LIFE ADMINISTRATION AND TIMES

OF

JAMES MONROE,

FIFTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

March 4, 1817, to March 4, 1825.

A

CHAPTER I.

MR. MONROE'S FAMILY AND EARLY LIFE.

BLE men and patriots have not been peculiar to

any period in the history of this country. Nor will truth sustain the oft-repeated assertion that the Revolution produced a class of the most capable and virtuous men who have ever appeared in America. Yet it is not a purpose of this work to set up an invidious comparison among the distinguished men of the Nation. Every generation has had its favorites, and its standards of quality and judgment.

However much circumstances, or something called luck, not subject to individual control, may be influential in the production of successful or distinguished men; how far good or adverse fortune has led men beyond or below their real abilities, has little, perhaps, to do with any case as it appears in the pages

of history.
What men are seems to be of more con-
sequence, politically speaking, thah any question of
what made them so. Probably no age has been with-
out men suited to its demands, the necessities largely
regulating the number. And it may be a well-meant
matter of doubt in the history of all people, those of
the United States, perhaps, being no exception, whether
any individual has been so essentially important that
another could not be found to fill his place.

Among all the noted men of this country not one of them has been so fortunate as James Monroe. That he was one of the most patriotic, pure, and valuable men of a noble age there need be no doubt. And how far he sustained the character of an intrinsically great man, must be mainly seen in the associated history of his times.

James Monroe was born near a creek bearing his name, a small tributary of the Potomac, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, April 28, 1758, and was the son of Spence Monroe, a Virginia farmer.

Hector Monroe, the probable head of this family came to America more than a hundred years before the beginning of the Revolution. For military services rendered the English King, or other considerations, some lands were granted the family, perhaps, at different times, in Virginia, during the latter half of the seventeenth century, and on a part of these original grants James Monroe was born.

The Monroes were of Scotch origin, but little is known of their early history, and in this country no other member of the family attracted public notice.

Spence Monroe was twice married, one of his wives. being the sister of Judge Joseph Jones, of Virginia,

this woman, Eliza Jones, being the mother of President Monroe.

race of

Some members of this Jones family became prominent in the affairs of Virginia, one or two of them being special favorites of Thomas Jefferson; and both families stood on favorable grounds in a proud and gallant men. So little is known, however, of the real character and worth of Mr. Monroe's parents and immediate ancestors as to render any minute statement concerning them or their influence upon their son out of the question.

It was a part of the limited ambition of Virginia youths among the families of means to finish their literary education in the old college of William and Mary at Williamsburg, the colonial capital.

Although the Monroes had not made, it seems, the best use of their easy acquisition of lands; still they were in fair circumstances, and when the Revolutionary War broke out James Monroe was a student at William and Mary College, which he had entered at the age of sixteen. According to the custom then, and even now, to some extent, he had received part of his preparation for this institution under private tutors. He had also attended a classical school in the county, kept by a Mr. Campbell, one of the easy-going clergyman of the "established church."

But, fired by the common sentiment of the times, Monroe left the college to enter the Continental Army, at the age of eighteen, nearly two years after he had gone into that institution, with an education pretty well up to the best standard of that day. He had not the literary tastes of Mr. Jefferson, to say nothing of John Quincy Adams, and hence never reached Jef

ferson's scholarly attainments. Still the opportunities presented in his long public career were extraordinary; and, perhaps, few men of his day were better acquainted with affairs, or were more generally wellread. His literary foundation was good, and although he made no great display in his after acquirements, he stood well in the class of educated Presidents; and, perhaps, none of them excelled him in the general traits of mind and character fitting him so well for the niche he filled in the history of this country.

In 1776, as a cadet, he entered Colonel Hugh Mercer's Third Virginia Regiment; but was soon afterwards made a lieutenant, and in his regiment under Colonel Weedon, joined the army in New York. At Harlem Heights and White Plains he led his company, and at Trenton distinguished himself by heading a detachment against a British battery, which he took, but in the brief conflict received a severe wound in the shoulder. For this gallant act he was at once promoted to the rank of captain, but he never quite recovered from the injury received, the ball remaining in his shoulder throughout his life.

After his partial recovery he accepted the position of aid, with the nominal rank of major, on the staff of the pompous American General, Lord Stirling, and continued in this capacity through the greater part of 1777 and 1778, being actively engaged at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. The patriotism which John Quincy Adams so highly extolled in him now becoming involved in a question of rank, Monroe temporarily withdrew from the service.

But Washington having a good opinion of his qualities, recommended him to the Virginia Legislature for

an appointment in the new regiments which were expected from that State. He was accordingly commissioned a lieutenant-colonel, and at once embarked in the hopeless task of recruiting the regiment he was to command. But not meeting success, in the midst of the war, he abandoned military pursuits, went to Richmond, and began the study of the law under the direction of Governor Thomas Jefferson. In 1780, Mr. Jefferson sent him, as a commissioner, to the South, to. gather information, and so forth, concerning the army in that quarter, a service he faithfully performed. He also acted as a volunteer when Virginia was menaced or overrun by the Red Coats. From this time forward. he was distinguished as Colonel Monroe. His Revolutionary record was honorable, his services in the army deserving high encomium. His success was not, however, equal to his ambition, and the long struggle for independence ended with his desire for military distinction ungratified.

At his first "levee" as President, an old soldier in the crowd cried out: "Jemmy Monroe! Jemmy Monroe! You look a deal finer now than you did when I carried you off the field of Trenton, shot through the shoulder!"

But the battle of Trenton had cut little figure in his elevation to the Presidency, however little Mr. Monroe might have been an exception to the erroneous, if not immoral, sentiment, that great deeds, deserve great rewards. If he ever entertained this doubtful sentiment, he made little display of it, being moderate in his pretensions, and mainly urging his demands on the Government, late in life, as customary compensation for actual services rendered.