James Monroe

Front matter

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JBfy Daniel Coit Gilman With an introduction by Prof, Robert Dawidoff

By Daniel Coit Gilman

Chapter I

The name of James Monroe, fifth president of the United States, is associated with the chief political events in the history of this country during a period of somewhat more than fifty years. He served with gallantry in the army of the Revolution and was high in office during the progress of the second contest with Great Britain, and during the Seminole war ; he was a delegate and a senator in Congress ; he was called to the chief legislative and executive stations in Virginia; he represented the United States in France, Spain, and England ; he was a prominent agent in the purchase of Louisiana and Florida; he was a member of Madison's cabinet, and directed (for a while simultaneously) the departments of State and War ; he was twice chosen president, the second time by an almost unanimous vote of the electoral college ; his name is given to a political doctrine of fundamental importance ; his administration is known as " the era of good feeling : " yet no adequate memoir of his life has been written, and while the pajjers of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison — his four predecessors in the offtce of president — have heen collected and printed in a convenient form, the student of Monroe's career must search for the data in numerous public documents, and in the unassorted files of unpublished correspondence.

Monroe is not alone among the illustrious Virginians whose memory it is well to revive. Many years ago, St, George Tucker wrote to William Wirt, in a half-playful, half-earnest tone, that Socrates himself would pass unnoticed and forgotten in Virginia, if he were not a public character and some of his speeches preserved in a newspaper. " Who knows anything," he asks, " of Peyton Randolj^h, once the most popular man in Virginia? Who remembers Thompson Mason, esteemed the first lawyer at the bar ; or his brotlier George Mason, of whom I have heard Mr. Madison say that he possessed the greatest talents for debate of any man he had ever heard speak? What is known of Dabney Carr but that he made the motion for appointing committees of correspondence in 1773? Virginia has produced few men of finer talents, as I have repeatedly heard, I might name a number of others," continues Tucker, "highly respected and influential men, . . . yet how little is known of one half of them at the present day ? " Certainly in this second " era of good feeling " the impartial study of such lives is a most inviting field of biographical research, and may especially be commended to advanced students in our universities, who can, by careful delineations, each of some one career, contribute to the general stock of historical knowledge, and acquire, at the same time, a vivid personal interest in the progress of past events.

I shall not attempt to give in detail the personal and domestic history of Monroe, nor can I, in the space at command, do justice to his voluminous writings ; but I shall endeavor to show what he was in public, how he bore himself in the legislative, diplomatic, and administrative positions to which he was called, and what influence he exerted upon the progress of this country. It will be necessary for the completeness of the study to inquire into the early training which gave an impulse to his life, and to examine, in conclusion, the opinions pronounced upon his conduct by those who knew him and by those who came after him. Another hand will doubtless draw a more elaborate portrait ; I shall only try to give a faithful sketch of an honest and patriotic citizen as he discharged the duties of exalted stations. The materials for a complete memoir will soon be at command, when the publication of the writings of James Monroe, edited by S. M. Hamilton, shall be completed.^

James Monroe, according to the family tradition recorded by his son-in-law, came from a family of Scotch cavaliers, descendants of Hector Monroe, an officer of Charles I.^ His parentage on both sides was Virginian. The father of James was Spence Monroe, and his mother was Eliza Jones, of King George County, a sister of Joseph Jones, who was twice sent as a delegate from Virginia to the Continental Congress, and afterwards, in 1789, was appointed judge of the district court in the same State. Westmoreland County, where the future president was born, lies on the right bank of the Potomac, between that river and the Rappahannock. It is famous for the fertility of its soil, and for the eminent men who have been among its inhabitants. Near the head of Monroe's Creek, which empties into the Potomac, James Monroe was born, April 28, 1758. Not far away, nearer the Potomac, was the birthplace of George Washington. In the same vicinity

