ExclusiveJames Monroe: The Era of Good Feelings President

Welcome to American Legends. My name is Tiffany Brannon. Each culture has its legends, and that could be myths or different stories, but here in America, our greatest legends are the wonderful heroes who are right from our history pages. Now, some of these heroes are very famous and some are obscure, but each person deserves to be discovered because each man or woman stands as a great example of how we can be better Americans As we look at the history of the United States, there are certain people who stand out as being legends. They contributed so much to making our country what it is today that we can't help but acknowledge that they were very important members of our history. Of course, the most notable of these are the Founding Fathers, those men who gave their lives, or at least dedicated a large portion of them, to declaring independence from England and starting a new nation. But where do those Founding Fathers leave off? When could you say that era of revolution was over? I think the answer to that is in our subject for today, the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe. The first four presidents of the United States have pretty recognizable names, if you know basic history of America. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and finally James Madison. All four of these men were very instrumental in crafting the government which would become the United States of America, from the Declaration of Independence down to the Constitution. But who came after them? Even a week ago myself, I couldn't remember the name of the fifth president because after Madison, the names sort of fall into obscurity until Abraham Lincoln, number 16. What about all those people in between? James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, is certainly a name worth remembering. He could be considered the last of the Founding Fathers. He was the last president to have served in the Continental Congress and although he was too young to have signed the Declaration of Independence or crafted some of these other founding documents, he was very involved with the fight for freedom. Born in Virginia, like three out of his four predecessors, he was the son of a plantation owner and a farmer. When he was a young man, he started going to the College of William and Mary. At the age of only 17, he left the college because the war for the revolution was beginning to break out. As I said, although he was much younger than all those other Founding Fathers, that didn't keep him from fighting alongside them. As a matter of fact, he was with General George Washington in many of the most famous crucial battles of the Revolutionary War. He was there with him when he crossed the Delaware River, he was there with him at the Battle of Valley Forge and the Valley of Trenton, during which battle Monroe was badly injured. But he was injured when trying to capture some cannons, so he was very heroic. After that time, he started studying law under no one else but Thomas Jefferson. He later would become a lawyer himself and, like Jefferson, dedicated a good deal of his life to serving the public. He served in the Virginia legislature and later served in the U.S. Senate, making him the first president to serve in the Senate before eventually serving in the Continental Congress as representative of Virginia. Monroe was appointed to important government positions by three of the four presidents who came before him. Under Washington, he served as an ambassador to France. Under Jefferson, he served as an ambassador to Great Britain. And under James Madison, he served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War. At one point, he actually held those two roles at the same time because he was Secretary of State, and this was during the War of 1812. And the current Secretary of War wasn't doing a very good job, according to James Madison, so he appointed Monroe, who was doing a good job as Secretary of State, to unofficially take over that role for a few months. Although his presidency isn't well remembered, James Monroe's presidency stands out for many reasons. He served two terms, from 1817 to 1825, and the terms when he was in office were known as the Era of Good Times. This nickname was appointed by a newspaperman, and it stuck. He became the Era of Good Times president because it was a very peaceful and happy time. There were a few little skirmishes, of course, such as getting Florida from Spain, although it wouldn't become a state for many years, and there were some slight battles over that, but the War of 1812 was over, the Napoleonic Wars were over in Europe, and generally things were peaceful. The year after he left office was 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Approaching that 50-year mark, I think that, and many of his statements reflect this, James Monroe could look around and say, this idea of a free nation works. We weren't sure at first. We weren't sure as Washington was establishing what it meant to be a president, and then John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison had to prove that it could be maintained beyond George Washington, who was the unanimous choice, particularly because nobody opposed Washington. Everybody agreed he was a great president, and James Monroe has a similar point of honor. When he ran for the first time, he was opposed by a Federalist because he was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, which was the party held by both Jefferson and Madison. When he came up for a second election, though, in 1820, no one opposed him. The Federalist Party was basically dead by that point, and there was no other candidate who thought he would be better. So it was almost unanimous when he won the second time, making him the only president other than Washington to be unopposed for running for office. Now, one person in the Electoral College did not vote for him for that second term. There are two different stories about why he didn't receive every vote. Some say that this one voter instead wrote in the name of John Quincy Adams, who was considered as another candidate, although he didn't officially run, and he would be the next president. But most accounts agree that one person simply didn't vote because he wanted to maintain the legacy of George Washington being the only president to be elected unanimously. As a Virginian and a plantation owner, Monroe owned slaves, as did his father before him. But like his predecessors, but even more so, Monroe felt that slavery really was evil, and he began to feel so more and more throughout his presidency. And even afterwards, after he left office, he stated very boldly to Virginia that it was an evil which should be eradicated, and he tried to pressure Virginians to free all their slaves. So that was a very strong move in that direction. And we see how, looking at the history of these early presidents, how slavery was an issue which was known to be wrong from day one. The founding fathers all knew that it went against their core principles of all men being created equal, and equal rights, fair treatment. But they also knew that they were fighting enough battles with England just to try to get the idea of this new nation, and that a good deal of the country, particularly in the south, relied on slave labor, and they knew that they couldn't get people on board with the idea of freedom if it meant giving up their slaves. So it was a gradual process, first of outlawing the slave trade, and then beginning to make the division between the northern and southern states of which were slave-holding and which were not. And during Monroe's presidency, legislature was passed which forbid any expansion west and north to include slave states. During Monroe's presidency, five states were added to the union. Started out with 19 and ended with 24, making that second most