I | INTRODUCTION |
James
Monroe (1758-1831), fifth president of the United States (1817-1825) and
the last of the so-called Virginia dynasty of U.S. presidents. He succeeded his
lifelong friends Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the nation's highest
office. Monroe was a man of good intelligence, sound judgment, and highest
integrity. In more than 40 years of public service, he never stinted of his
energies in doing what he considered his public duty.
Monroe was president during the “Era of Good
Feelings.” It was called that because there were few political battles and his
Democratic-Republican Party ruled almost unopposed. It was a transitional period
in which the nation's democratic institutions and capitalist economy were taking
form. National identity, as opposed to narrow state interest, was growing as
evidenced by the westward movement and the construction of roads and canals.
People who were leaving their old colonial homes and moving west on the
expanding frontier began to think of themselves not as Virginians or New
Yorkers, but principally as Americans. The roads and canals, or internal
improvements as they were called, were built to tie together the nation's
commerce. They were considered a national priority and were often funded by
Congress, whose members understood that an improved flow of commerce in any
section of the country would also benefit their own constituencies.
Even though one party dominated, political
debate did not disappear. Factions developed in the party over questions about
tariffs (taxes on imports); the future of slavery; and how to deal with Britain
and other European colonial powers. As President, Monroe consistently and
successfully pursued a policy that served both to protect the United States from
European interference and to foster unhampered growth of the nation and its
economy. He was responsible for the Monroe Doctrine, the principle that the
United States would not tolerate new colonies in the western hemisphere or
interference by outside powers in the internal affairs of nations in the western
hemisphere.
II | EARLY LIFE |
James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758, one
of the five children of Spence Monroe, a carpenter, and Elizabeth Jones Monroe.
The family lived on a small farm at the edge of a forest in Westmoreland County,
Virginia. Young Monroe walked several miles through the forest to attend the
school of Parson Campbell, where John Marshall (later Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States), was a fellow student and close friend. It
was from Parson Campbell that Monroe learned the stern moral code that he
retained throughout his life.
When Monroe entered the College of William and
Mary, he was a solemn, studious 16-year-old. But the year was 1774, and Monroe
found it difficult to concentrate on his studies as Virginia and other American
colonies moved closer to war with Great Britain. However, he remained at college
for more than a year, during which his father died. His uncle, Judge Joseph
Jones, assumed the cost of Monroe's education and became his guardian and
trusted adviser.
In 1775 Monroe left college to go to war. He
became a lieutenant in the Third Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army,
formed that year to fight British troops. In August 1776 the regiment was
ordered north to the army's main base at Harlem Heights, outside New York City.
They arrived during the American retreat from Manhattan Island and fought at
Harlem Heights and White Plains. Monroe accompanied the retreating army through
New Jersey and across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. On December 26,
1776, at the Battle of Trenton, Monroe's captain was wounded and “the command
fell on me,” as Monroe later explained, “and soon after, I was shot through by a
ball which grazed my breast.”
When he had recovered from his wound, Monroe
was named aide-de-camp to Major General Lord Stirling. He fought in the battles
of Brandywine and Germantown in the autumn of 1777. That winter he was with
General George Washington at Valley Forge, and in June 1778 he fought in the
Battle of Monmouth.
Early in 1779, Monroe, now a major, left the
northern army, which was encamped outside New York City with no immediate
prospect of action. He arrived in Virginia in May, armed with letters of
recommendation from several prominent men, including General Washington, who
said of him: “He has in every instance maintained the reputation of a brave,
active, and sensible officer.” The Virginia legislature made him a lieutenant
colonel and commissioned him to lead a militia regiment then being recruited.
However, the unit was never formed, and for all practical purposes, Monroe's
military career was over.
Instead of commanding the regiment, Monroe
became an aide to Thomas Jefferson, who was then governor of Virginia. He also
became Jefferson's pupil in the study of law. During this period, Monroe began
to see what course his life would take. At a time when, as he expressed it, his
“plan of life” was “perplexed,” he later wrote Jefferson, “you became acquainted
with me and undertook the direction of my studies ... my plan of life is now
fixed.”
