Ukraine and the Danube Delta

How did globalism metastasize all over the world so quickly, like a virulent cancer? How was this evil exported around the world with such speed?

How did the ideology of self-loathing become so pathological, the ideology of putting citizens of another nation ahead of a country’s own interests?

Why are so many governments destroying their own countries on purpose, almost in unison, to satisfy the directives of the United Nations, a corrupt organization run by representatives of small countries that could not survive without financial help from the west? Their wealth-redistributive climate change industry and the “world without borders” concept have been exported around the world like a blitzkrieg.

Who is responsible for breeding this evil idea of self-loathing and destruction of nations into every corner of the globe? Nobody seems able to resist, they are mesmerized into submission.

How did the virus of woke-ism, spread around the globe so fast as well, except perhaps in China?

Why would a Yale University Economics professor suggest that elderly Japanese should commit “mass suicide by disembowelment to help the country deal with its rapidly aging population?” Where did this insanity originate? https://nypost.com/2023/02/13/yale-professor-suggests-elderly-japanese-residents-should-die-in-mass-suicide/

The leftist religion of climate change and planetary apocalypse has also taken over the globe, playing in the hands of elitist billionaires who want nothing but total control of our lives and all businesses, under the guise of protecting the globe from our alleged irreversible damage to the environment.

How did the disgusting critical race theory, in your face anti-white racism, spread so quickly around the United States, the most tolerant nation on the planet?

How did the anti-American and irrational mainstream media spread its poisonous lies around the globe in unison, with identically scripted misinformation and lies to every country?

When did it become normal to start proxy wars with countries that have done nothing to us, giving rise to the possibility of WWIII and nuclear holocaust?

When did it become the American taxpayers’ responsibility to pay for the Ukrainians’ pensions while our poor Americans are marginalized?

Why is President Biden visiting Kiev and a war zone while his own citizens in East Palestine, Ohio, are ignored in their hours of need when their lives have been turned upside down?

President Zelensky, the destroyer, is warning us not to dare oppose him in his war with Putin; that we must protect his democracy in Ukraine. But is Ukraine a democracy? By all evidence, it is a tyranny when one considers the lack of freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom to speak one’s own language.  Do we really want to send our sons and daughters to fight a war for Zelensky and the military industrial complex?

The people of Ukraine are suffering unimaginable losses and the European Union and NATO countries are helping them in many ways but not helping them make peace. Millions of Ukrainians have escaped to other countries, including Romania which borders Ukraine.

Romanian citizens are wondering how Ukrainians have time now to dredge up an old issue between the two countries – the Bystroye Canal. Romanians, who felt sorry for the Ukrainians' plight as war refugees, are wondering why their government is supporting refugees from Ukraine, while the Romanian citizens walk around sad and grey, unable to pay their bills, buy food, have heat and electricity in their homes, desperate because there is not enough money to cover the inflationary economy, while the Ukrainian refugees laugh, have parties, ski on the Carpathian slopes as if they are on vacation. Their brethren in Ukraine, instead of trying to bring them back, are busy closing down Romanian churches, and forbidding the use of the Romanian language.

In such serious war times, Ukraine has time to dredge in an environmentally protected wetland in the northernmost branch of the Danube River Delta (the Kiliysky Estuary) which follows Ukraine’s southern border.

Since Russia now restricts Ukraine’s Black Sea commerce, these underused river terminals are now quite important. “The area can be reached by two waterways: the narrow Sulina Canal through Romanian territory, and the Bystroye Canal which passes through Ukrainian territory.” Romanian Gov't Irked by Ukrainian Dredging on Danube Delta Canal (maritime-executive.com)

 

The dredging of Bystroye Canal, 15 feet during construction and 13 feet during use, has now increased to 21 feet, which the Ukrainians argue that it is comparable to Romania’s Sulina Canal. The problem with that is, as the Romanians see it, the water in the Danube Delta would disappear, endangering protected fauna and flora, countless species of birds, fish, and most vegetation which live in the delta, thus destroying a sensitive ecological area.

