Monroe, James

Born: April 28, 1758, Monroe Hall, Virginia.  Died: July 4, 1831, New York City, New York.  5th President of the United States, 1817-1825.  Revolutionary War Veteran.   U.S. Secretary of War, 1814-1815.  U.S. Secretary of State, 1811-1817.  Governor of Virginia, 1811-1811.  U.S. Minister to the U.K., 1803-1807.  U.S. Minister to France, 1794-1796.  U.S. Senator from Virginia, 1790-1794.  Member of the Congress of the Confederation from Virginia, 1783-1786.  Monroe was assisted Robert R. Livingston in France with the negotiating of the Louisiana Purchase, which also mean acquiring New Orleans and control of trade of the Mississippi River.  Last president of Jefferson’s Republican Party before it became known as the Democratic Party.  He made two long national tours to build national trust, ushering in what a Boston newspaper heralded as the “Era of Good Feelings.”  He missed having a unanimous electoral vote in the Election of 1820 by one electoral vote.  He ran unopposed since the collapsing Federalist Party offered no opponent.  William Plumer, the one elector not to vote for Monroe, stated he did so because he thought Monroe to be incompetent.  Plumer cast his vote for John Quincy Adams.  Later, a story arose that he cast his dissenting vote so that George Washington would be the only president in history to achieve a unanimous vote, though the story was never confirmed to be true.  As President, Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise.  He was best known for his policy, the “Monroe Doctrine”, which prohibited European colonization, or European intervention, of the Americas beginning in 1823.  He was sympathetic to the Latin American revolutionary movements against Spain and had decided non-intervention for peoples who sought to establish republican governments, such as was the U.S. policy during the French Revolution, were unacceptable.  The Monroe Doctrine refrained from military support, and reiterated traditional U.S. policy of neutrality regarding European wars and conflicts, while declaring that the U.S. would not tolerate recolonization of any country in the Americas by any European country once the New World country gained independence.  Monroe also stated that European countries should no longer consider the Western Hemisphere for new colonization, aiming his statement at Russia who was attempting to expand its colony along the Pacific Coast.