III | EARLY POLITICAL CAREER |
A | Member of the Virginia Legislature |
Monroe had barely settled in Prince Edward
County, Virginia, when he was elected to the state legislature in 1782. He was
then 24 years old. The legislature elected him to the executive council, of
which he was the youngest member. In 1783 he was elected to the Congress of the
Confederation, which was then the governing body of the United States under the
Articles of Confederation. There he was the youngest delegate to vote for
ratification of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution.
A1 | Western Travel |
Monroe served in Congress for three
years. It was during this time that he first became interested in American
expansion, specifically in the settlement of the Western lands between the
Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River. He was chairman of two
congressional committees, one that was concerned with free navigation on the
Mississippi River and the other with formation of a government for the Western
lands.
In 1784, during a congressional recess,
Monroe journeyed through the Western territories. He went up the Hudson River,
passed through the Great Lakes, visited the forts that the British still held in
the Northwest Territory in violation of the Treaty of Paris, and returned by way
of the Ohio River. With the information he gathered, he helped to lay the
groundwork for territorial government embodied in the Northwest Ordinance
enacted by Congress in 1787.
A2 | Marriage |
While in Congress, which was meeting in
New York City, Monroe met Elizabeth Kortright, whom he married in the spring of
1786. They had two daughters, and a son who died in childhood.
A3 | Return to Virginia |
In October 1786, Monroe resigned from
Congress and settled with his bride in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he began
a law practice. His retirement from politics was brief. He was soon elected to
the town council, and then once again to the Virginia legislature.
However, Monroe never lost touch with
national politics. He corresponded regularly with both Jefferson and Madison. In
1786 Monroe attended the Annapolis Convention, which had been called to consider
interstate commerce and other matters not covered by the Articles of
Confederation. The delegates decided to seek a new constitution for the nation.
However, Monroe was not named a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He
blamed Madison and Edmund Randolph, governor of Virginia, for the oversight.
“The governor ... hath shewn ... a disposition to thwart me,” he wrote
Jefferson, and “Madison, upon whose friendship I have calculated, whose views I
have favor'd, and with whom I have held the most confidential correspondence” he
believed to be “in strict league” with the governor.
B | Virginia Convention Delegate |
After the Constitutional Convention
drafted the new Constitution of the United States in 1787, Monroe was elected a
delegate to the Virginia convention called to ratify it. Among the Virginians,
Madison and Randolph were the chief spokesmen for ratification, while Monroe, in
the beginning at least, adopted a neutral stand. Finally, however, he opposed
ratification because the Constitution created too strong a central government.
Monroe made a strong appeal to the delegates from the western part of the state,
arguing that the Constitution was a threat to free navigation on the Mississippi
River. Madison effectively rebutted this argument, but it won over a number of
western delegates. Monroe also deplored the absence of a Bill of Rights in the
Constitution. Although he voted against ratification, Monroe accepted the new
government without any misgivings. Soon afterward he ran for a seat in the House
of Representatives, the lower house of the Congress of the United States formed
under the newly ratified Constitution. He was defeated by Madison.
C | United States Senator |
In 1789 Monroe moved to Albemarle County,
Virginia, near Jefferson's estate, Monticello. Monroe's estate, Ash Lawn, was
for almost 20 years the home to which he returned whenever he was free from
public duties. In 1790 he was elected to a recently vacated seat in the U.S.
Senate (the upper house of Congress). He was named to a full six-year term the
following year.
Although there were no political parties
in the United States at this time, there were factions. The Federalist faction,
identified with Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, favored an active
federal government, a treasury that played a prominent role in the nation's
economic life, and a pro-British foreign policy. By 1800 this faction became the
Federalist Party. The Anti-Federalists, of whom Thomas Jefferson was most
prominent, favored a limited federal government and a pro-French foreign policy.
This faction later became the Democratic-Republican Party. In the Senate, Monroe
aligned himself with the Anti-Federalists. Like them, he opposed any tendency
toward centralization of power in the national government at the expense of
state sovereignty. In international affairs, Monroe was sympathetic to the
French Revolution (1789-1799) and supported France in the wars that followed.
