James Monroe: The Last Founding Father
America’s 5th president James Monroe, the last of America’s Founding Fathers, is likewise the least well known. That doesn’t indicate he wasn’t a giant amongst giants. He was. Author Chris DeRose tells his story.
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Script:
On December 26, 1776, 18-year-old James Monroe lay passing away beyond Trenton, New Jersey. A musket ball had penetrated his left shoulder, severing a major artery.
The opening months of the Revolutionary War had actually been a disaster for the American side.
General George Washington desperately required a success. He released a surprise attack versus British mercenaries camped at Trenton.
Monroe led the vanguard to protect the roads in and out of town. If the fate of the Revolution rested on the Battle of Trenton, the Battle of Trenton rested on Monroe’s success.
Monroe accomplished his objective. Washington and the Americans had their success. However it appeared like it was going to cost Monroe his life.
Luckily, a regional doctor got to him and stopped the bleeding. That doctor saved the life of a male who went on to play an important role in the first fifty years of the brand-new American country.
James Monroe had humbler starts than many of the other Founders. He didn’t remain long, nevertheless, joining Washington’s army at the outset of the revolution.
After his time in the army, Monroe returned to Virginia to study law, but quickly turned his attention to politics. He represented Virginia in the Continental Congress, where he met his wife Elizabeth, the child of a prominent New York City merchant. They wed after a brief courtship. It was an authentic love match and one of the terrific romances of the starting period.
Throughout this time, Monroe also established a close friendship with fellow Virginian James Madison. But the friends discovered themselves on opposite sides of the important problem of the day: the fate of the new Constitution.
In among the least appreciated, however essential episodes in American history, Madison and Monroe ran versus each other in the very first Congressional election in 1789. Monroe opposed the Constitution due to the fact that it lacked an assurance of fundamental rights, like flexibility of speech and freedom of religion. Madison thought those rights were currently protected by the limits on government in the Constitution.
Madison won the election, however Monroe won the argument. Madison acknowledged that a Bill of Rights would be required in order for the Constitution to be broadly accepted by the people.
After serving terms as a senator and as governor of Virginia, Monroe was sent to France by President Thomas Jefferson to buy the city of New Orleans from the French emperor Napoleon. To Monroe’s surprise, Napoleon offered Monroe not just New Orleans, but the entire Louisiana Territory.
Monroe had a problem. He didn’t have any authorization to make such a big purchase. He chose to make it anyhow, doubling the size of the United States.
Had Monroe done nothing else, his place in American history would have been protected. However his greatest contributions were still ahead.
In the War of 1812, President Madison relied more on Monroe than any person. Monroe functioned as both Secretary of State and as acting Secretary of War. Working tirelessly for days on end, often with little sleep, Monroe assisted Madison ward off catastrophe and accomplish a worked out peace with Great Britain.
When Madison’s second term ended, Monroe was the natural choice to replace him. He won the 1816 election decisively and ended up being the 5th President of the United States.
Perhaps more than any Founder, Monroe had a vision for America as a growing, broadening nation. The Compromise would draw a line across the country: new states above the line would release states, and brand-new states below the line would be slave states.
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America’s 5th president James Monroe, the last of America’s Founding Fathers, is likewise the least well understood. James Monroe had humbler beginnings than many of the other Founders. In one of the least valued, however most essential episodes in American history, Madison and Monroe ran versus each other in the very first Congressional election in 1789. In the War of 1812, President Madison relied more on Monroe than anyone. Working relentlessly for days on end, typically with little sleep, Monroe assisted Madison stave off catastrophe and achieve a negotiated peace with Great Britain.