1 New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 6 vols. 8vo. 1898. ^ See Appendix.

dwelt Richard Henry Lee and his noted brothers, and also their famous cousin, Henry Lee, known as " Light Horse Harry," whose still more famous son, Robert E. Lee, led the Confederate army in the recent war. Here also was the early home of Bushrod Washington. The birthplace of James Madison was in the same peninsula, though not in the same county. It is not strange that the enthusiastic antiquaries, half a century ago, — Martin, Barber, and the rest, — should speak of this region as the Athens of Virginia, an expression which may not be regarded as exact by classical scholars, but cannot be called unpatriotic. The ascendency of this region is not without its parallel.^

During Monroe's boyhood, his neighbors and friends were greatly excited by the passage of the Stamp Act. In 1766, several of them, in-

^ A recent writer (Hon. F. J. Kingsbury) on old Connecticut makes the following remark: " From the earliest settlement of Connecticut down to the end of the first quarter of the present century, agriculture was the important branch of our industry, and land was the source as well as the representative of most of our wealth. For two hundred years it is safe to say that the good land governed the State. Everywhere it was only necessary to know the soil in order to know also the character of the people. The best soil bore everywhere the best men and women, and that seed which had been winnowed out of the granaries of the old world to plant in the new, did not take unkindly to the strong uplands and rich bottoms of the great river and its tributaries."

eluding Richard Henry Lee, Spence Monroe, and John Monroe, joined in a remonstrance against the execution of the act, and in many other ways showed their hostility to the arbitrary rule of the British government. Lee had received an academic training about ten years before at an academy in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and was a correspondent of men of station in Jjondon. He suggested to his neighbors, in 1767, that they should subscribe for a portrait of Camden, then Lord High Chancellor, as a token of their admiration for his opposition to the Stamp Act. The amount which they raised, £76 8s., was sent to Mr. Edmund Jennings, Lincoln's Inn, London, with a request that he would take the requisite steps to procure the portrait. Sir Joshua Reynolds was " the limner " selected by the Virginians, but Lee did not hesitate to give his personal opinion that " Mr. West, being an American, ought to be preferred in this matter." Lord Camden, wrote Jennings, "having appointed several different times for Mr. West's attending on him, hath at length, it seems, totally forgot his promise. . . . Draw for the money, and should his lordship at any time recollect his engagement, and be worthy of your approbation and honoring, I shall beg the gentlemen [of Westmoreland] to accept from me his portrait." The Virginians were also eager to have a portrait of Lord Chatham, and their correspondent, Mr. Jennings, had a fine likeness copied and sent to the old Dominion. Lee wrote fi'om Chantilly, in 1769, that the gentlemen of Westmoreland returned their thanks " for the very genteel present of Lord Chatham's picture. It arrived in fine order, and is very much admired. They propose to place it in the courthouse, thinking the Assembly may furnish themselves with his lordship's picture." He adds that his brother. Dr. Lee, can show Mr. Jennings " the proceedings of our last Assembly, by which you may judge how bright the flame of liberty burns here, and may surely convince a tyrannous administration that honesty and equity alone can secure the cordiality and affection of Virginia." Under influences like these the young Monroe was trained in the love of civil liberty. Indeed, Bishop Meade declares that Virginia had been fighting the battles of the Revolution for one hundred and fifty years before the Declaration. ^

The College of William and Mary had been in existence, with varying fortunes, not far from one hundred and fifteen years, when James Monroe entered it as a student, a short time before the beginning of the war. Its historian claims that it was then the richest college in 1 Old Churches, etc., of Virginia, i. 15.

North America, having an annual income of £4,000. A scholar cannot read the early accounts of that venerable foundation, next in age to Harvard, and examine the list of those who have been trained for their country's service within its walls, without deep regret that the fire and the sword have so often interfered with its prosperity, or without rejoicing that its name and usefulness are still honorably perpetuated.

