III.

Early Political Career

A.

Member of the Virginia Legislature

Monroe had barely settled in Prince Edward County, Virginia, when he was elected to the state legislature in 1782. He was then 24 years old. The legislature elected him to the executive council, of which he was the youngest member. In 1783 he was elected to the Congress of the Confederation, which was then the governing body of the United States under the Articles of Confederation. There he was the youngest delegate to vote for ratification of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution.

A.1.

Western Travel

Monroe served in Congress for three years. It was during this time that he first became interested in American expansion, specifically in the settlement of the Western lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River. He was chairman of two congressional committees, one that was concerned with free navigation on the Mississippi River and the other with formation of a government for the Western lands.

In 1784, during a congressional recess, Monroe journeyed through the Western territories. He went up the Hudson River, passed through the Great Lakes, visited the forts that the British still held in the Northwest Territory in violation of the Treaty of Paris, and returned by way of the Ohio River. With the information he gathered, he helped to lay the groundwork for territorial government embodied in the Northwest Ordinance enacted by Congress in 1787.

A.2.

Marriage

While in Congress, which was meeting in New York City, Monroe met Elizabeth Kortright, whom he married in the spring of 1786. They had two daughters, and a son who died in childhood.

A.3.

Return to Virginia

In October 1786, Monroe resigned from Congress and settled with his bride in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he began a law practice. His retirement from politics was brief. He was soon elected to the town council, and then once again to the Virginia legislature.

However, Monroe never lost touch with national politics. He corresponded regularly with both Jefferson and Madison. In 1786 Monroe attended the Annapolis Convention, which had been called to consider interstate commerce and other matters not covered by the Articles of Confederation. The delegates decided to seek a new constitution for the nation. However, Monroe was not named a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He blamed Madison and Edmund Randolph, governor of Virginia, for the oversight. “The governor ... hath shewn ... a disposition to thwart me,” he wrote Jefferson, and “Madison, upon whose friendship I have calculated, whose views I have favor'd, and with whom I have held the most confidential correspondence” he believed to be “in strict league” with the governor.

B.

Virginia Convention Delegate

After the Constitutional Convention drafted the new Constitution of the United States in 1787, Monroe was elected a delegate to the Virginia convention called to ratify it. Among the Virginians, Madison and Randolph were the chief spokesmen for ratification, while Monroe, in the beginning at least, adopted a neutral stand. Finally, however, he opposed ratification because the Constitution created too strong a central government. Monroe made a strong appeal to the delegates from the western part of the state, arguing that the Constitution was a threat to free navigation on the Mississippi River. Madison effectively rebutted this argument, but it won over a number of western delegates. Monroe also deplored the absence of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution. Although he voted against ratification, Monroe accepted the new government without any misgivings. Soon afterward he ran for a seat in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Congress of the United States formed under the newly ratified Constitution. He was defeated by Madison.

C.

United States Senator

In 1789 Monroe moved to Albemarle County, Virginia, near Jefferson's estate, Monticello. Monroe's estate, Ash Lawn, was for almost 20 years the home to which he returned whenever he was free from public duties. In 1790 he was elected to a recently vacated seat in the U.S. Senate (the upper house of Congress). He was named to a full six-year term the following year.

Although there were no political parties in the United States at this time, there were factions. The Federalist faction, identified with Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, favored an active federal government, a treasury that played a prominent role in the nation's economic life, and a pro-British foreign policy. By 1800 this faction became the Federalist Party. The Anti-Federalists, of whom Thomas Jefferson was most prominent, favored a limited federal government and a pro-French foreign policy. This faction later became the Democratic-Republican Party. In the Senate, Monroe aligned himself with the Anti-Federalists. Like them, he opposed any tendency toward centralization of power in the national government at the expense of state sovereignty. In international affairs, Monroe was sympathetic to the French Revolution (1789-1799) and supported France in the wars that followed. Nevertheless, he agreed with President Washington's policy of neutrality during the European wars that followed the French Revolution.

D.

United States Diplomat

D.1.

Minister to France

In the spring of 1794, Monroe resigned from the Senate to accept the diplomatic post of minister plenipotentiary to France. His assignment was to help maintain friendly relations with France in spite of U.S. efforts to remain on peaceful terms with France's enemy Great Britain. He was chosen at least in part because of his known sympathy for France, and it was hoped that he could calm any fears France might have of American favoritism toward Britain.

The situation in France was complicated. Apparently, from the outset, Monroe went too far in identifying with the new Republic of France. His ardently pro-French speech to the French assembly brought a reprimand from President Washington: “Considering the place in which ... delivered and the neutral policy the country had to pursue, it was a measure that does not appear to have been well devised by our minister.” Nor was the administration satisfied with Monroe's attempts to justify Jay's Treaty, which the United States signed with Great Britain in 1794 and which the French government found offensive because it made concessions to the British.

In September 1796, Monroe was recalled. He believed he had been betrayed by the Federalists in the administration, who had, he felt, used him to appease France while they made broad concessions to Britain in Jay's Treaty. This opinion was also held by many other Americans, who were beginning to be molded into an opposition party by Jefferson. Although Monroe blamed the policies and motives of his superiors for the failure of his mission, he remained bitter about it for the rest of his life.

D.2.

Return Home

When Monroe returned to the United States in June 1797, he found that political differences had deepened between his friends and the Federalists in power, now headed by President John Adams. His own relations with the Federalists had suffered because of his European mission. From this time on, Monroe identified himself more and more with the Anti-Federalists, soon to be called the Democratic-Republican Party. After two years of retirement from public office, Monroe was elected governor of Virginia. He served from 1799 to 1803, a relatively uneventful period in the history of the state.

