James Monroe

During Monroe’s 7th State of the Union address he stated the following “… as a principal in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.”  With this statement buried in the middle of a document, Monroe put forth a doctrine that would define American policies to this day.  JFK made a reference to the Monroe Doctrine during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961.  The doctrine carrying his name is likely Monroe’s most lasting legacy.  As I read my way through the Presidents, there is debate about who wrote the Monroe Doctrine; James Monroe or his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams.  I don’t think its writer truly matters, as Monroe clearly believed that the doctrine was in the best interests of the United States.

Monroe is the last of the generation we call the Founding Fathers.  He studied law with Thomas Jefferson, served in the Revolutionary War with George Washington and served as Secretary of State under James Madison. In the War For Independence, Monroe was with George Washington when he crossed the Delaware River to surprise the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton.  What many don’t know is that Monroe is featured prominently in two famous paintings of the event.  He is holding the flag in the painting Washington Crossing the Delaware and he is lying wounded in John Trumbull's painting Capture of the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton.

Believing that the Constitution gave the national government too much power, and didn’t guarantee enough protection of individual liberties, Patrick Henry and George Mason aligned with Monroe in their opposition.  Due to others with this same concern, there was a commitment created to add a Bill of Rights.  Once the Constitution was ratified, Monroe was very active in the new government.  He lost an election for a seat in the House of Representatives to James Madison, but was elected to the Senate from Virginia in 1790.

Madison’s Secretary of State in the War of 1812, was Monroe.  The fighting wasn’t going much in their favor, so Madison asked Monroe to become the Secretary of War (a much more menacing title than Secretary of Defense) as well.  No one was selected to replace him as Secretary of State thus he essentially served both roles, the only time in US history that the same person has had both jobs.

Monroe won all but 3 states in the presidential election of 1816, and in 1820 he won them all.  The period that Monroe served as President is often referred to as the “Era of Good Feelings,” largely due to him ignoring party affiliation in making appointments to his cabinet and his non-partisan approach to issues.

Controversy was sparked in 1817 when Monroe sent Andrew Jackson to chase down the Seminole Indians in Spanish-held Florida.  News of Jackson’s exploits (including the execution of 2 British agents) led to congressional investigations.  In part, the debate was over the president’s authority to make war.  Monroe was vindicated, partially due to the weakness of the opposition.  Many in Congress wanted to censure Jackson, but they couldn’t get the votes.  Additionally, he was pressured to apologize to Great Britain and Spain, but refused and simply offered an explanation.

The issue of slavery was beginning to heat up.  Missouri applied for statehood in 1819 as a slave state, but their attempt failed. Northerners would not accept the extension of slavery into new territories.  The Missouri Compromise paired Missouri (a slave state) with Maine (a free state) and barred slavery north of latitude 36/30’ forever.  This worked until the Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional in 1857 as part of the Dred Scott decision.  Monroe was against slavery and supported a law that would send Africans that were illegally captured and sold into slavery back to Africa.  A group purchased some land on the west coast of Africa to formed the country of Liberia where the returned slaves could live.

At that time, the President did not receive any form of pension.  When he left the office he found himself deep in debt.  After his wife Elizabeth died in 1830, he was forced to sell his estate, Ash Lawn, and move in with his daughter Maria in New York City.

Trivia:

• Monroe is the only President to have been wounded during the American Revolution.  He was shot in the shoulder at the Battle of Trenton.
• The election for the House of Representatives in 1788 was the only time (with the exception of a Presidential election) that two future Presidents squared off against each other in an election.
• Monroe’s daughter Maria was the first person to get married in the White House.
• Monroe was the last President to serve while having pretty unified support within Congress.  It got pretty ugly during the election of 1824 (John Q. Adams vs. Andrew Jackson).  After that the partisan politics set in.
• During the Presidential election of 1820 a single elector from New Hampshire cast a vote for John Q. Adams to ensure that Monroe did not win a unanimous vote in the Electoral College, so Washington would still be the only President to accomplish that.
• Monroe was so popular in 1820 and the opposition so weak that he ran essentially unopposed in the 1820 election.  He is the only President besides Washington to have run unopposed.
• Monroe died on the 4th of July in 1831 becoming the 3rd President to die on the 4th of July.
• He is the only President to have a foreign capital named in his honor; Monrovia, Liberia.
• He was the last President to wear a powdered wig and knee breeches.