When Monroe began his college studies, Williamsburg, the strategic point of the peninsula between the James and the York, was the seat both of the colonial government and of the college. Bishop Meade, with conscious exaggeration, speaks of the capital as a miniature copy of the Court of St. James, " while the old church and its grave-yard, and the college chapel were — si licet cum magnis componere parva — the Westminster Abbey and the St. Paul's of London, where the great ones were interred."

At the signal of rebellion against the British authoi'ity, three of the professors and between twenty-five and thirty students are said to have joined their comrades from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton in the military ranks. Among the volunteers John Marshall and James Monroe were found. In allusion to these young patriots, Hon. H. B. Grigsby, in his historical discourse on the Virginia Convention of 1776, spoke as follows : —

" I see that generous band of students who at the beginning of the Revolution hurriedly cast aside the gown and sallied forth to fight the battles of the United Colonies ; . . . and when the struggle was past I see two tall and gallant youths, who had been classmates in early youth, and whose valor had shone on many a field, enter their names on your lists and, after an abode beneath your roof, depart once more to serve their country in the Senate and In the most celebrated courts of Europe, crowning their past career by filling, one the chief magistracy of the Union, the other the highest of the federal judiciary."

It is also worthy of incidental mention that the Phi Beta Kappa Society, still flourishing in American colleges, the earliest of " Greek-letter fraternities," was formed at William and Mary, December 5, 1776. The first meeting, we are told, was held in the Apollo Hall of the old Raleigh tavern, a room in which the burning words of Patrick Henry had been heard. In the printed list of original members the names of John Marshall and Bushrod Washington appear, but I do not find James Monroe's.

The public career of James Monroe began in 1776 with his joining the Continental army at the headquarters of Washington near New York, as a lieutenant in the third Virginian regiment under Colonel Hugh Mercer. He was with the troops at Harlem (September 16), and at

White Plains (October 28), and at Trenton, where he received an honorable wound (December 26). His part in the last mentioned engagement is described by General Wilkinson in his printed memoirs, and with slightly different language in a manuscript preserved in the Gouverneur papers. From this statement it appears that, as the British were forming in the main street of Trenton, the advanced guard of the American left was led by Captain William Washington and Lieutenant James Monroe. The British were driven back and two pieces of artillery were captured. Captain Washington was wounded through the wrist, and Lieutenant Monroe through the shoulder. " These particular acts of gallantry," says the narrative, " have never been noticed, yet they cannot be too highly appreciated, since to them may, in a great measure, be ascribed the facility of our success."

During the campaigns of 1777-78 Monroe served as a volunteer aid, and with the rank of major, on the staff of the Earl of Stirling, and took part in the battles of Brandywine (September 11), Germantown (October 4), and Monmouth (June 28).^ His temporary promotion appears to have been an obstacle to his

* He is said to have been with Lafayette when the latter was woiinded.

permanent preferment, for by it he lost his place in the Continental line. Strong influences were brought to bear in Virginia to secure for him some suitable position in the forces of that State. Lord Stirling gave him testimonials, and the commander-in-chief wrote a long letter, — addressed to Colonel Archibald Cary, and doubtless intended for other eyes, — rehearsing in terms of careful commendation the merits of young Monroe. These are the words of Washington : —

" The zeal he discovered by entering the service at an early period, the character he supported in his regiment, and the manner in which he distinguished himself at Trenton, when he received a wound, induced me to appoint liim to a captaincy in one of the additional regiments. This regiment failing, from the difficulty of recruiting, he entered into Lord Stirling's family and has served two campaigns as a volunteer aid to his lordship. He has in every instance maintained the reputation of a brave, active, and sensible officer. As we cannot introduce him into the Continental line, it were to be wished that the State could do something for him. If an event of this kind could take place, it would give me particular pleasure ; as the esteem I have for him, and a regard to his merit, conspire to make me earnestly wish to see him provided for in some handsome way."