Nevertheless, he agreed with President Washington's policy of neutrality during
the European wars that followed the French Revolution.
D | United States Diplomat |
D1 | Minister to France |
In the spring of 1794, Monroe resigned
from the Senate to accept the diplomatic post of minister plenipotentiary to
France. His assignment was to help maintain friendly relations with France in
spite of U.S. efforts to remain on peaceful terms with France's enemy Great
Britain. He was chosen at least in part because of his known sympathy for
France, and it was hoped that he could calm any fears France might have of
American favoritism toward Britain.
The situation in France was
complicated. Apparently, from the outset, Monroe went too far in identifying
with the new Republic of France. His ardently pro-French speech to the French
assembly brought a reprimand from President Washington: “Considering the place
in which ... delivered and the neutral policy the country had to pursue, it was
a measure that does not appear to have been well devised by our minister.” Nor
was the administration satisfied with Monroe's attempts to justify Jay's Treaty,
which the United States signed with Great Britain in 1794 and which the French
government found offensive because it made concessions to the British.
In September 1796, Monroe was recalled.
He believed he had been betrayed by the Federalists in the administration, who
had, he felt, used him to appease France while they made broad concessions to
Britain in Jay's Treaty. This opinion was also held by many other Americans, who
were beginning to be molded into an opposition party by Jefferson. Although
Monroe blamed the policies and motives of his superiors for the failure of his
mission, he remained bitter about it for the rest of his life.
D2 | Return Home |
When Monroe returned to the United
States in June 1797, he found that political differences had deepened between
his friends and the Federalists in power, now headed by President John Adams.
His own relations with the Federalists had suffered because of his European
mission. From this time on, Monroe identified himself more and more with the
Anti-Federalists, soon to be called the Democratic-Republican Party. After two
years of retirement from public office, Monroe was elected governor of Virginia.
He served from 1799 to 1803, a relatively uneventful period in the history of
the state.
On the national scene, however, a great
political change occurred at this time. Jefferson was elected President in 1800,
and the Democratic-Republican Party was gaining in popularity. In 1803 Monroe
was named to be part of an “extraordinary mission” to France. He was to help
negotiate what has been called the largest real estate transaction in
history—the Louisiana Purchase.
D3 | Louisiana Purchase |
When Monroe arrived in France, U.S.
diplomat Robert R. Livingston was already deep in negotiations with the French
for the acquisition of New Orleans and West Florida. French Emperor Napoleon I
offered instead to sell not only New Orleans, but the entire Louisiana colony as
well. However, no agreement was reached until Monroe arrived. Although the
Americans were not authorized to make such a large purchase, they began
negotiations. In April 1803, Monroe and Livingston concluded the treaty that
would more than double the size of their nation. Although West Florida was
Spanish territory and was not included in the bargain, Monroe pressed Napoleon
to include his ally's property as well. Napoleon promised “to engage his support
for our claim to the Floridas with Spain,” but this was as far as he would
go.
D4 | Minister to Britain |
As soon as the negotiations for the
Louisiana Purchase were completed, Monroe crossed the English Channel to take up
duties as minister plenipotentiary to Britain. His primary mission was to obtain
relief from British harassment of U.S. shipping, such as the seizure of cargoes
bound for French ports, which Jay's Treaty had not stopped. U.S. relations with
Britain were particularly strained at this time, and Monroe made little headway.
Therefore, he was sent to Madrid to explore Spain's readiness to consider a U.S.
purchase of Florida. This errand also proved useless.
In July 1805 Monroe returned to Britain
to negotiate a treaty, assisted by diplomat William Pinkney. However, the treaty
was one of general agreement only and did not touch on two vital issues: a
British blockade of French ports and the impressment, or forced induction, of
American sailors into the British navy. It contained no concessions to the
United States, and Jefferson wisely refused to submit it to the Senate for
ratification. In late 1807 Monroe left for the United States.
