The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness

This is yet another book that highlights how very little I know about our presidents. Literally, the only thing I knew about James Monroe when I started reading this book was that at one point, he wrote something called the Monroe Doctrine. I had no idea what that was.

What I learned from these first few chapters:

1.       Monroe grew up poor. They had land, but no money to go with it. Consequently, his father made use of the fact that he was a skilled carpenter to supplement the family income.

2.       Monroe was orphaned fairly young, having lost both parents by the age of 15.

3.       He was a war hero.

Seriously! I had no idea he fought during the Revolution. Up until now, the only one of the founding fathers who fought in the war was George Washington. Adams was a statesmen, Jefferson and Madison were politicians. Madison was certainly willing to fight, but his health issues precluded him doing so. But Monroe…He joined up and was part of Washington’s team at the battle of Trenton. The argument could certainly be made that without Monroe’s actions, which very nearly killed him with a musket ball that severed an artery, Trenton would not have succeeded. Then another bit of blind luck, there was a surgeon right there in the trenches that was able to stop the bleeding, so he didn’t just die outright!

There are hints of guardian angels around Monroe. A very common thread I’m finding in these books about the presidents, at least the founding fathers, is a sense of right place, right time, right man for the job.

After he was wounded at Trenton, Monroe was promoted to Captain. Unfortunately, (this being something else I didn’t know), military officers back then were required to recruit and train their own military units. Which Monroe was unable to do. So instead, he went into politics, studying law under newly minted Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson.

From my books on Jefferson and Madison, I knew Monroe was part of this triumvirate of early Republicanism. I did not know just how much of the junior member he was, with Jefferson and Madison having a long-standing friendship before Monroe joined them. And when Jefferson left for Paris, he commended Monroe to Madison for further mentoring.

Now, all that sounds like Monroe was a bit of a puppet between Jefferson and Madison. Not AT ALL! He was younger, and willing to learn. Being willing to learn what you don’t know, hell ACKNOWLEDGING what you don’t know, does not make you a puppet. And Monroe, for his actions in the Revolution, was granted land holdings in Kentucky of more than 5,000 acres. So, he spent some time exploring the western frontier, and was the one to bring word to congress of two key matters that would help shape the future United States.

1.       The British were not, in fact, leaving their frontier fortresses as they had promised during the peace negotiations that ended the war.

2.       The Spanish were denying Americans the right to use the Mississippi to transport goods.

Point 1 helps set up the War of 1812. Point 2 helps set up the Louisiana purchase and eventual annexation of New Orleans. All of which was brought to the Confederated Congress and helped establish the need for a more centralized government.

Monroe married Elizabeth Kortright of New York on February 16, 1786. Ms. Kortright was beautiful, so this may have seemed like an odd match to many of her friends, because Monroe was not, at least by the standards of the day, considered a handsome man. But here, I’m starting to see a pattern among our early presidents. Generally speaking, they didn’t marry unless it was to marry well. And this doesn’t necessarily mean wealthy, although Kortright was from a wealthy family in New York. I mean, they picked spouses who were complementary to them, seeing the world through a similar lens, with similar educational backgrounds.

This tendency to marry well is something that will get you far in life even today. You’ll see this admonishment on social media, if you follow business and entrepreneurial pages, they’ll all tell you, don’t settle for marrying someone just based on looks. You need someone who is mentally compatible for a successful marriage. And Monroe and Kortright were infinitely compatible. Even though Monroe grew up poor, thanks to his uncle stepping in when Monroe’s parents died, Monroe achieved a college education and studied law, so that he was highly educated by the time he met Kortright.  And Kortright was educated far beyond what was normal for a woman in the 18th century, so that they connected on a mental level before marrying and were very much in love when they did marry.

After the wedding, Monroe jumped in to both lawyering and politicking, using his skills as a lawyer to supplement his political career, as being a politician did not pay much, and now he had a wife to support, and a baby on the way, and Monroe, it turns out, was the consummate family man. He disliked being separated from his family as much as they disliked his absence, so that frequently Elizabeth and baby Eliza would travel with him from their home in rural Virginia, to his offices in Charlottesville.  

When the Constitution was ratified, Monroe was pushed into running for a seat in the House of Representatives against James Madison. Monroe lost and was set to be a lawyer, when the elected senator, William Grayson, died in 1790. Now, when the constitution was first passed, Senators were not elected directly by the people. Senators were not elected directly by the people for over 100 years. So, it fell to the state legislature of Virginia to pick Grayson’s replacement, and Monroe was their choice. So, Monroe finished Grayson’s elected term.