 

“Romania opposes the inclusion of Ukraine's Bystroye Canal and the adjacent Chilia estuary in the EU's Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), a set of designated routes eligible for EU infrastructure funding. Ukraine has requested that the waterway be listed as a TEN-T route, parallel to Romania's Sulina Canal.” Romanian Gov't Irked by Ukrainian Dredging on Danube Delta Canal (maritime-executive.com)

 

Ukraine responded that the dredging was not meant to enlarge anything, it was only meant to maintain the canal navigable. Ucraina răspunde acuzațiilor despre Bîstroe: Nu extindem canalul. Am anunțat România din timp - PRESShub

 

Minister Sorin Grindeanu said that Romania will continue to help Ukraine but “we also need to observe international treaties… There are signals that at this moment there are dredging works on Bystroye…”https://www.romania-insider.com/romania-ukraine-bystroye-canal-works?amp

Ukraine, in full war with Russia, has time to dredge the Bystroye Canal in the Danube Delta, a natural preserve, a UNESCO patrimony? Does that mean that in time of war, nothing is sacred or protected?

“Let’s make friends because they may become owners of Eastern Europe. We are so glad that we are getting rid of Putin’s Russians just in time for the OTHER Russians to occupy us,” Romanians say.

The entire planet is screaming that Putin has occupied Ukraine, but few care that their own borders are flown wide open, and the flotsam and jetsam of the world are flooding in.

Armstrong Economics wrote, “U.S. government funded the Ukrainian Revolution in 2014 to the tune of $5 billion. The U.S.-installed interim government launched the civil war against the Donbas on U.S. instruction. Then in 2014, Obama signed a bill authorizing lethal aid to be provided to Kiev. Then in 2015, NATO Commander General Philip Breedlove favors military aid to Ukraine… The West has been planning war against Russia using Ukraine as cannon fodder from the very start.” The Ukraine War has been in the Planning Stage since 2013 | Armstrong Economics

And all humans are suffering the financial, economic, and social consequences of the greedy decisions of the few.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proposed National Rent Controls

Economically speaking, in a free market unencumbered by heavy government control, payments by tenants must be just enough to keep those apartments on the market. If government dictated rent controls force the rental prices down, apartments will start disappearing from the market.

New York has continuously legislated rent controls in its rental housing since World War II to protect consumers from high rents. Basic analysis of supply and demand shows that both groups, renters, and landlords, are actually worse off.

New York has always had abnormally low vacancy rates. Why? The rent control price, below the free-market price causes a shortage of apartments and few relinquish their apartments. The demand is much higher, but the supply is lower.

Under rent control, a black market is created in which bribes are demanded and given to advance one’s name on a wait list or the prospective renter must buy worthless furniture at inflated prices. Prospective renters engage in endless searches to find a rent-controlled apartment, and normal landlord services are generally non-existent.

Why do rent controls in New York persist then?

1.      People do not understand what problems rent controls create.

2.      Landlords are politically unpopular and considered evil.

3.      Not everyone is hurt by rent controls and those who benefit fight very hard politically to maintain rent controls; some pay a fraction of what their apartments would fetch on the free market.

Economically speaking, a price ceiling (rent control) creates a class of people who benefit from such government regulation. Once established, rent controls cannot be easily eliminated.

Under the pretext of affordable housing, the Biden-Harris administration announced recently, “new actions to protect renters and promote rental affordability.” Most agree that it is a form of national rent control.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced it will launch a new public process to examine proposed actions promoting renter protections and limits on egregious rent increases for future investments. The language is vague and it does not define what constitutes “egregious” rent increases.

FACT SHEET:  Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions to Protect Renters and Promote Rental Affordability - The White House

According to Pew Research, 36% of the 122.8 million households (data obtained from the 2019 Census Bureau estimates) were renters. Certain demographics (young people, minorities, and low-income households) are more likely to rent and thus are affected more by the escalating rental prices which reflect the Biden administration’s inflationary economy.

Landlords are corporations and individuals who own just one or two units or a house. Only one-fifth of rental properties are owned by a for-profit business. One in ten rentals are owned by individuals with one or two properties, according to the 2018 census data.

Although unpopular with the public, landlords must meet their mortgage payments, property taxes, and repair bills when the renter fails to pay their due rent for months, destroys the property, or makes changes to the rented property without permission from the owner.

Pew Research published data on who rents property in the U.S., based on 2018 Census data.

-          58% of black households

-          52% Hispanic households

-          27.9% Caucasians households

-          40% Asian households

Rental income was $353.7 billion in 2018. Half of individual landlords reported net income in 2018 and half reported losses. Who rents and who owns in the U.S. | Pew Research Center

Biden’s rent control decree is certainly ill-advised as the issues associated with Americans falling behind on rent, evictions, and inflationary prices are the very result of his economic policies which started on day one of his presidency and the many executive orders issued which aimed to destroy the fossil fuel industry to the benefit of the renewable energy industry, the industry promoted by the global warming alarmists.