E | Return to Politics |
Monroe arrived in Washington, D.C., a few
days before Jefferson signed the Embargo Act, which halted nearly all U.S. land
and sea commerce with foreign nations. This measure was designed to hurt the
British economy and thereby induce Britain to stop harassing U.S. vessels. It
turned out, however, to be as much of a failure in this as was Monroe's treaty:
British shippers actually profited from the removal of U.S. competition.
Monroe's old allies, Jefferson and
Madison, were cool toward him after his return. This was because one faction of
Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party wanted Monroe as a rival presidential
candidate to Madison, Jefferson's secretary of state and chosen successor, and
Monroe did little to disavow the action. He was bitter over the rejection of his
treaty, and he did not support Madison in the election of 1808. Moreover,
Monroe's supporters, led by Jefferson's enemy, Congressman John Randolph, made
it seem that Monroe was encouraging them.
In September, Monroe sent Jefferson all
correspondence he had had with Randolph to assure him there was “nothing ... to
sanction what has been most ungenerously insinuated.” But the old friendship
among Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe remained disturbed for some time, and
Madison did not offer Monroe a Cabinet post when he became president in
1809.
Returning to Virginia politics, Monroe
once more served in the legislature and was for a second time elected governor.
During these years, thanks to a long and honest correspondence between them, the
rift with Jefferson was gradually healed. When, in 1811, Madison invited Monroe
to become secretary of state, the friendship of the three Virginians was
reestablished.
F | Secretary of State and of War |
When Monroe became secretary of state,
relations with Britain had worsened. With both Monroe's treaty and the Embargo
Act having failed to halt British interference with shipping, war now seemed
certain. Monroe nevertheless worked to prevent it. Unlike Madison, he favored a
less aggressive attitude toward Britain. The French had also been confiscating
cargoes—in this case, those bound for British ports—and in Monroe's opinion
France's provocations were just as bad as those of Britain. But the
administration and Congress seemed determined to have war with Britain,
influenced partly by the prospect of annexing British-held territory in North
America and also, since Spain was now Britain's ally, Florida as well.
F1 | War of 1812 |
Although Monroe had been opposed to
war, when the War of 1812 was declared he loyally supported Madison and his
cause. Monroe served as secretary of state throughout the war, and
simultaneously as secretary of war for the latter part of it.
Monroe was back in uniform briefly at
the time of the British attack on Washington. He led the Maryland militia in an
unsuccessful attempt to stave off the British at Bladensburg. After Washington
was invaded and burned in 1814, the secretary of war was dismissed and Monroe
took on the full responsibilities of that post. There were many problems facing
Madison's administration: a bankrupt treasury, an army badly led and badly
equipped, a rebellious New England, and a hostile Congress. Monroe helped to
resolve some of them. He obtained loans from District of Columbia banks,
although he could offer no warranty but his word for their repayment. He doubled
the land bounty offered to enlistees in the army, lowered the enlistment age to
include minors, and authorized the incorporation of state troops into the
regular army at federal expense.
In August 1814 a U.S. peace commission,
headed by expert diplomat John Quincy Adams, met at Ghent (Gent), Belgium, to
negotiate peace with Britain. On December 24, 1814, a peace treaty acceptable to
Madison and Monroe was signed at Ghent. It ended the war but failed to resolve
most of the issues that had started it, including the blockading of ports,
searching of ships, and impressment of sailors. In 1815 Monroe returned to the
normal peacetime duties of the secretary of state.
G | Election of 1816 |
At the end of Madison's second term,
Monroe was the logical presidential nominee for the Democratic-Republicans. The
Federalist Party had been ruined by its opposition to the War of 1812 and could
offer no effective opposition. Monroe received the electoral votes of all but
three states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware. These went to Rufus King
of New York, the Federalist candidate. On March 4, 1817, two old schoolmates met
again as Chief Justice John Marshall administered the oath of office to
President James Monroe. Daniel D. Tompkins of New York served as Monroe's vice
president.