James Madison

 

“Every word of the Constitution decides a question between power and liberty.”  James Madison is probably best known for his efforts passing the Constitution by the Constitutional Convention, being President during the War of 1812 and his marriage to Dolley (People were always saying “Hey isn’t that Dolley’s husband??  And this was before Ho Ho’s, Ding Dongs and Twinkies").

After the American Revolution, the colonies adopted the Articles of Confederation.  This basically meant a weak central government and stronger state governments.  Under the Articles, the central government lacked a federal judiciary, executive powers, and the ability to raise revenue through taxes.  In reality, the central government also lacked the power to maintain any kind of standing Army (because the states would have to pay for their soldiers).  This was especially highlighted by Shay’s Rebellion.  The result was that many leaders of the day decided that the Articles of Confederation needed to be revisited, and modified, to allow for a stronger central government.  Madison was instrumental in organizing the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during 1787.  While many thought the purpose of the convention was to tweak the Articles, once it got started it became clear that it would be better to scrap them and start over from scratch.  Madison was prepared for this, bringing a proposal that would include 3 branches of government.  His proposal favored the larger states.  An alternative plan was presented that gave all states equal representation.  Roger Sherman helped broker the “Great Compromise”,  presenting for us the system we have today where the states are represented equally in the Senate and the people similarly epitomized in the House.  At that time (and until the 17th Amendment) the Senators were selected by the State Legislatures, not elected by the people.

Madison was generally described as a reserved, quiet and thoughtful man.  During the debates over the Constitution, he was one of the more outspoken members of the convention.  His primary opponent was Patrick Henry, one of the great orators of his day.  However, Madison was well prepared through his meticulous research on forms of government and the benefits of his system.  In order to get some of the delegates to vote for passage, he had to agree to a Bill of Rights, which he opposed.  He felt that spelling out some rights would automatically deny others that weren’t spelled out.

Once the convention approved the Constitution, it had to then be approved by the states.  As you should know from the collection of quarters in your pocket (they were released in the order that the states approved the Constitution or became states) Delaware was the first to approve the Constitution on Dec 7, 1787, ‘a date which will live in infamy’ (oh wait, wrong president).  The constitution took effect once New Hampshire approved it on Jun 21, 1788.  However everyone knew that it was vital to get New York to approve it.  In order to argue his case, Madison (along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay) wrote the Federalist Papers, which are basically a detailed argument as to why New York should approve the constitution.  Back in that time, authorship was not always known.  In the case of political debate it kept the focus of the debate on the topic and not the personalities.

I hadn’t intended to spend so much space on the Constitution, but it really is, in my opinion, the biggest piece of Madison’s legacy.  He was a two-term president (1808 – 1816) and bungled us into a war with England in 1812, a war, that nobody really won.  You could argue that we won simply by surviving the war.  There are several things that led us into war: the British impressment of American sailors, trade restrictions, the desire to expand into the Northwest Territory and the British support of the Native Americans.

There are several notable events that took place during the War of 1812.

• The burning of DC
• Dolley Madison personally saw to the evacuation of the White House and saved an original draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and a famous Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington.
• The defense of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry was the event that would inspire Francis Scott Key to compose the poem “The Star Spangled Banner.”
• The Battle of New Orleans, which actually took place after the peace treaty was signed, would launch Andrew Jackson into national prominence and later, his own presidency.

After he left office in 1816, he retired to his home in Montpelier, not far from Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello.  Madison became the Rector of the University of Virginia after Jefferson’s death in 1826.  He remained active in politics until his death in 1836, making him one of the presidents that lived the longest after they retired.