But even the possession of a good record, and the encouragement of Washington, with the indorsements of Lord Stirling and the patronage of Jefferson, could not effect everything. Mr. Adams says the exhausted state of the country prevented the raising of a new regiment, and the active military services of Monroe were afterwards restricted to occasional duties as a volunteer in defense of the State against the distressing invasions with which it was visited. Once, after the fall of Charleston, S. C, in 1780, according to the same writer, he re-appeared, by request of Governor Jefferson, as a military commissioner to collect and report information with regard to the condition and prospects of the Southern army, — a trust which he discharged to the satisfaction of the authorities.^ He thus attained to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and here his military services were interrupted.

It is not surprising to discover that the young officer, who had quickly attained distinction, was paralyzed by inactivity. " Till lately," he writes to Lord Stirling in September, 1782, apologizing for a long epistolary silence, " I have been a recluse. Chagrined with my disappointment in not attaining the rank and command I sought, chagrined with some disappointments in a private line, I retired from society

1 Eulogy by J. Q. Adams.

with almost a resolution never to return to it again."

In this state of mind he thought of going abroad, to spend some time in the south of France, probably at Montpellier, with perhaps a year at the Temple in London. Jefferson wrote a letter introducing him to Franklin, then resident in Paris, but " a series of disappointments respecting the vessels he had expected to sail in " prevented his departure ; and he continued, under Jefferson's guidance, the reading of law. There is an interesting letter addressed to Monroe, in the time of his despondency, by Judge Jones, whose name has already been mentioned. It combines the shrewd remarks upon political affairs of a man in public life, with confidential suggestions to a nephew whom he was watching with almost paternal affection. Monroe had consulted his uncle as to whether it would be best for him to follow the lectures on law to be given by Mr. Wythe, in the college at Williamsburg, or to follow the fortunes of Mr. Jefferson, then governor, at Richmond. He received the following reply : —

JOSEPH JONES TO JAMES MONROE, MARCH 7, 1780.

" This post will bring you a letter from me, accounting for your not hearing sooner what had been done in your affairs. If your overseer sends up before next post-day you shall hear the particulars.

Charles Lewis, going down to the college, gives me an opportunity of answering, by him, your inquiry respecting your removal with the governor, or attending Mr. Wythe's lectures. If Mr. Wythe means to pursue Mr. Blackstone's method I should think you ought to attend him from the commencement of his course, if at all, and to judge of this, for want of proper information, is difficult ; indeed I incline to think Mr. Wythe, under the present state of our laws, will be much embarrassed to deliver lectures with that perspicuity and precision which might be expected from him under a more established and settled state of them. The undertaking is arduous and the subject intricate at the best, but is rendered much more so from the circumstances of the country and the imperfect system now in use, inconsistent in some instances with the principles of the Constitution of the national government. Should the revision be passed the next session, it would, I think, lighten his labors and render them more useful to the student ; otherwise he will be obliged to pursue the science under the old form, pointing out in his course the inconsistency with the present established government and the proposed alterations. Whichever method he may like, or whatever plan he may lay down to govern him, I doubt not it will be executed with credit to himself and satisfaction and benefit to his auditors. The governor need not fear the favor of the community as to his future appointment, while he continues to make the common good his study. I have no intimate acquaintance with 'Mi. Jefferson, but from the knowledge I have of him, he is in my opinion as proper a man as can be put into the office, having the requisites of ability, firmness, and diligence. You do well to cultivate his friendship, and cannot fail to entertain a grateful sense of the favors he has conferred upon you, and while you continue to deserve his esteem he wiU not withdraw his countenance. If, therefore, upon conferring with him upon the subject he wishes or shows a desire that you go with him, I would gratify him. Should you remain to attend Mr. Wythe, I would do it with his approbation, and under the expectation that when you come to Richmond you shall hope for the continuance of his friendship and assistance. There is likelihood the campaign will this year be to the South, and in the course of it events may require the exertions of the militia of this State ; in which case, should a considerable body be called for, I hope Mr. Jefferson will head them himself ; and you no doubt will be ready cheerfully to give him your company and assistance, as well to make some return of civility to him as to satisfy your own feelings for the common good."