When that term ended, Monroe was selected as Minister (read: ambassador) to France by President Washington. Monroe and his family went to France and were greeted with the bloody horrors of the French Revolution. Monroe did everything he could to help American’s get out of France, and also stepped in to help Adrienne Lafayette, wife of the Marquis de Lafayette, who had been so instrumental during the American Revolution in securing French Aid and Monroe and Lafayette became close friends during the war.  Adrienne Lafayette was imprisoned awaiting execution when Elizabeth Monroe visited her in jail and basically charmed the jailers and crowds in to just letting her walk Adrienne out. Once Adrienne was out, Monroe drew up documents proclaiming her a US Citizen, based on her husbands US Citizenship, granted during the Revolution.

Ultimately, though, while in France, the minister to England, John Jay, undercut diplomatic efforts in France by securing a treaty with England. Monroe felt that he had been hamstrung by the administration when they authorized this treaty without telling Monroe, and Monroe was recalled to the United States, where he resumed lawyering until he became Governor of Virginia. After serving his three consecutive, one year terms, as governor, which was all that state law allowed, Monroe was again appointed minister to France, this time by President Jefferson. As Jefferson was also a Francophile, Monroe’s term in France was much more successful. Jefferson wanted and authorized Monroe to purchase New Orleans and west Florida from France, with a top limit of $9 million. Monroe ended up negotiating the Louisiana purchase, fully 1/3 of the continental United States, for $15 million, about 4 cents per acre. Since the government was selling land at $2 per acre, that was a bargain basement price. And since the land purchased was ultimately the breadbasket of the United States, contained deep oil reserves, copper, and gold deposits, it ended up being money well spent.

After his successful completion of the Louisiana Purchase, Monroe was ordered to London to take over diplomatic talks to end impressment of American sailors to British ships. These talks were far less successful. Monroe was a Francophile through and through, and he hated the dirty London air, which caused health problems for his wife and two daughters. Additionally, the minister position did not pay enough to really support Monroe and his family, so that he was forced to dip into personal funds to supplement their living expenses. This would probably have been ok, except Monroe was land wealthy, but cash poor. He owned thousands of acres of land in Virginia and Kentucky, but did not have ready cash on hand. Essentially, he would barter where he could, or borrow money on promissory notes against his land. This was a common feature for all American’s where land was cheap and easy to be had for those who had fought in the Revolution, but actual money was prone to inflation and market whimsey, more so than today’s markets (as of August 30, 2021, when this was initially posted).

Additionally, because Jefferson was trying to portray the image of the rustic American, he did not put on airs or subscribe to “normal” European social custom. When he hosted dinners at the White House, the normal custom would have been for him to escort the wife of a visiting ambassador into dinner. Instead, he would escort Dolley Madison, who was the White House hostess during this time, into dinner. The ambassador, this one from England, took exception to this social snub and wrote to England. In turn, Monroe and his family were socially snubbed while they were in England. Overall, his time in England was frustrating for Monroe. In addition to the social snubs and the smoggy London air, he did not receive responses from Madison or Jefferson to his requests for instruction, so that beyond ending impressment, Monroe did not know what his diplomatic mission in England was.

So, he’s getting no guidance from his bosses, his family’s health is failing, and he’s in relative social isolation. He’s already at peak irritation with Jefferson and Madison, when he hears through a London paper, rather than an official dispatch, that he has been replaced as minister to England by William Pinckney. Monroe, however, was a gentleman. On his own appointment to France, the existing minister Robert Livingston, had behaved less than professionally, claiming all the credit for the Louisiana purchase for himself. Monroe was more than willing to give credit where it was due for laying the groundwork, but ultimately, Monroe was the one who sealed the deal and so to him was given the credit. Monroe did not want that contentiousness in his interactions with Pinckney, and the two of them worked very well together in London, even though their mission was again a failure, and impressment continued.

Jefferson tried to sooth Monroe’s ego by offering him governorship of Louisiana, but Monroe declined. The lack of communication, and Jefferson’s obvious preferment of Madison over Monroe, damaged the friendships of all three, as Monroe cut off communication with Madison entirely for two years. Jefferson and Monroe eventually resumed cordial relationships when Monroe was nominated to run for President in 1808, which nomination he accepted. However, he did not actively campaign and was happy to retire to country life when Madison easily won the presidency.