Impress your friends and family with these tidbits:

• James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were once arrested together for taking a carriage ride in the countryside on a Sunday, which was illegal in Vermont.
• Dolley Madison was the first active First Lady.  She actually performed many of the official First Lady duties for Thomas Jefferson since we was a widower.
• He was the first of 6 presidents named James, the most common first name of presidents.
• He was the shortest president at 5’4” and he never weighed more than 100 pounds.
• Only sitting president to come under enemy fire.  This happened when the British attacked DC during the War of 1812.
• The Bill of Rights sent to the states for ratification actually had 12 amendments, not 10.  I bought a copy of the Bill of Rights and when I opened it I was surprised that there were 12 amendments.  Two of the amendments were not approved:
  • One that stated that if Congress approved a pay increase, it would not take effect until the next Congress.  This one was ratified by the final states in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s as the 27th amendment.  This is interesting because it was a University of Texas undergraduate student, Gregory Watson, that asserted in a paper that there was no time limit for the states to ratify the amendments.  His professor gave him a poor grade and disagreed.  Greg Watson started a campaign to get the remaining states needed to ratify the amendment and it was finally approved in 1992.  Since then Congress has added an expiration date.
  • The other dealt with the number of citizens per each representative,  therefore setting the size of the House of Representatives.  This one was never approved.
• Roy Nafziger was fascinated with Dolley Madison and used her as the inspiration for his cakes, which he felt were of a high enough quality that a socialite like Dolley could enjoy them.

Books

James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights by Richard Labunski

The Federalist Papers by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay

Thomas Jefferson

 

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” This is the opening line of one of the most famous documents in American history,  written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 when he was only 34 years-old.  Jefferson was part of a 5 man committee selected by the Second Continental Congress to write the Declaration of Independence. The committee chose him to produce the first draft the document due to his reputation as a writer.

During the September of 1776, Jefferson was elected to the new Virginia House of Delegates. In the three years that he served in there, he wrote 126 bills including ones on religious freedom and streamlining the judiciary. He became the governor of Virginia in 1779, during which time he barely escaped an attack by the British. Years later people would question his bravery when he fled.

Jefferson served as Washington’s first Secretary of State and fought many  epic battles against Washington and Hamilton. Most of the disagreements were centered around a strong central government (Federalists) and states rights (Democratic-Republicans). Washington felt, in part due to his experience during the American Revolution, that a strong federal government was necessary. The weakness of the Articles of Confederation was what led to the Constitutional Convention. He felt that the states would always do what was in their best interests and not the United States best interests. Hamilton wanted to form the first Bank of United States which would absorb all of the debts that the states had accumulated during the revolution. He also believed that this would help bind the states together.  Jefferson, originally from Virginia, disagreed with both of these ideas.  Virginia had not taken on a lot of debt during the revolution, so now they would be saddled with the debts of other states. They were also the largest and most powerful of the states.

One of the things to come out of these battles (besides Jefferson being banned from Washington’s funeral) was the Compromise of 1790. This compromise allowed for the creation of the First Bank of the United States and moved the US Capital from New York to its present location on the Potomac.  Maryland and Virginia each agreed to give up a square piece of land (10 miles x 10 miles) for the creation of the District of Columbia, where the new capital was to be built. In 1846 during the height of the battles over slavery, Virginia requested, and Congress approved, the return of the Virginia portion of the land, thus the reason why DC is not a square today.

Due to a tie in the electoral college, the 1800 presidential election was decided in the House of Representatives. After 36 ballots, Hamilton threw his support behind Jefferson (and against Aaron Burr), winning him the presidency.

Of course during his presidency (1803) he purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon (to help fund his war against everyone). He had huge misgivings about the constitutionality of the purchase, but it was a good deal that he couldn’t resist.  This led to the Lewis and Clark expedition setting off to explore and map the new territory. His purchase almost doubled the land mass of the United States, and only one other President has added more territory to the country than Jefferson.

Jefferson retired to his home at Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia, where he founded the University of Virginia (it opened the year before he died). The university is notable because it was the first in the country without a religious basis. It had been centered around a library, not a church.

