MONROE AND THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS

In deference to the American Election week, I am now returning to my American Presidential Series, large parts of which have already been posted (throughout the month of June 2011, ending on July 4^th, 2011, plus the composite entry Assassination Of An American Dream, published earlier on January 18^th, 2011. In this new selection of entries, I am presenting some of the pieces which were not included in the earlier postings. The present entry is the first part of a two-parter, the second part of which, titled The Monroe Doctrine, will be posted tomorrow.

The presidency of James Monroe was a unique period in American history, affectionately known as the Era of Good Feelings. At no other time was the nation so much united relishing its victory in the British War of 1812-1815. In fact, it was during Monroe’s tenure that the oppositionist Federalist Party virtually faded out of existence. And as for President Monroe himself, he was triumphantly reelected for a second term in 1820 with hardly any opposition at all. Such was the spirit of the time, the American Zeitgeist.

To be fair to Presidents number four and number five, such a turn of events cannot be attributed either to a failure on President Madison’s part nor to a special accomplishment on the part of James Monroe, although he was a very attractive and capable person in his own right. But the Era of Good Feelings was a product of objective circumstances, and only as such it ought to be understood.

As for Monroe, here are a few remarks about him by some of his distinguished contemporaries.---

Thomas Jefferson says this about Monroe: “He is a man whose soul might be turned wrong side outwards, without discovering a blemish to the world.”/From his 1786 letter to Benjamin Franklin’s grandson William Temple Franklin.

The testimony of Monroe’s successor as President, John Quincy Adams contains some bitter nuances that, however, do not impugn any blemishes on Monroe’s character: “Mr. Monroe is a very remarkable instance of a man whose life has been a continued series of the most extraordinary good fortune, who has never met with any known disaster (such as a war of any kind), has gone through a splendid career of public service, has received more pecuniary reward from the public than any other man since the existence of the nation, and is now dying at the age of seventy-two, in wretchedness and beggary.” (Diary, April 27, 1831.)

These two remarks ironically go together. Apparently it is not unusual for a ‘soul without a blemish’ to end his days in financial misery, even if that soul was once a highly esteemed President of the United States. In Monroe’s case, some say that he did maintain an extravagant life style, which was the cause of his financial ruin. But I say that as a high-ranking public official and later President, he was entitled to a lavish life style, particularly having become the face to the world of a new and ambitious nation. On the other hand, he never profited from public office, but, on the contrary, having accepted an inadequate pay without a sufficient extracurricular remuneration, he ran into debt, overburdened by personal expenses, including his wife’s large medical bills. On leaving office at the retirement-ripe age of sixty-seven, he had to sell the rest of his property to pay his debts and less than a year after his wife’s death, he himself died in dire poverty on the Fourth of July, 1831.

With more than a slight touch of sad irony, considering the circumstances, Ralph Waldo Emerson observed in his Diary that, like his predecessors Adams and Jefferson, both of whom died on the fiftieth anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence, Monroe, too, joined their company five years later: “President Monroe died on the Fourth of July--- a respectable man, I believe.” (Journal, July 6, 1831.)

...Merely as a reference supplement, it is time now to fill in a few short biographical notes.

Born in 1758, the fifth President of the United States, James Monroe, was a youngster during the American War of Independence, but in 1776 he dropped out of the William and Mary College in his native Virginia to take part in that war, and thus has earned an honorable mention among this nation’s Founders. In 1780, he studied law under Thomas Jefferson, and developed a lasting friendship with him, which greatly influenced his life and future career. Elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1782 at the early age of twenty-four he served in Congress from 1783 to 1786, and in 1790 was elected to the U.S. Senate.
His well-known sympathies for the Republican France were destined to set him on a collision course with the Washington Administration, but instead of disfavor, in 1794 Washington wisely sent him as Minister to France, where he received an enthusiastic welcome. In spite of engaging himself in a political intrigue over the British-American Jay Treaty, denounced by France, and being recalled as a result, in 1796, there was no significant damage done to his career. After serving three year-terms as Governor of Virginia from 1799 to 1802 President Jefferson sent him again to France in 1803 to facilitate the Louisiana Purchase and later that year he became the Minister to Great Britain.
Under President Madison, Monroe became Secretary of State from 1811 to 1817, and concurrently, in 1814 and 1815, Secretary of War.
In 1816 he was elected the fifth President of the United States, and in 1820 overwhelmingly reelected for a second term. The famous Monroe Doctrine was formulated in his 1823 Presidential Message, but it was to become known as such only posthumously, since 1852.

The Monroe Principles comprised three main points: no further European colonization of the New World, non-intervention of Europe in the affairs of the American hemisphere, and non-participation of the United States in the affairs of Europe. It has always been known that the author of the non-colonization principle was in fact Monroe’s Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, while the other two were the desiderata of all Founding Fathers, from the beginning of the American nation,, but it was, indeed, James Monroe himself, who personally voiced all three principles together in his Presidential Message that he drafted himself, and to him goes the credit for such a formulation, legitimately known as the Monroe Doctrine.

The Monroe Doctrine is of such historical importance, and also of such pertinence to the Americana section of this book, that I am devoting a separate, entry to it, albeit a fairly short one, which follows next.