Rent control is banned in at least 30 states in the U.S. for obvious reasons - the results of rent control in the past have been an economic disaster except for those paying cheap rent.

Tom Cranmer stated, “In New York City, rent control made many owners of rent-controlled apartments abandon their buildings or burn them down. If you have toured Harlem and the Bronx, you probably saw the devastation. Drug dealers and addicts took the buildings over.” Other landlords chose to turn their apartments into office space, thus exacerbating the shortage of rent-controlled apartments. https://ipropertymanagement.com/laws/rent-control

The late Swedish professor of economics at Stockholm University, Carl Assar Lindbeck, famously wrote, “Rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city – except for bombing!”

Milton Friedman participated in 1945-46 in a San Francisco historic case study of unworkable rent controls. The common criticism among economists has been that rent control/restriction/regulation causes more harm in the economy by “perpetuating shortages, encouraging immobility, swamping consumer preferences, fostering dilapidation of housing stocks, eroding production incentives, and distorting land-use patterns and the allocation of scarce resources.”

Verdict on Rent Control — Institute of Economic Affairs (iea.org.uk)

A few years ago, Fairfax County government in Virginia tried to impose rent-controlled slum buildings under the guise of “affordable housing,” to be owned by foolish investors. Residents of single-family homes where these slum buildings would have been inserted, turned out in droves to oppose the plan, and it was quietly dropped.

Landlords in Florida tried to stop rent control initiative in 2022. Landlords try to stop rent control initiative in Florida - Washington Times

Rent controls prompted landlords to turn their rentals into Airbnb and Vrbo short-term home-sharing in the vacation housing market. Untold landlords were lucky and sold their properties before the pandemic hit because were tired of being cheated out of rent by dishonest tenants.

With the pandemic moratoriums by the CDC, tenants did not have to pay rent. Some landlords, dependent on rental income for their survival, had not been paid rent in 16 months, and were unable to recover losses as the renters left in the middle of the night, destination unknown, and stealing all appliances. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/22/1046154251/they-refused-to-pay-rent-and-stole-the-fridge-landlords-deal-with-pandemic-squat

The White House announced in its recent executive action, among others, the Renters Bill of Rights, the creation of tenant background checks, algorithms, tenant screenings, and applicant’s source of income as a factor into housing decisions.

“But it gets much worse. Biden's minions describe in vague language how the Federal Housing Finance Agency will be looking for new ways to ‘limit egregious rent increases’ on properties backed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. If the mortgage of your rental property ends up in the hands of one of those quasi-government enterprises, you might soon find yourself subjected to a national rent control policy.” If that happens, the rent may not cover the mortgage on the rental property. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/biden-push-for-national-rent-control-will-turn-would-be-landlords-into-airbnb-hosts

Rent control may seem like a good and humanitarian idea to help those who live on a limited income, but, in general, it creates a host of economic problems which harm the population at large. Billions that we send foolishly every year to other countries or trillions that we spend on senseless wars, could be better spent at home to defray the costs of rental for Americans, making a better life for American families, not for the millions of economic migrants who cross our borders illegally every day.

Aryans and the Indian Caste System

Many admire the rich Indian culture, dedication to family, and their respect for tradition and customs. Indians go to great lengths to find a mate for life within their culture and hire matchmakers to ensure that the prospective bride and groom are well suited for each other, their union a successful and happy one. Indians marry within their professional circles, the modern replacement of castes. An astrologer is often consulted about their celestial signs.

The social stratification called “caste” is a hierarchy at least two-thousand-year-old, outlawed in 1950, but imposed on people at birth, marking their place in society, the types of jobs they can seek, and who they can marry.

The Hindu caste system has four varnas (classes) based on occupation:

-          Brahmins are knowledge oriented, the highest caste.

-          Kshatriyas are warriors and aristocracy, second caste.

-          Vaishyas are businesspeople, third caste.

-          Sudras are laborers, the fourth caste.

https://www.asiahighlights.com/india/caste-system

The social stratification and the caste system is believed to have originated with the conquest of the Harappan people in the Indus valley by Sanskrit-speaking Aryans who colonized the northern portion of the continent before 1000 B.C.