No one will be surpi'ised to find that under such circumstances, and with such advice, the young aspirant attached himself to the governor. He writes to Lord Stirling, in the letter already quoted, " I submitted the direction of my time and plan to my friend Mr. Jefferson, one of our wisest and most virtuous republicans, and aided by his advice I have hitherto, of late.

lived." In September, 1780, he writes to Jefferson a warm expression of gratitude.

A variety of disappointments, he says, had perplexed his plan of life and exposed him to inconveniences which had nearly destroyed him. " In this situation you [Mr. Jefferson] became acquainted with me, and undertook the direction of my studies ; and, believe me, I feel that whatever I am at present in the opinion of others, or whatever I may be in future, has greatly arisen from your friendship. My plan of life is now fixed."

It is clear that his intimacy with Jefferson, the early stages of which are here described, was the key to Monroe's political career. On many subsequent occasions the support and counsel of the older statesman had a marked influence upon the life of the younger. Their friendship continued till it was broken by Jefferson's death. Fifty years after the incidents here narrated the teacher and the pupil, having both served in the office of president, were associated with a third ex-president, the life-long friend of both, in the control of the University of Virginia, and repeatedly met in council at Charlottesville.

Chapter II Legislator And Governor Op Virginia

Monroe was called into service as a legislator at a very early period of his life. If his public career had been restricted to the service of his native State, he would have been cons^iicuous among the statesmen of Virginia. He was first a delegate to the Assembly from King George County, and a member of the executive council ; he went to the fourth, fifth, and sixth Congresses of the Confederation ; he was one of the commissioners appointed to revise the laws of Virginia ; for a second time he was returned to the Assembly ; he was a member of the convention in Virginia which adopted the United States Constitution ; he was a senator of the United States before his diplomatic service began ; and after long interruptions, and the attainment of national eminence, his presence gave dignity to the convention which adopted the Constitution of 1830, though age and infirmities precluded an active participation in the proceedings. Eleven years of his early life were nearly all devoted to legislative work, but so far as this related to the affairs of Virginia I do not discover any traces of noteworthy influence. A letter of his to Jefferson, in 1782, when the latter in an aggrieved mood was absenting himself from the House of Delegates, has been printed, and the reply which it drew forth.^ The plainness of Monroe's words and the frankness of the reply which he received, indicate a continuance of the intimacy already referred to. It was likewise to Monroe that Jefferson wrote, three years later, from Paris, explaining why he did not publish his printed notes on Virginia : " I fear the terms in which I speak of slavery and of our Constitution will do more harm than good ; " and again, " I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here ; the pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect, but the utility greater. It will make you adore your own country, its soil, its climate, its equality, liberty, laws, people, and manners."

On the other hand, as a delegate in Congress Monroe was conspicuous, and the record of his service is closely involved with those important discussions which revealed the imjaerfection of the Confederation. His term of service extended from 1783 to 1786, and he attended the sessions which were held in Annapolis, — where he saw Washington resign his commission, —

1 Jefferson's Works, i. 316. Randall's Jefferson, i. 413.

Trenton, and New York. During this period he corresponded intimately, sometimes using a cipher, with Joseph Jones, Richard Henry Lee, Madison, and Jefferson ; and a large part of his letters are still extant, with many of the answers.

An interesting letter from Monroe to Lee states succinctly the problems which perplexed the national legislature, now that peace was secured. " There are before us," he writes, " some questions of the utmost consequence that can arise in the councils of any nation," and he enumerates the peace establishment ; the regulation of commerce ; the maintenance of troops for the protection of the frontiers ; the regulation of settlements in the country westward ; and the counteraction of the narrow commercial policy of European powers. The determination of a site " for the residence of Congress " likewise demanded serious consideration, and Monroe served upon a committee which visited Georgetown in May, 1784, and decided to report in favor of the Maryland side of the Potomac, the present site of the capital.