On the national scene, however, a great political change occurred at this time. Jefferson was elected President in 1800, and the Democratic-Republican Party was gaining in popularity. In 1803 Monroe was named to be part of an “extraordinary mission” to France. He was to help negotiate what has been called the largest real estate transaction in history—the Louisiana Purchase.

D.3.

Louisiana Purchase

When Monroe arrived in France, U.S. diplomat Robert R. Livingston was already deep in negotiations with the French for the acquisition of New Orleans and West Florida. French Emperor Napoleon I offered instead to sell not only New Orleans, but the entire Louisiana colony as well. However, no agreement was reached until Monroe arrived. Although the Americans were not authorized to make such a large purchase, they began negotiations. In April 1803, Monroe and Livingston concluded the treaty that would more than double the size of their nation. Although West Florida was Spanish territory and was not included in the bargain, Monroe pressed Napoleon to include his ally's property as well. Napoleon promised “to engage his support for our claim to the Floridas with Spain,” but this was as far as he would go.

D.4.

Minister to Britain

As soon as the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase were completed, Monroe crossed the English Channel to take up duties as minister plenipotentiary to Britain. His primary mission was to obtain relief from British harassment of U.S. shipping, such as the seizure of cargoes bound for French ports, which Jay's Treaty had not stopped. U.S. relations with Britain were particularly strained at this time, and Monroe made little headway. Therefore, he was sent to Madrid to explore Spain's readiness to consider a U.S. purchase of Florida. This errand also proved useless.

In July 1805 Monroe returned to Britain to negotiate a treaty, assisted by diplomat William Pinkney. However, the treaty was one of general agreement only and did not touch on two vital issues: a British blockade of French ports and the impressment, or forced induction, of American sailors into the British navy. It contained no concessions to the United States, and Jefferson wisely refused to submit it to the Senate for ratification. In late 1807 Monroe left for the United States.

E.

Return to Politics

Monroe arrived in Washington, D.C., a few days before Jefferson signed the Embargo Act, which halted nearly all U.S. land and sea commerce with foreign nations. This measure was designed to hurt the British economy and thereby induce Britain to stop harassing U.S. vessels. It turned out, however, to be as much of a failure in this as was Monroe's treaty: British shippers actually profited from the removal of U.S. competition.

Monroe's old allies, Jefferson and Madison, were cool toward him after his return. This was because one faction of Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party wanted Monroe as a rival presidential candidate to Madison, Jefferson's secretary of state and chosen successor, and Monroe did little to disavow the action. He was bitter over the rejection of his treaty, and he did not support Madison in the election of 1808. Moreover, Monroe's supporters, led by Jefferson's enemy, Congressman John Randolph, made it seem that Monroe was encouraging them.

In September, Monroe sent Jefferson all correspondence he had had with Randolph to assure him there was “nothing ... to sanction what has been most ungenerously insinuated.” But the old friendship among Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe remained disturbed for some time, and Madison did not offer Monroe a Cabinet post when he became president in 1809.

Returning to Virginia politics, Monroe once more served in the legislature and was for a second time elected governor. During these years, thanks to a long and honest correspondence between them, the rift with Jefferson was gradually healed. When, in 1811, Madison invited Monroe to become secretary of state, the friendship of the three Virginians was reestablished.

F.

Secretary of State and of War

When Monroe became secretary of state, relations with Britain had worsened. With both Monroe's treaty and the Embargo Act having failed to halt British interference with shipping, war now seemed certain. Monroe nevertheless worked to prevent it. Unlike Madison, he favored a less aggressive attitude toward Britain. The French had also been confiscating cargoes—in this case, those bound for British ports—and in Monroe's opinion France's provocations were just as bad as those of Britain. But the administration and Congress seemed determined to have war with Britain, influenced partly by the prospect of annexing British-held territory in North America and also, since Spain was now Britain's ally, Florida as well.

F.1.

War of 1812

Although Monroe had been opposed to war, when the War of 1812 was declared he loyally supported Madison and his cause. Monroe served as secretary of state throughout the war, and simultaneously as secretary of war for the latter part of it.

Monroe was back in uniform briefly at the time of the British attack on Washington. He led the Maryland militia in an unsuccessful attempt to stave off the British at Bladensburg. After Washington was invaded and burned in 1814, the secretary of war was dismissed and Monroe took on the full responsibilities of that post. There were many problems facing Madison's administration: a bankrupt treasury, an army badly led and badly equipped, a rebellious New England, and a hostile Congress. Monroe helped to resolve some of them. He obtained loans from District of Columbia banks, although he could offer no warranty but his word for their repayment. He doubled the land bounty offered to enlistees in the army, lowered the enlistment age to include minors, and authorized the incorporation of state troops into the regular army at federal expense.

In August 1814 a U.S. peace commission, headed by expert diplomat John Quincy Adams, met at Ghent (Gent), Belgium, to negotiate peace with Britain. On December 24, 1814, a peace treaty acceptable to Madison and Monroe was signed at Ghent. It ended the war but failed to resolve most of the issues that had started it, including the blockading of ports, searching of ships, and impressment of sailors. In 1815 Monroe returned to the normal peacetime duties of the secretary of state.

G.

Election of 1816

At the end of Madison's second term, Monroe was the logical presidential nominee for the Democratic-Republicans. The Federalist Party had been ruined by its opposition to the War of 1812 and could offer no effective opposition. Monroe received the electoral votes of all but three states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware. These went to Rufus King of New York, the Federalist candidate. On March 4, 1817, two old schoolmates met again as Chief Justice John Marshall administered the oath of office to President James Monroe. Daniel D. Tompkins of New York served as Monroe's vice president.