India was an advanced civilization at the time, home to several cultures, but the illiterate and nomadic, light-skinned Aryans who defeated in battle the darker skinned tribes, believed themselves superior due to their military ability.

The Harappan people had planned cities, irrigated their fields, had a script, arts, crafts, but were no match militarily for the destructive invaders, the Aryans, who enslaved them. Some historians believe that this multi-racial India gave rise to the complex caste social structure.

Mohandas Gandhi mentioned “the children of God,” the pariahs called the Untouchables, who do the most menial tasks in society.

A census report of 1911 mentioned that “They are so degraded that a twice-born Hindu considers it necessary to bathe if he is touched by one of them… They are not allowed to draw water from the village tank, the village barber will not shave them, the village-washer woman will not wash their clothes.”

At the time of the conquest, the Sanskrit-speaking Aryan communities were divided into three castes: the Brahman (comprised of priests and scholars), the Kshatriya (kings, warriors, and nobleman), and the Vaisya (merchants and workers). The pre-Aryan Indians made up a fourth caste, the Sudra (farmers and ordinary laborers).

The original Aryan castes were entitled to be “twice born,” the highest state, in which physical birth is followed by the symbolic birth, the initiation into the upper caste.

It is believed that the caste system may have been based on skin color since the Sanskrit word for caste, “varna,” means “color.”

Aryan, the word means “kinsmen” in Sanskrit, was actually the proper name of a group of people, who spoke one of the Indo-European family of languages. The name Aryan was used more focused on a group of people, land-hungry migratory population, who had domesticated a wild horse from their homeland in southern Russia. They used these horses to move, fight, and occupy anybody who stood in their way. They took their language with them and mixed it with the languages of the peoples they conquered along the way.

A racist myth from the 19^th century suggested that a white “master race” was responsible for all progress of humanity which is certainly not true. Adolph Hitler and his Nazis promoted this myth in the 20^th century. The truth was that the Aryans triumphed because of their fast horses, the use of chariots in battles, and the element of surprise during their massive invasions.

The historical information of the early Aryan society comes from the Rig-Veda, sacred hymns compiled around 1000 B.C., handed down orally through many generations of Brahmans until the 14^th century when it was written down.

The Vedic hymns detail the life of the Aryan tribesmen, their gambling, drinking, charioteering, skill in battle, and how they adopted gods from the Sudras, eventually settling down to farming. Their nomadic traditions of cattle rearing, however, became the romanticized “golden age.” Thus, the worship of the sacred cow in modern Hinduism was born during the Vedic times.

A thousand years after the original Rig-Veda, the distinction of caste based on skin color became impossible to make due to mixed marriages, so a new distinction emerged based on occupation.

Sub-castes called jati emerged from mixed marriages, and a person’s employment became more important than a person’s caste (varna).

When new immigrants arrived and rejected the caste system, they became part of a separate new caste or sub-caste of their own making.

The underprivileged adopted Islam when it arrived in India in the early 13^th century because it seemed to them that it was a casteless religion. In practice, however, most Muslims followed caste restrictions. Jews and Christians also formed their own groups like castes.

Industrialization, with its new professions, gave rise to new castes. Politics, social and political roles also formed their own castes. The democracy in India took advantage of the caste system in order to influence politics and the interests of their particular members in parliament. The Brahmans are still at the top of the social ladder and the Untouchables at the bottom.

And most Indians today, no matter where they may reside in the world, hire successful matchmakers and astrologers to find their perfect bride or groom for a marriage steeped in tradition and family within one’s professional class.

James Monroe, an Extraordinary American (Part II)

Chair purchased in Europe by the Monroe family 

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2023

Monroe was recalled in 1796 by George Washington, at the urging of Secretary of State, Timothy Pickering, a Federalist, under the shadow that he may have worked against the interests of the U.S. by favoring the French over the British. Monroe was angry because he felt that the never got an explanation for his recall and he was sure that he never did anything improper to deserve recalling.

James Monroe was elected Governor of Virginia in 1799-1802 and he had to move his family to Richmond, but the mansion was so dilapidated that they were unable to move in until the fall of 1800. Despite the repairs, the Governor’s mansion was torn down eventually and a new one built in 1811.

