James Monroe

Eliza Kortright Monroe Hay (1786-1840) was their first child. She was educated in Paris during her father’s tenure as the US ambassador to France. Due to her mother’s fragile health, a number of duties of the official hostess were performed by her. James Spence Monroe was born after Eliza, in 1899. However, he died in infancy 16 months later. Maria Hester Monroe (1804-50) was James and Elizabeth’s youngest daughter. She wed her cousin, Samuel L. Gouverneur on March 8, 1820. Their wedding was the first ever wedding of a president’s child to be conducted in the White House.

His religious views are a matter of scholarly debate. No letter has been found over the years in which he has expressed his religious beliefs. It is known that his parents were members of the Church of England and he went to Episcopal churches as an adult. In many of musings, he had talked about an impersonal god, which led many historians to believe that he had “deistic tendencies’. In 1832, Reformed Presbyterian minister James Renwick Willson called him “a second-rate Athenian philosopher’.

James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, to Spence Monroe and Elizabeth Jones. He had four siblings, one sister, Elizabeth, and three brothers, Spence, Andrew, and Joseph Jones. His father was a relatively affluent planter and carpenter who had married his mother in 1752. He was of Scottish and Welsh descent.

When he was 11 years old, his family allowed him to attend the only school in his county. He studied there for only eleven weeks a year as he helped out at his father’s farm. It was during this period that a friendship bloomed between Monroe and a boy two years old than him, John Marshall, who would later become the fourth Chief Justice of the United States.

His mother passed away in 1772, followed by his father two years later. A 16-year-old Monroe left school to support his younger siblings. One of his maternal uncles, Joseph Jones, who was childless, stepped in to take care of the Monroe children.

Jones played an important role in shaping James as a statesman. He orchestrated James’ enrolment at the College of William and Mary and acted as a catalyst in the first encounters between James and Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and George Washington.

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War broke out and by early 1776, Monroe had left college to join the 3rd Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army. After undergoing compulsory training, Monroe was designated as a lieutenant and was sent to the New York and New Jersey campaign.

In December 1776, he took part in a surprise attack on a Hessian encampment. While it was a successful attack, Monroe came close to dying due to a severed artery. After the battle, George Washington commended him and his captain William Washington for their bravery and promoted Monroe to the rank of captain.

During his time as a member of the staff of General William Alexander, Lord Stirling, Monroe met a French volunteer named Marquis de Lafayette. A deep bond of friendship developed between them and de Lafayette helped him understand war in the broader context of religious and political tyranny.

After the Battle of Monmouth, in which he participated, he was a complete destitute and decided to go to his uncle in Philadelphia. He had previously resigned from his commission in December 1778. He eventually chose to study law under Thomas Jefferson in Williamsburg.

At the time, Jefferson was the Governor of Virginia. He moved the capital of the state to Richmond, a more defensible city, after the British started to put more effort into reclaiming the Southern colonies. He had the control of the state militia and designated Monroe to the rank of a colonel. Monroe had the distinction of being the last US President to have served in the Revolutionary War.

In 1782, James Monroe became a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. He briefly served on the Virginia's Executive Council before joining the Congress of the Confederation in November 1783. Monroe was a staunch supporter of the western expansion and was heavily involved in the writing and passage of the Northwest Ordinance.

After resigning from the Congress in 1786 to focus on his legal career, he was elected for another term in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1787. The following year, he joined the Virginia Ratifying Convention as one of the delegates.

On the matter of the ratification of the proposed constitution, the opinions in Virginia were quite diverse. Some supported it, others were against it. Monroe and a few others were “federalists who are for amendments”. They argued for a bill of rights and were concerned about giving away the taxing power to the central government. Eventually, although Monroe’s own vote was against it, the constitution was ratified at the convention by a narrow margin.

Monroe suffered a defeat against James Madison, who would go on to be his immediate predecessor as the US President, in the election for a House Seat in the First Congress. He later was picked to serve the remaining term of Senator William Grayson, who had died in 1790.

There was increasing contention in the US politics during Washington’s presidency. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, Jefferson, Monroe, and several others supported the French revolution while Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and their followers sided with the British. Washington sought a middle ground that would not get America involved in another war. He sent Monroe and Jay to France and Britain respectively as US ambassadors.