As the powers of the Confederation were quite inadequate for the proper regulation of commerce. Congress, and thoughtful men who were not in Congress, were seriously engaged in searching for the remedy. Monroe took a prominent part in the discussions, and the noteworthy motion which he made upon the subject was referred to a special committee, who reported a recommendation, that the ninth of the articles of confederation be so altered as to secure to Congress the power to regulate commerce, with the assent of nine States in Congress assembled.^

He favored a regulation that all imposts should be collected under the authority and accrue to the use of the State in which the same might be payable. The report embodying this proviso was read in Congress March 28, 1785, and the copy of it preserved in the public archives has a few corrections in Monroe's handwriting. Many interesting papers are extant which bear upon this question, — among them a letter from James McHenry to Washington, and the latter's reply. The Virginia Assembly also engaged in the discussion of a series of propositions which tended in the same direction. Monroe's views can readily be traced in his letters to Jefferson and Madison during the session of Congress in the winter of 1784-85. On April 12 Monroe wrote to Jefferson, sending

^ This subject has been carefully studied by Mr. Bancroft, and presented in his new volumes with so much fullness that I can only follow his guidance. See his Hist, of the U. S. Const, i. 192-196. Cf. Sparks, Washington, ix. 503-507.

him the committee's report, and saying that he thinks it best to postpone action on it for a time. " It hath been brought so far," he adds, " without a prejudice against it. If carried farther here, prejudices will take place." He thinks it better that the States should act separately upon the measure. A few weeks later he wrote again to Jefferson as follows : " The report upon the ninth article hath not been taken up ; the importance of the subject and the deep and radical change it will create in the bond of the Union, together with the conviction that something must be done, seems to create an aversion or rather a fear of acting on it." Then, as if he foresaw the coming concentration of powers in the general government, he expresses a belief that the proposed change, if adopted, will certainly form " the most permanent and powerful principle in the Confederation." ^ A month later (July 15) Jefferson was again told how the debate went forward. " In my opinion," says Monroe, " the reasons in favor of changing the ninth article are conclusive, but the opposition is respectable in point of numbers as well as talents. What will be done is uncertain." To Madison he afterwards writes, summing up

1 Bancroft, Hist, of the U. S. Const, i. 450-455. See the entire letter dated June 16, 1785, given with manj' others in The Writings of James Monroe, vol. i. New York, 1898.

quite carefully the arguments on both sides. December came and Congress did not act. " The advocates for the measure will scarcely succeed," said Randolph to Washington, " so strong are the apprehensions in some minds of an abuse of the power." At the end of the month, Monroe, still sure of the necessity of committing to the United States the power of regulating trade, wrote once more to Madison. In February the prospect was no better. In May tliere was a gleam of light. The plan of a convention at Annapolis, which in March Monroe himself had not favored, had taken the subject from before Congress. " As it originated with our State," he writes, " we think it our duty to promote its object by all the means in our power. Of its success I must confess I have some hope. . . . Truth and sound state policy in every instance will urge the commission of the power to the United States." Thus it was that Congress by its own lack of power was led to the convention which formed the Constitution, and, in a far wiser manner than that originally suggested, provided for the regulation of trade. But in August Monroe was despondent. " Our affairs," he writes, " are daily falling into a worse situation ; " there is a party, he says, ready to dismember the confederacy and throw the States eastward, of the Hudson into one government. He urjres Madison to use his utmost exertions in the convention to obtain good as well as to prevent mischief, and adds to his appeal this pregnant postscript : " I have always considered the regulation of trade in the hands of the United States as necessary to preserve the Union ; without it, it will infallibly tumble to pieces ; but I earnestly wish the admission of a few additional States into the confederacy in the Southern scale." The question, it is well known, was finally settled in the convention at Philadelphia, when Delaware and South Carolina voted with the North against Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia.^