| Bio |

Who they were

James Monroe was born on 28 April 1758 in Westmoreland County, Virginia^[3]. His parents were Spence Monroe and Eliza Jones^[4]. One later writer called his father a carpenter. Records show that Spence trained as a joiner, a skilled woodworker, but the historian Lyon G. Tyler replied that earlier Monroes had been justices, militia officers and landowners^[3]. James entered the College of William and Mary in 1774^{[2, p. 370]}. His father died that year and left him an enslaved boy named Ralph and several enslaved farm workers^[5]. In 1776 Monroe became a lieutenant in the Third Virginia Regiment^{[2, p. 370]}.

Monroe served at Harlem, White Plains and Trenton, where he received what his biographer Daniel Coit Gilman called an honorable wound^[1]. He joined General Stirling's staff in 1777 and began studying law under Thomas Jefferson in 1780^{[2, p. 370]}. He sat in Congress from 1783 to 1786 and in the United States Senate from 1790^{[2, p. 370]}. Washington made him minister to France, then recalled him^{[6, p. 56]}. Monroe answered with a long public defence, his View of the Conduct of the Executive^[7]. In 1799 he became governor of Virginia^{[2, p. 370]}.

In January 1803 President Jefferson commissioned Monroe to act with Robert Livingston in Paris^{[2, p. 370]}. Hosmer wrote that their instructions covered only the mouths and east bank of the Mississippi, but the two men took on the larger responsibility^[8]. On 30 April 1803 they signed the treaty for the cession of Louisiana^{[2, p. 370]}. The United States agreed to pay fifteen million dollars in all, counting claims owed to American citizens^[9]. Monroe became Secretary of State in 1811 and took charge of the War Department in September 1814^{[2, p. 370][7]}. He was inaugurated president on 4 March 1817^{[3, p. 410]}. His message of 2 December 1823 declared that European attempts to extend their system to the hemisphere would endanger American peace and safety^{[10][2, p. 370]}.

Monroe left the presidency in 1825 and retired to Oak Hill, his Virginia home^[3]. In 1826 he became a visitor, or governing member, of the University of Virginia, and in 1829 he sat in the state's constitutional convention^{[2, p. 370]}. His wife died in 1830^{[2, p. 370]}. Monroe died on 4 July 1831 at the New York home of Samuel L. Gouverneur, who had married his daughter Maria^{[2, p. 370]}. He was buried in New York with honours^[1]. In 1858 his body was carried to Richmond and reburied, a hundred years after his birth^[1][3].

The Monroe Doctrine outlived its author. Albert Bushnell Hart wrote that it was not a single utterance but a frame of mind, described anew by later statesmen^[11]. Monroe signed the Missouri bills on 6 March 1820, after his cabinet agreed that Congress could prohibit slavery in the territories^{[3, p. 497][12, p. 226]}. He wanted free Black Americans resettled in Africa^{[3, p. 497]}, and the settlement of Monrovia was named for him in 1824^[13]. In 1800, as governor, he called out the militia against a planned uprising of enslaved people led by Gabriel^[4]; by 15 September he reported ten men condemned and executed^{[14, p. 1]}. Highland records 178 people he enslaved as an adult, and says he freed only one^[5].

A recollection quoted by Morgan describes Monroe in old age as about six feet tall, broad-shouldered, his face marked by anxiety and care^{[3, p. 177]}. In his family he was unvaryingly kind and affectionate^{[3, p. 177]}. He always used the plainest, simplest language, but was not fluent^{[3, p. 177]}. According to the same account, he was fondest of talking about the scenes and events through which he had passed when he had good listeners^{[3, p. 177]}.

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