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.