James Monroe's desk where he sat to write the Monroe Doctrine 

Photo: Ileana Johnson February 2023

As Governor, James Monroe had to contend with a constant fear of slave revolt, with the most decisive moment being Gabriel’s Rebellion of August 1800. Slaves from a local plantation were planning on attacking the city, burn it, and seize weapons and powder supplies stored at the penitentiary. The attack was impeded by a thunderstorm during the night and slaves were arrested. Thirty-one were put on trial and executed for their roles in the conspiracy.  

In 1803 James Monroe was assigned to diplomatic service again, this time in London. His assignment in Great Britain was extended several times even though the family disliked the polluted air and the chilly reception from the city’s high society. While in London, they lived in three different homes, two of which still stand today.

Between 1803 and 1807, James Monroe served as extraordinary envoy to France, Spain, and England at President Thomas Jefferson’s request to restore negotiations with France. According to the archives, “The American economy was being threatened by Spain’s refusal to allow free navigation on the Mississippi River and the use of New Orleans as a port. Spain had then ceded control of the Louisiana Territory to France. Robert Livingston was Minister to France at the time, and was having no success in negotiating use of the Mississippi with the French.”

The negotiations with the French were meant to gain the right to use the Mississippi and perhaps buy some land around New Orleans for a port. When Monroe arrived, the French negotiators asked the Americans if they were interested in buying the entire Louisiana Territory. Taken by surprise, Livingston and Monroe discussed a price on their own, and the French eventually agreed to $11.2 million for 828,000 square miles, doubling the size of the new nation. In 1803, James Monroe was thus responsible for the largest land purchase ever made by the United States.

James Monroe continued to serve Virginia and the United States:

-          1810 Virginia Assembly

-          1811-1817 Governor of Virginia (three months of a 4^th term) and then Secretary of State under the Madison administration (dealt with the British impressment of Americans into the British military and other issues on the Northwest Territories; in 1812 U.S. declared war on Great Britain)

When Madison was appointed Secretary of State in 1811, he moved to Washington but his family stayed at Highland. In 1812 they were set up in a furnished townhouse at 2017 Eye Street (the exterior of the home is the same but the interior has been changed). They were still in debt from the time spent in Europe.

In August 1814, Secretary Monroe and President Madison decided that it was best to evacuate Washington as the British ships were sailing up the Potomac to sack the city. Monroe’s reconnaissance culminated in the Battle of Bladensburg, a failed attempt by American forces to slow down the advance of the British troops towards Washington.  Monroe and Madison returned to Washington and decided to evacuate the city and the archives state that on August 24, 1814, they were the last cabinet members to leave the city as the British were arriving. Monroe is said to have spent the night at Rokeby farm outside Washington.

In 1814 President Madison appointed James Monroe Secretary of War. Monroe resigned his position as Secretary of State, however, because President Madison did not appoint a new secretary, James Monroe served for a short time as both Secretary of State and Secretary of War.

James Monroe was elected president in 1816, following his friend, James Madison. The Monroe family did not move into the White House (called then President’s House) right away, as it had been burned by the British during the war of 1812. They brought their own furniture but it was not enough to fill all the large rooms of the mansion.

Congress allowed funds and Monroe appointed several buyers to purchase furniture from Europe. According to the archives, “the oldest furnishings on display in the White House are those that were placed in the mansion by the Monroes.” Mrs. Monroe presided over formal visits, state visits, and brought entertaining customs to the President’s House. She held open houses, when anybody in Washington could come in and meet the President.

His two terms, 1817-1825, are known as the Era of Good Feeling. There were few conflicts during that time. His presidency is recognized for the Missouri Compromise and the statement called the Monroe Doctrine.

The Missouri Compromise which he signed into law on March 5, 1820, allowed Missouri, a slave holding state, and the free state of Maine, to join the Union, and established the 36^th parallel as the dividing line between northern free states and southern slave states.

Monroe himself had slaves but advocated for “eventually ending the slave trade.” A New York representative had proposed to free all slaves over the age of 21 as a condition to join the union. The country was in turmoil debating the issue. “Senator Barbour of Virginia worked a plan that would admit Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a new free state.” Forty years later the issue would erupt again into a Civil War.

On December 2, 1823, during his annual message to Congress, now called the State of the Union, President Monroe made a statement in support of the people of South America who had gained their independence from Spain. This statement, known now as the Monroe Doctrine, established three things:

1.      The Americas were no longer going to be colonized.

2.      The U.S. had no interest in interfering in the European internal affairs and therefore European nations should stay out of the affairs of American nations.

