Virginia Was Batting Four for Five

LESSER-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS

Or PRESIDENTIAL PARAGRAPHS

Mort Fox

Virginia was batting four for five. James Monroe, our fifth president, was indeed the fourth one from the state of Virginia. Monroe was a Revolutionary War hero. He was wounded at the battle of Trenton in December of 1776.He almost bled to death after leading a successful charge against cannons that were about to be trained on our troops.“He has, in every instance, maintained the reputation of a brave, active, and sensible officer,” stated General Washington.

Monroe was a devoted public servant having held positions as a member of the Virginia Assembly, Continental Congress and U. S. Senate. He served as Minister to France, Governor of Virginia, Special Envoy in 1803 as part of the negotiating team to complete the Louisiana Purchase, Minister to Great Britain, and again as the Governor of Virginia.

He was Secretary of State from 1811 to 1817. As such he attempted to reconcile the differences between our nation and the English. Not a chance! Things had gone too far astray to be mended peaceably. Monroe stated that war “could not do us more injury than the present state of things”.

He may have been the only cabinet member to hold two posts simultaneously. In addition to his duties as head of the State Department, in1814 Madison appointed him Secretary of War,a position he held into 1815. With the ultimate basically favorable conclusion of the war, and his diligence in both jobs, he was the one and only logical successor to President Madison.

He was a popular guy! His election in 1816 ushered in what became known as the “era of good feeling”. Everybody loved everybody? Not exactly, but there was no opposition to the Democratic-Republican Party

(forerunner to today’s Democratic Party). When running for re-election in 1820, the electoral vote was: Monroe, 231; John Quincy Adams, 1. Adam’s vote was a write-in by the Governor of New Hampshire. Tradition has it that he did not want anybody but Washington to have the distinction of a unanimous victory. It has also been said that he didn’t like Monroe and because of that voted against him.

In 1819 Secretary of State John Quincy Adams negotiated the treaty that gave to the United States what is now the State of Florida. In addition, it established our border with Spanish territory at the Sabine River and Spain relinquished it claim on Oregon.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 attempted to maintain a balance between slave and non-slave states. It also provided that the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase above latitude 36 degrees 30’ would be free and below that latitude would be slave.

The document that bears his name, and for which he is most noted, was the Monroe Doctrine of1823. Compiled with the assistance of his able Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, it is directed to European powers. Don’t even think about interfering in the Western Hemisphere. With slight modifications and additions, this is still United States policy to this day.