James Monroe
James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758, at Monroe Hall, in the cultural and political world of early America. He was educated at the College of William & Mary before his career drew him progressively into the wider arenas of national and international affairs. A citizen of the United States who worked across several occupations — among them lawyer, farmer, writer, and diplomat — Monroe moved between the domestic and the foreign throughout his professional life, conducting his work in both English and French.
Monroe's political career unfolded across an exceptionally wide range of offices. He served as a member of the United States Senate and as Governor of Virginia, and was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. He also took on significant diplomatic assignments abroad, serving as U.S. ambassador to France and as U.S. ambassador to Britain, postings that required him to operate across two languages and two continents. Returning to domestic service, he was appointed the seventh Secretary of State and the eighth Secretary of War, accumulating an unusual breadth of executive experience before ascending to the presidency.
Monroe served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. Among the acts associated with his presidency was the issuance of the Monroe Doctrine, a foreign policy statement that drew considerable attention during his time in office. His years at the head of the executive branch represented the culmination of a career that had moved through legislative, gubernatorial, diplomatic, and cabinet-level roles over several decades, and that had carried him far from his Virginia origins into the highest levels of American government.
Monroe died on July 4, 1831, in New York City. His death in that city, distant from Monroe Hall where he had been born more than seven decades earlier, reflected the geographic range that had characterized much of his long public life — a life that had taken him from Virginia to the halls of the U.S. Senate, to diplomatic postings in France and Britain, and ultimately to the presidency of the United States.
Quotes by James Monroe
James Monroe's insights on:
The principles and passions of men are always the same and lead to the same result, varying only according to the circumstances in which they are placed.
It is the knowledge that all men have weaknesses and that many have vices that makes government necessary.
It was by one Union that we achieved our independence and liberties, and by it alone can they be maintained.
The right of self defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals, and whether the attack be made by Spain herself or by those who abuse her power, its obligation is not the less strong.
In wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do.
By the last returns to the Department of War the militia force of the several States may be estimated at 800,000 men – infantry, artillery, and cavalry.
Our country may be likened to a new house. We lack many things, but we possess the most precious of all – liberty!
It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty.
How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.