3.      Any attempt by a European nation to control an American nation would be seen as a hostile act against the United States.

The Monroe doctrine reaffirmed George Washington’s policy but “it also asserted that, if provoked, the United States would retaliate.”

The Monroe Doctrine has been invoked several times:

-          1836 to protest the alliance between Great Britain and the Republic of Texas

-          1864 to protest Napoleon III’s invasion of Mexico.

-          1870, interpreted that U.S. had the authority to mediate border disputes in South America

-          1904, Roosevelt Corollary, he extended the doctrine to include Central America and Caribbean nations when they could not pay their international debt

-          1962, J. F. Kennedy used the Monroe Doctrine to “isolate the communist menace in Cuba.”

-          1980s, the Monroe Doctrine was used to justify U.S. involvement in civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua; the new interpretation resulted in public outcry of the Iran-Contra Affair

-          2003, George W. Bush used the Monroe Doctrine to justify the invasion of Iraq, the Bush Corollary

The Monroe Museum in Fredericksburg contains a piece of furniture bought in Paris, ca. 1795, which the family legend calls the Monroe Doctrine desk, brought back to the U.S. in 1817. The desk has a secret compartment in which a cache of letters written between Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and others, was discovered in the 20^th century. The letters are found in the Ingrid Westesson Hoes Archives at the museum.

Highland estate - Wikipedia photo

James Monroe bought another farm in Albemarle County in 1793 which he named Highland. The family owned this farm from 1793 to 1825 and they used it as official residence from 1799-1823. Monroe called Highland his “cabin castle” because it was rustic and remote with a beautiful view of the mountains. Highland was close to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s estate. Highland is now known as Ash Lawn-Highland, and it is open to the public.

The Monroes spent time between Highland estate near Charlottesville, Virginia and the plantation outside Washington, D.C. called Oak Hill. After 25 years at Highland, James Monroe decided that going back and forth was too stressful for his wife, so he sold Highland in 1825.

Museum Archives

Oak Hill still stands today but it is not open to the public.

Elizabeth Monroe was often ill throughout her entire life, allegedly suffering from epilepsy. She had a seizure in front of an open fireplace, was burnt terribly, and died three years later, in 1830, having suffered constantly from those burns. Her husband lived one more year without his beloved Elizabeth. He died on July 4, 1831. 

James Monroe was one of the most remarkable American Presidents and statesman, a man of integrity and honor, who served his country in so many ways, with intelligence, wisdom, courage and dedication. He left behind a rich historical legacy that Americans should be proud of, admire, and emulate.

NOTE: It is truly sad that so few Americans care about their history, good or bad, and the remarkable men who built our nation. It takes foreigners like me who are American citizens by choice to appreciate history and the events and men who shaped who we are today.

If Americans would spend as much energy, time, and money to watch football and other sports, collegiate and professional, our country would be in so much better shape and communists would not take over our country as they are currently doing.

James Monroe, an Extraordinary American (Part I)

Fifth U.S. President James Monroe (1817-1825) wore many hats in his lifetime: farmer, lawyer, soldier, statesman, ambassador, governor, husband, father, and grandfather. He was active in politics since he was 24 years old and began studying law when he was 16. By the time of his death at the age of 73, he held every public office available at the time, thus participating in some of the most important moments in American history.

Fredericksburg, Virginia, built a small museum commemorating his remarkable life on the property where his law office used to stand. Furniture and memorabilia are original, but the books are editions of similar books that he and his family had owned. A dress, a couple of his outfits, his daughter’s rusted out ice skates and his wife’s gold and precious jewels decorated with large amethysts, aquamarines, and citrine stones, are also part of the exhibit.

Museum grounds

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2023

Museum Archives - parents farm

James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia on April 28, 1758, to Spence and Elizabeth Monroe. Spence was a farmer and cabinet maker. James had four siblings, a sister and three brothers, and the family lived in Monroe Hall on the banks of Monroe Creek, a tributary to the Potomac. At the age of 16, after his father died, James inherited the family’s land which he owned until 1780 when he sold it.

Museum interior entrance

Photo: Ileana Johnson February 2023

In the summer of 1774, the revolutionary fever hit Williamsburg and law student James Monroe was entirely preoccupied by his disdain for the British monarchy, his studies taking second place.