IV | PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES |
A | Inaugural Address |
Monroe's inaugural address provided a
preview of much of the policy for which the fifth president became renowned. The
failures of Jefferson's and Madison's foreign policy, as well as the futility of
the War of 1812, had impressed Monroe. They had made him think about other ways
to safeguard American rights. He proposed the establishment of an adequate army
and navy. “Our land and naval forces,” he said, “should be moderate, but
adequate to do the necessary purposes” of protection against invasion and
“maintaining the neutrality of the United States with dignity in the wars of
other powers.”
B | Cabinet |
Monroe's Cabinet was a remarkable group,
undoubtedly one of the strongest Cabinets in U.S. history. The outstanding
appointment was that of John Quincy Adams as secretary of state. Adams, son of a
Federalist president and a convert to the Democratic-Republican Party, was
unquestionably one of the greatest secretaries of state in U.S. history. The
eight-year association between Adams and Monroe was marked by a growing mutual
trust and respect that culminated in the Monroe Doctrine. Other distinguished
Cabinet members included John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, secretary of war;
William A. Crawford of Georgia, secretary of the treasury; and William Wirt of
Maryland, attorney general. Monroe also had access throughout his presidency to
the experienced counsel of his predecessors and friends, Madison and Jefferson,
although on several occasions he offended Jefferson by not acting on his
suggestions.
C | Purchase of Florida |
Monroe's first administration faced two
major crises, one foreign and one domestic. In late 1817 members of the Seminole
tribe in Spanish-held Florida began a series of raids along the Georgia border
in retaliation for incursions by U.S. troops looking for escaped slaves. Monroe
sent General Andrew Jackson to drive them out. Jackson did so, but he also swept
on into Florida, captured Pensacola and Saint Marks, and executed two British
subjects for inciting the raids. The incident brought a threat of war with both
Britain and Spain. Monroe entrusted Adams with the delicate task of smoothing
the ruffled feelings of Britain and of negotiating with Spain not only for
peace, but also for the long-hoped-for purchase of Florida.
Adams's negotiations were a combination of
toughness and daring. He backed Jackson's invasion, persuaded Britain that its
subjects had been in Florida illegally and had not been entitled to British
protection, and told Spain that if it could not police Florida, it should cede
it to the United States. On February 22, 1819, after long negotiations, Spain
gave in and the Transcontinental Treaty was signed. Spain relinquished Florida
in return for the assumption by the United States of $5 million in debts owed by
Spaniards to American citizens, and a guarantee that the United States would
renounce its claim to Texas. Of even greater importance, Adams succeeded in
extending the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase, which had been
undetermined, all the way to the Pacific coast. The boundary began at the mouth
of the Sabine River, extended along the Red and Arkansas rivers, ran north to
the 42nd parallel (the present northern boundary of California), then straight
west to the Pacific.
Adams also negotiated settlement of
long-standing disputes with Britain. In the Convention of 1818, the United
States obtained limited fishing rights in Canadian waters, the northern boundary
of the Louisiana Purchase was fixed to run along the 49th parallel from the Lake
of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, and the Oregon country, which Britain and
the United States both claimed, was placed under joint occupancy for ten
years.
D | Missouri Compromise |
In the first years of Monroe's
administration, slavery was becoming a national issue. Many Northern states had
outlawed it, but in the South it was the mainstay of the established social and
economic order. When Monroe took office, the states were equally divided between
slave and free states. Although the North had a majority in the House of
Representatives, seats in the Senate were evenly divided. Thus, the South at
least had a veto power over any bill it considered injurious to its
interests.
In 1818 the territory of Missouri sought
admission to the Union and Maine followed in 1819. Maine petitioned for entrance
as a free state, and Missouri as a slave state. Northerners objected to the
admission of Missouri on the grounds that it would set a precedent for the
formation of other slave states out of the Louisiana Territory. Southerners
would not agree to any restriction on slavery in Missouri. This disagreement
prompted one of the bitterest debates in congressional history.