Monroe, by all accounts, was quite a successful farmer, having learned a great deal about crop rotation, clover fields, and quick lime being tilled into the soil as a way to replenish nutrients. But he was not quite done yet and found himself running for Governor of Virginia in 1811, which race he won. And here is where his skill as a political player truly peeked out. After he won the governorship, Madison approached him to offer him the position of Secretary of State. Madison knew that Monroe’s diplomatic skills were sorely needed. And Monroe said basically, no…. not unless you tell the American people that my skills are directly needed more there, than as governor of Virginia. He wanted everyone to know that he wasn’t making a power grab on his behalf, but rather his skills as a diplomat were acknowledged by the President and sitting Congress, and that they needed him to fill this role.

Madison agreed, and Monroe was installed as Secretary of State, which position he held until the end of Madison’s term. However, during the War of 1812, when Secretary of War John Armstrong proved to be grossly ineffective in that role, basically doing the exact opposite of what both Madison and Monroe told him to do, Madison demanded Armstrong’s resignation and installed Monroe in the position as an emergency measure. Here, his one-time experience of leading men during the Revolution came in quite useful, and he was able to direct troops where they would do the most good in defense. Ultimately, the war ended at the treaty of Ghent, thanks to the diplomatic efforts of John Quincy Adams.

Monroe did serve as Secretary of State from 1811 until he was sworn in as president in 1817, excepting his brief stint as Secretary of War. Monroe served two terms in the White House, where he managed to keep expanding the US Territory, eventually taking over all of Florida from Spain and agreeing to territorial boundaries with Spain and the United States. The taking over Florida from Spain was sort of a wink and a nod to General Andrew Jackson, with a “why don’t you check out Florida for us?”

Monroe didn’t quite AUTHORIZE an attack on Florida…because that would have been unconstitutional…but he also said I’m not gonna punish you if you do it. And so Jackson rolled in….committed the atrocities for which he would become known…. So they got Florida.

During his first term, Monroe went on tours of the United States. Which hadn’t been done since Washington was President, so more than 20 years. And the people loved him for it.

His presidency was not marked by any major controversies or scandals and was considered a golden era of peace. It came to be called the Era of Good Feelings. The budget was balanced, bills were paid, he was able to cut taxes unilaterally because they were selling so much land from the Louisiana purchase that they didn’t need to tax people. And then he put out his famous Monroe Doctrine, which was part of his State of the Union address to Congress on December 2, 1823.

Now, the Monroe Doctrine said basically said that the old world, meaning the Eurasian continent, and the new world, meaning the entire Western Hemisphere, were separate spheres of influence, and the old world should stick to their side of the oceans and leave the America’s alone. That we as a nation were able and willing to defend our borders from encroachment. It wasn’t much. Maybe 1,000 words out of the 7,000 word speech. But it resonated across time and instilled a great deal of national pride. And basically every president since has used it to justify whatever skullfuckery they want to against the rest of the world. I’m not sure if Monroe would be proud or horrified. I like to think horrified. Because arguably, that doctrine cuts both ways, right? Maybe America should just mind her own damn business.

Some interesting points I picked up reading this book. Monroe was a Democratic-Republican, like Jefferson and Madison. He believed the Constitution was designed to limit the Federal Government and that power rested with We the People. However, once his good buddy Justice John Marshall was appointed chief of the Supreme Court, that changed. Because Marshall was an old school Federalist. He saw the Constitution as enabling whatever the Federal Government wanted so long as they could claim it was for the good of the people. And once Marshall passed that judgment down through the courts, Monroe did not hold back. Roads were built, canals were dug, we annexed Florida….all for the good of the people. There was a great deal of bloodshed.

It's interesting reading these in order of presidential service, because it’s kind of like watching a shifting puzzle assemble itself. In Britain, the reason Monroe was treated badly is because the English diplomat to Washington DC took offense to Jefferson not escorting the diplomat’s wife to dinner. No mention of that is made in this book, only that  Monroe was snubbed socially. I know that from reading my books on Jefferson and Madison. And I’m sort of starting to get sneak peaks at John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and John Tyler, who were all introduced in more detail in this book and last months book.

When Monroe left the White House, he was basically destitute. He owed about $75,000, which is nothing to sneeze at today, but was an absolutely enormous sum in 1825. He kept creditors at bay for a bit by selling off pieces of his land. He presented a bill to Congress for reimbursement for his time as a diplomat. Some of the charges were accepted, others were not, and it left him still in debt. In 1830 his wife died and he was absolutely devastated. He ultimately moved in with his youngest daughter and her husband. When Congress found out about that, they eventually approved more funding to pay off the balance of his debts, so at least he had no debts when he died on July 4, 1831.

That’s like three of the first five president’s have now died on July 4th. I mean, if I’m president…I’m approached 4th of July with wary caution. I’m not sure if I’m celebrating, or waiting for the Grim Reaper.

Review was posted on YouTube on August 30, 2021, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.