James Monroe | |
|---|---|
(2).jpg) Portrait by Samuel Morse c. 1819 | |
| 5th President of the United States | |
| In office March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1825 | |
| Vice President | Daniel D. Tompkins |
| Preceded by | James Madison |
| Succeeded by | John Quincy Adams |
| 7th United States Secretary of State | |
| In office April 6, 1811 – March 4, 1817 | |
| President | James Madison |
| Preceded by | Robert Smith |
| Succeeded by | John Quincy Adams |
| 8th United States Secretary of War | |
| In office September 27, 1814 – March 2, 1815 | |
| President | James Madison |
| Preceded by | John Armstrong Jr. |
| Succeeded by | William H. Crawford |
| 12th and 16th Governor of Virginia | |
| In office January 16, 1811 – April 2, 1811 | |
| Preceded by | John Tyler Sr. |
| Succeeded by | George William Smith |
| In office December 28, 1799 – December 1, 1802 | |
| Preceded by | James Wood |
| Succeeded by | John Page |
| 4th United States Minister to the United Kingdom | |
| In office August 17, 1803 – October 7, 1807 | |
| President | Thomas Jefferson |
| Preceded by | Rufus King |
| Succeeded by | William Pinkney |
| 5th United States Minister to France | |
| In office August 15, 1794 – December 9, 1796 | |
| President | George Washington |
| Preceded by | Gouverneur Morris |
| Succeeded by | Charles Cotesworth Pinckney |
| United States Senator from Virginia | |
| In office November 9, 1790 – May 27, 1794 | |
| Preceded by | John Walker |
| Succeeded by | Stevens Thomson Mason |
| Delegate from Virginia to the Congress of the Confederation | |
| In office November 3, 1783 – November 7, 1786 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Henry Lee III |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 28, 1758 Monroe Hall, Virginia, British America |
| Died | July 4, 1831 (aged 73) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia) |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, including Eliza and Maria |
| Relatives | Joseph Jones (uncle) James Monroe (nephew) |
| Education | College of William & Mary |
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| Military service | |
| Branch/service | |
| Years of service |
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| Rank | |
| Unit | 3rd Virginia Regiment |
| Battles/wars | |
James Monroe (/mənˈroʊ/ mən-ROH; April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831), a Founding Father of the United States, served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as president as well as the last president of the Virginia dynasty. He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and his presidency coincided with the Era of Good Feelings, concluding the First Party System era of American politics. He issued the Monroe Doctrine, a policy of limiting European colonialism in the Americas. Monroe previously served as governor of Virginia, a member of the United States Senate, U.S. ambassador to France and Britain, the seventh secretary of state, and the eighth secretary of war.
During the American Revolutionary War, he served in the Continental Army. Monroe studied law under Thomas Jefferson from 1780 to 1783 and subsequently served as a delegate to the Continental Congress as well as a delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention. He opposed the ratification of the United States Constitution. In 1790, Monroe won election to the Senate where he became a leader of the Democratic-Republican Party. He left the Senate in 1794 to serve as President George Washington's ambassador to France but was recalled by Washington in 1796. Monroe won the election as Governor of Virginia in 1799 and strongly supported Jefferson's candidacy in the 1800 presidential election.
As President Jefferson's special envoy, Monroe helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase, through which the United States nearly doubled in size. Monroe fell out with his longtime friend James Madison after Madison rejected the Monroe–Pinkney Treaty that Monroe negotiated with Britain. He unsuccessfully challenged Madison for the Democratic-Republican nomination in the 1808 presidential election, but he joined Madison's administration as Secretary of State in 1811. During the later stages of the War of 1812, Monroe simultaneously served as Madison's Secretary of State and Secretary of War. Monroe's wartime leadership established him as Madison's heir apparent, and he easily defeated Federalist candidate Rufus King in the 1816 presidential election.
During Monroe's tenure as president, the Federalist Party collapsed as a national political force and Monroe was re-elected, virtually unopposed, in 1820. As president, he signed the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri as a slave state and banned slavery from territories north of the 36°30′ parallel. In foreign affairs, Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams favored a policy of conciliation with Britain and a policy of expansionism against the Spanish Empire. In the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain, the United States secured Florida and established its western border with New Spain. In 1823, Monroe announced the United States' opposition to any European intervention in the recently independent countries of the Americas with the Monroe Doctrine, which became a landmark in American foreign policy. Monroe was a member of the American Colonization Society which supported the colonization of Africa by freed slaves, and Liberia's capital of Monrovia is named in his honor.
Following his retirement in 1825, Monroe was plagued by financial difficulties and died on July 4, 1831, in New York City—sharing a distinction with Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson of dying on the anniversary of U.S. independence. Historians have generally ranked him as an above-average president.