Monroe, himself a Southerner and a
slaveholder, feared most the divisive effect of this issue. In a letter to
Jefferson, Monroe wrote, “I have never known a question so menacing to the
tranquility and even the continuance of our Union as the present one. All other
subjects have given way to it. ...”
Despite his sympathies with the South,
Monroe took no sides while Congress debated. His great concern was to protect
the Union, and he knew that the majority of states would be on the side of the
non-slaveholding states. Aware of the deeply felt differences among the states,
he nevertheless believed that “a compromise would be found and agreed to, which
would be satisfactory to all parties.”
Finally, on March 3, 1820, the Missouri
Compromise was sent to the president. It admitted Maine as a free state and
authorized Missouri to draft a constitution, preparatory to being admitted as a
slave state. It also stipulated that all other new states carved from the
Louisiana Territory north of 36°30′ north latitude (the southern boundary of
Missouri) were to be free states. On March 6, Monroe signed the bill into
law.
E | Colonization of Slaves |
Like many people of his time, Monroe
believed the solution to the slavery problem was the colonization of freed
slaves outside the boundaries of the United States. He supported and enforced a
law of 1819 that provided for the return to Africa of blacks illegally seized
and brought to the United States. Privately he supported the work of the
American Colonization Society, which had acquired land in Africa, named it
Liberia, and resettled freed slaves there. In recognition of Monroe's work, the
Liberian capital was named Monrovia, after him, in 1824.
F | Native American Issues |
Monroe also tried to formulate a humane
solution to the conflicts between whites and Native Americans. He was greatly
concerned with the fate of Native Americans in this period of expansion, as the
frontier moved westward. He urged “new efforts for the preservation,
improvement, and civilization of the native inhabitants.” Despite strong
opposition from the frontier territories, in 1825 he adopted the policy of
giving the native peoples land in the Great Plains, which they would hold “as
long as grass shall grow and rivers run.” The policy, while not a perfect one by
any means, at least relieved the pressure for many years.
G | Election of 1820 |
After the Missouri Compromise, no
important legislation was passed in the remaining year of Monroe's first term.
His administration had been one of high idealism and integrity, and his personal
popularity was at a high point. With the vexing slavery question settled, at
least temporarily, Monroe was virtually unopposed for reelection. Even an
economic downturn, the Panic of 1819, did not hurt him politically. He carried
every state in the Union and received every electoral vote cast except one,
which was cast by a New Hampshire elector for John Quincy Adams.
V | SECOND TERM AS PRESIDENT |
Monroe's second term as president was
relatively uneventful. The only major accomplishment, although a great one, was
the formulation of the Monroe Doctrine. The doctrine was established as a result
of threats of Russian encroachment on the Pacific Coast and of European
intervention in the newly independent Latin American nations.
A | Treaty With Russia |
In 1821 Tsar Alexander I of Russia decreed
that all lands along the Pacific Ocean from the Bering Strait to 51° north
latitude belonged to Russia and that henceforth foreign shipping would be
prohibited within 160 km (100 mi) of the claimed lands. The claim bit deep into
the Oregon Territory, and, on Monroe's instructions, Adams sent the Russian
minister a note refusing to recognize the tsar's decree.
“We should contest the right of Russia to
any territorial establishment on this continent,” wrote Adams, adding
that “we should assume distinctly the principle that the American continents are
no longer subjects for any new European colonial establishments.” The
tsar's claim was untenable, and he backed down. In April 1824, Russia signed a
treaty agreeing to form no settlements on the northwest coast south of 54°40′
north latitude, with the United States agreeing to make no settlements north of
that line. The line represented the approximate boundary between Alaska, which
was the only part of North America that Russia had colonized extensively, and
the Oregon country, to which the United States had a claim by virtue of
exploration.
Adams's note had implications that went far
beyond an ultimatum to Russia alone. It had stated that the United States would
oppose any new European settlement, and this idea became one of the two basic
principles of the Monroe Doctrine.