During his retirement years he renewed his friendship with John Adams and over the last 14 years of their lives they exchanged 158 letters. I get that many emails in a day! Of course their letters probably said more than “what r u doing…”

Some interesting facts:

• Jefferson thought that John Adams was more qualified to write the Declaration of Independence. Adams stated "Reason first: You are a Virginian and Virginia ought to be at the head of this business. Reason second: I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular, you are very much otherwise. Reason third: You can write ten times better than I can.”
• Jefferson is one of only two Presidents that has dealt with their Vice Presidents shooting someone. Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey (as dueling was illegal in New York).
• After the British burned the Library of Congress in the War of 1812, he sold his collection of 6,487 books to replenish the collection. You can visit today and still see most of this collection.
• Jefferson was the first President to be inaugurated in Washington DC.
• When Jefferson wrote his epitaph, he mentioned that he was the author of the Declaration of Independence, the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and the founder of the University of Virginia.  He did not, however, mention that he was ever the President of the United States.
• Jefferson established the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1802.
• He ordered the Navy to attack the Barbary pirates in the first major overseas offensive by the United States. The pirates had been attacking American ships and demanding ransoms.
• Patsy, Jefferson's daughter, gave birth to a son in the White House, the first birth in the Executive Mansion. Her son was named James in honor of James Madison.
• When JFK hosted 49 Nobel Prize winners at the White House in 1962, he said, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, and of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
• So far, Jefferson is the only President that served two full terms and never vetoed a single bill from Congress.

Books:

Writing of the Declaration of Independence:  American Scripture by Pauline Maier

Compromise of 1790: Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s by Charles Cerami

The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

John Adams

John Adams was Vice President under George Washington for both of Washington’s terms. This was a time when the person that received the 2^nd most votes in the Electoral College became the Vice President (the British would call this person the 1st loser). Fortunately, Adams and Washington were of the same “party”.  Adams called the Vice Presidency “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” The Vice President, in many administrations, had no official role or duties other than to serve as the President of the Senate and vote in the case of ties. Modern Vice Presidents tend to get more responsibility from the President, but officially they aren’t given much constitutional power. When Adams became President, Thomas Jefferson was his Vice President, and for the only time in history, the President and Vice President were from different parties. Can you imagine if Al Gore had been George W. Bush’s Vice President or if John McCain were Barak Obama’s Vice President?! The 12^th Amendment to the Constitution changed this and thereafter the President and Vice President were from the same party.

The lasting legacy of Adams includes avoiding a war with France.  Tensions flared when the new post French revolution leadership began seizing US ships during a war with England. Washington had successfully kept the country neutral in the France-England war and Adams intended to follow suit. Unfortunately, when he sent a team of diplomats to negotiate with France, the French Minster’s aides demanded a bribe of $250,000. When this information became public in the XYZ affair there was a public outcry and many wanted an alliance with England and war with France. Adams, however, did not give into the pressure and was able to avoid war.

In the form of a smear on his legacy, he signed into law 4 bills that collectively are referred to as the Alien and Sedition acts. Basically the Alien Act was intended to give the president power to deport immigrants who were vocally against the administration. The Naturalization Act made it more difficult for an immigrant to become a citizen. The Sedition Act was directly intended to shut down anti-administration newspapers by making it illegal to criticize the government. There were many opposing newspaper editors that were jailed and had their newspapers closed for printing stories that the administration didn’t like.

Another action by Adams that was to have a lasting impact on the country was his appointment of the “Midnight Judges”. During his “Lame Duck” session he signed appointments for judges.  The Jefferson administration refused to deliver some of the appointments and the issue went to the Supreme Court.  This had two effects; the precedent of an outgoing administration to exercise power that will impact the next administration in the waning hours of the administration and the establishment of “judicial review”.  In the case of Marbury v Madison, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall sided with the Jefferson administration that there were not bound by the previous administrations appointments that hadn’t been delivered.  This set the precedent that the Supreme Court is the final decision making in determining if laws are constitutional.

In an irony of  history, Adams died on the July 4th 1826, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was signed. Adams was part of the team appointed to write the Declaration of Independence with Jefferson, Franklin, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman.  His dying words were “Jefferson still survives”.  Thomas Jefferson had already died on the same day!

Now for the fun part, tidbits that you can share at parties!

• As a lawyer he defended the British soldiers after the Boston massacre
• He is one of only 3 Presidents that did not attend their successors inauguration (J. Adams, J. Q. Adams, A. Johnson)
• Traces his family history back to the Mayflower
• Still has direct descendants alive today
• Former president of Raytheon was a direct descendent

In terms of references, David McCullough wrote a great book called “John Adams” that was made into a short series on HBO.