed
reconquest of Latin America and suggested that the United States
join in proclaiming "hands off." Ex-Presidents Jefferson and Madison
counseled Monroe to accept the offer, but Secretary Adams advised,
"It would be more candid ... to avow our principles explicitly to
Russia and France, than to come in as a cock-boat in the wake of the
British man-of-war."
Monroe accepted Adams's advice. Not only must Latin
America be left alone, he warned, but also Russia must not encroach
southward on the Pacific coast. ". . . the American continents," he
stated, "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 Power." Some 20
years after Monroe died in 1831, this became known as the Monroe
Doctrine.
Biography from www.whitehouse.gov
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