B | Holy Alliance |
A second threat from Europe alarmed Monroe
much more than the tsar's edict. In 1823 the so-called Holy Alliance of Russia,
Austria, Prussia, and France had intervened in Spain, which had become a
constitutional monarchy, and forced the restoration of the absolute monarchy
under Ferdinand VII. Monroe believed that the alliance's next move might well be
an invasion and reconquest of Spain's former Latin American colonies. The
British shared this belief. In London, British Foreign Secretary George Canning
proposed to the U.S. envoy, Richard Rush, that Britain and the United States
issue a joint statement warning the alliance to keep hands off the former
colonies in Latin America.
Rush transmitted the proposal to
Washington, and Monroe was inclined to accept it. However, Adams insisted that
the time had come for the United States to act as a sovereign nation, not merely
a British satellite. He wanted America to proclaim and carry out its own policy.
Monroe was finally won over to this point of view. Accordingly, in a polite note
to Canning, Adams rejected the offer with the excuse that, since Britain had not
recognized the Latin American republics and the United States had, no joint
resolution relative to them was possible. Canning affably agreed although as a
matter of practical reality it would be the British navy, not the American, that
would enforce the unilateral statement.
C | Monroe Doctrine |
Monroe decided to include his policy
statement in his annual message to Congress, delivered on December 2, 1823. The
Monroe Doctrine included two paragraphs that stated explicitly the basic tenets
of his foreign policy. The first, based on the diplomatic exchange with Russia,
declared that the United States would oppose any further colonization by
European powers in the western hemisphere. The second warned that the United
States would “view any interposition” in the affairs of western hemisphere
nations “for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling ... in any other
manner their destiny ... as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition
toward the United States.”
It is true that the doctrine's two
principles, noncolonization and nonintervention, were not really new or
original. In general form they had been expressed or hinted at by earlier
presidents, especially Jefferson. They were also substantially formulated by
John Quincy Adams. However, it was Monroe who explicitly proclaimed them as
fundamental policy and who took final responsibility for that policy. Therefore,
the doctrine that was a keystone of U.S. foreign policy for many years rightly
bears his name.
D | Final Days in Office |
As the election of 1824 neared, Monroe had
no thought of seeking a third term. He planned to follow the precedent that
Washington had set of serving two terms and then retiring. Monroe wrote to
Madison that year: “The approaching election, ‘tho distant, is a circumstance
that excites greatest interest in both houses, and whose effect, already
sensibly felt, is still much to be dreaded. ... There being three avowed
candidates in the administration is a circumstance which increases the
embarrassment.” The three avowed candidates were Secretary of State Adams,
Secretary of the Treasury Crawford, and Secretary of War Calhoun.
During Monroe's last year in office the
Cabinet, which had functioned harmoniously throughout the administration, became
infected with dissension and animosity. Monroe remained scrupulously neutral as
rivalry became more and more embittered. His refusal to assume firm party
leadership at this point and to use his influence to name any candidate as his
successor is often blamed for the collapse of the Democratic-Republican Party
into warring factions during the succeeding administration of John Quincy
Adams.
On the eve of the election, Congress passed
a protective tariff by a narrow margin. The tariff raised the cost of importing
manufactured goods and thereby benefited the Northeast by protecting the market
for the manufactures that region was beginning to produce. Western states also
supported the tariff because it provided an internal market for their goods. The
South bitterly opposed it, however, because that region did not have its own
manufacturing industry and now had to pay more for the items it needed. This was
a further indication that the Era of Good Feelings was drawing to a close.
VI | LAST YEARS |
Monroe was 67 years old when he turned over
the presidency to Adams and retired to Oak Hill in Loudoun County, Virginia. But
his retirement years were clouded by financial worries. He was forced to sell
his estate Ash Lawn to meet his debts. Although Congress awarded him $30,000 in
1826, he never recovered from the financial burden of his long years of public
service. After his wife died, Monroe sold Oak Hill and moved to New York City to
live with his younger daughter, Maria Hester Gouverneur, and her husband. He
died on July 4, 1831, five years after Jefferson and John Adams had died and 55
years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He was buried in New
York City, but in 1858 his body was moved to Richmond, Virginia, and reburied in
Hollywood Cemetery.
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