James Monroe (5th president)
1817-25
Democratic-Republican
James Monroe’s presidency, although affectionately tagged the Era of Good Feelings due to the temporary cessation of partisan fighting, was really a transitional presidency. James Monroe was the last American president from the Revolutionary generation, so his was the presidency that bridged the era of Washington, Adams, Madison, Jefferson and Hamilton to the next generation of leadership like Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun.
ABOVE: Although a revered Founding Father, James Monroe had actually been opposed to the adoption of the Constitution. Before his presidency, his greatest accomplishment was negotiating the Louisiana Purchase with France (which doubled the size of our country) for Jefferson
Although transitional, Monroe’s presidency was substantial. First of all, he was actively involved with the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This Compromise probably kicked the Civil War down the road at least by several decades. The issue of slavery was rearing its ugly head in the form of admission of new states to the Union. The South were already a minority in the House of Representatives (based on population), but since each state has two Senators regardless of population, The beleaguered Southern region fiercely protected the equal representation that had been maintained in the Senate between free and slave states. Now comes Missouri requesting admission to the Union, and a debate erupts in Congress over whether Congress could declare it a free or slave state. Monroe personally did not believe that Congress had the power to determine a state’s status, only a state could do that, but he also saw the storm gathering on the horizon. So he actively worked with congressional leaders on the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state (thereby keeping the Senate balance), and drawing a line along the southern border of Missouri to the Pacific, declaring that new states formed north of the line would be free, and states south of the line could have slavery. The slavery debate was temporarily cooled.
To Monroe’s credit, when General Andrew Jackson conducted his illegal raid and takeover of Florida from the impotent Spanish, instead of punishing Jackson for insubordination as most of his cabinet demanded, he instead authorized Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to negotiate a treaty to buy Florida outright.
Then there is the ballsy Monroe Doctrine, which we still adhere to in some forms. European monarchs were becoming fed up with this annoying wave of Democracy sweeping the civilized world, and rumors got back to D.C. that the European powers were planning on reinvading Latin American countries to reestablish lost empires. Monroe and Sec. of State J.Q. Adams came up with the Monroe Doctrine, which Monroe delivered in a speech to Congress. Monroe declared that the age of colonization was over, and that the U.S. would not allow any future colonial designs on the Americas (but the colonies that already existed could be retained). I say this is ballsy because we did not really have the military might to enforce this Doctrine if the European powers actually wanted to test it. But they didn’t. And never really did thereafter. This Doctrine was basically declaring to the world that the U.S. had arrived as a world power (a bit premature) and that the Western Hemisphere was our neighborhood. Bold for the time, and it is a Doctrine that had immense consequences in later times under future presidents. Teddy Roosevelt, for instance, was a particular fan of the Monroe Doctrine and the power that it implied. But we’ll talk about Teddy later.
ABOVE: The Monroe Doctrine
Pros:
• Missouri Compromise
• Annexation of Florida
• Monroe Doctrine
Cons:
• Monroe had serious reservations about exercising Federal power, so he resisted some needed infrastructure improvements like roads, canals, etc.
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