of any president. Those new states were Mississippi, Alabama, Illinois, Maine, and Missouri. Now with Missouri, there was a point of contention because there was a great debate over whether it should be added as a slave state or free state. What ended up being decided is called the Missouri Compromise. They decided to let Missouri in as a slave state, but the other state which was coming in at the same time, Maine, would be a free state. So this kept an equal balance between slave states and free states, which was vital in those early days of trying to prevent some kind of a civil war. Monroe was the first president to tour the country. He made two tours, which he called his Great Goodwill Tours. First he went more to the west and north, and then the second time he went to the south, then out to the west as far as the Missouri Territory. These were very influential in gaining public support and making people like him more, and just generally causing his popularity. Maybe this is one of the reasons why he was uncontested in his second bid for president. Monroe had very strong opinions on how the United States should deal with other countries. He made bold statements that it was not America's place, history, or duty to get involved with foreign wars, as long as they simply involved European matters. On the other hand, he was very supportive of other countries in the Americas which wanted freedom, because around this time, taking the example of the United States and then later France, many South American countries were trying to get freedom from Spain, Portugal, or whatever their European mother country was. He supported these countries very much vocally, and this led to what is the most remembered point about his time in office, what's known as the Monroe Doctrine. On December 2nd, 1823, he made this bold statement to Congress. The summary of this was that European nations could not consider the Americas theirs for the taking in terms of colonization. If they had colonies, that's fine. The United States wasn't going to get involved or hinder them in any way, but if colonies had declared their independence, that needed to be respected, and the lands which hadn't been claimed, such as those on the west coast, were not to be colonized. He concluded that if any European powers tried to take over any of these lands, the United States would have to view it as a direct attack on our values of freedom and liberty. He even declared that he wasn't afraid to go to war to help these other countries, such as those in South America, maintain the freedom which they were declaring. So that's interesting to note that he was very interested in the policies of the Americas, but he didn't think we should get involved with the battles in Europe. And this might just seem like he was an American who only cared about what happened in his backyard, but if you look more at his early political career, you'll see that he was very well-versed in European politics. He served as the American ambassador in both France and England before he became President of the United States. And interestingly, when he was in France, that was during what is known as the Reign of Terror. So this is after France had declared its liberty, the French people had killed the king, and this was before Napoleon came to power. But in the wake of this, there was a lot of killing and it became brutal and bloody. So I think he'd seen firsthand how contentious those European conflicts could be. And I believe he also observed that getting involved and forming opinions about these foreign wars could cause a lot of disagreements back on home soil. Many other Americans such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and even Thomas Paine, who was one of the early writers about American freedom, became very unpopular because of statements and opinions they made about how the whole French Revolution was happening. I think he realized we have enough problems back in our own country without getting too involved with France, England, Germany, whatever country, and their problems over in Europe. Those are their problems, we'll worry about ours. Rather than try to bribe people into liking him, it was on his character and generally making people trust him that Monroe was able to gain such public favor. This is reflected by a quote which he famously said, He lived by this principle since he stuck very closely to his values about American freedom and in both his addresses to Congress, his State of the Union addresses, and his personal writings, we see how he talked about the importance of maintaining the core values on which America was based. He believed it was very important for the individual to be educated and intelligent so he could know about the virtues which are necessary to maintaining a republic. Another quote from him, which I really like, is, He strongly believed this and he believed that the country had to band together and to hold public conscience as one of the most important things. He also continued to respect the right to have differing religious beliefs. Now many people say that nothing really is known about his religious beliefs, less so than any president. We do know that he went to the Episcopal church many times because that was the state church of Virginia and although some have considered his references to a supreme being as rather deistic, I have to disagree. I think that they sound like the moderate respectful reference to God which you see from Christians of this era because it was known that most people held a belief in God and that this wouldn't be controversial. On the other hand, he wasn't very vocal about his public religious beliefs because he believed that what's the most important thing as being in this republic is to not impose your beliefs on other people no matter how strongly you believe them. This is well reflected in a quote when he wrote, Again reflecting on his time seeing the reign of terror, I think he saw how dangerous it can be when we seek to force others to agree with us and I think this could also be equated to his stance on slavery. He believed it was wrong but he knew it would only lead to more division to make too strong a point. Of course, that was inevitable but one lasting contribution which he made in stepping away from slavery was he was a member of the American Colonization Society which was involved with sending freed slaves back to Africa and establishing a free state for them to live there in West Africa. This country would later be named Liberia in the 1840s but its capital was named after him, Monrovia, in 1824 making him the only president other than Washington to have the capital of a country named after him. Monroe is a great example of someone whose name isn't very famous because a lot of good things happened during his life. He wasn't the president during a There wasn't an uprising. He was a president in an era of good times. While his name may not be very famous, his legacy certainly is one which should be honored. Today, I encourage you to take Monroe's example and look around you to see how the ideas of freedom are being maintained in our country today. Whether it's 50 years after the founding of the country or 250 years as we are now, those same ideas, those same principles are just as alive today because they aren't in those government documents and they aren't in the leaders. The spirit of the republic is in every individual person, every citizen and that's what you see in all of his writings talking about the importance of the dignity of the individual, the bravery and the personal virtues. So if you want the country to be a better place, work on yourself. Work on being a better citizen and consider how democracy and republic starts on a small scale with each individual. Thank you for spending this time with me talking about the fifth president of the United States, a great man, James Monroe. Goodbye!