On June 24, 1775, the 18-year-old James Monroe and 23 of his fellow students, under the command of Theodorick Bland Jr., raided the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg. They seized 200 muskets and 300 swords and turned them over to the Williamsburg militia. There was no bloodshed as the palace had been abandoned and all the vestiges of British rule were gone with Lord Dunmore. A Committee of Safety took control of the city and Monroe and his uncle Joseph Jones who were part of this committee, became the city’s ad hoc government.

James and his friend John Mercer decided to enlist in the spring of 1776 in the third Virginia Infantry, commanded by Colonel Hugh Mercer, a friend and neighbor of Uncle Joseph Jones. According to archives, “James Monroe made the long trip from Williamsburg to his uncle’s home in Fredericksburg in order to enlist.”

Furlough signed by Major James Monroe

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2023

One of the original documents in the museum is a Valley Forge furlough signed by nineteen-year-old Major James Monroe, aide-de-camp to Major General William Alexander (Lord Stirling), on February 23, 1778, to Second Lieutenant John Wallace of the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment. This infantry unit was encamped at Valley Forge.

During the Battle of Trenton in 1776, James Monroe was wounded in the shoulder and carried the bullet in his body for the rest of his life. There is a famous painting, Capture of the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton, by John Trumbull, which depicts James Monroe lying on the ground wounded in the left center of the painting.

In 1782 James Monroe was selected to represent King George County in the Virginia Assembly.  In 1783 he was appointed to the delegation which represented Virginia at the Confederation Congress in Annapolis. In 1784 he was present during the ratification of the Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolution and recognized the United States as a nation.

He left Congress in 1786 and set up his law practice in Fredericksburg. He met the 16-year-old Elizabeth Kortright in New York in 1785 and married her in 1786 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Manhattan. She was the daughter of a rich New York merchant, a strong but interesting marriage if you consider his humble upbringing, a farmer’s son.

They settled in Fredericksburg, in a house rented from his uncle, Joseph Jones. Monroe started his law practice in a small building on Charles Street, on the lot which today houses the museum. The home where the Monroes lived is on Caroline Street and still stands today, privately owned.

Mrs. Monroe's private jewelry collection

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2023

Mrs. Monroe, at the age of 18, gave birth to the couple’s first child in Fredericksburg, a daughter named Elizabeth.  The second child, James Spence, was born in May 1799, but the boy died the following September. In April 1802, the Monroes’ last child was born, Maria Hester.

Museum archives photo

The Monroes’ first born, Eliza Monroe Hay (1787-1840), was educated at a boarding school in Paris where she met Hortense de Beauharnais, Josephine's daughter and Napoleon’s stepdaughter, and eventually Queen of Holland. They became life-long friends and Eliza named her daughter Hortensia, in her honor. Eliza had married George Hay, a successful lawyer and James Monroe’s confidant.

Eliza’s formal education was superior to most women in Washington society. She provided the supporting role of hostess at the President’s House when her mother was not well. Eliza and George lived in the executive house during Monroe’s two terms as president. Eliza planned her younger sister’s wedding in 1820 and was criticized for not making it into a lavish public event. When Eliza lost her husband and mother in 1830 and then her father in 1831, she traveled a lot to Europe. She settled in France at a convent and died there in 1840. She is buried in Pere La Chaise cemetery in Paris.

Maria Hester Monroe Governeur (1802-1850) was sixteen years younger than her sister Eliza. When Monroe became president, she was 14 years old. She decided to attend boarding school in Philadelphia until 1819 rather than live in the President’s House with her family.

Maria married her first cousin, Samuel Governeur, in 1820 and they had four children, two daughters and two sons. The first child, a daughter, died in infancy. The second child, a son, was born deaf. Most of the Monroe memorabilia in the museum in Fredericksburg came from Maria and Samuel’s children.

There were strained relations between Maria and Eliza, and Samuel and George did not get along either. During an extended visit with his daughter’s family in New York, following his wife’s death, James Monroe fell ill and died soon after.  Maria passed away at Oak Hill’s family estate in 1850.

In 1787 James Monroe was elected to the House of Delegates for Spotsylvania County and in 1788 he was nominated to the Virginia Convention to ratify the new Constitution. Monroe and “antifederalists” were able to win two concessions – a Bill of Rights and 20 amendments to be included in the Constitution.

The Monroes left Fredericksburg in 1789. James bought 800 acres of land near Charlottesville, near Albemarle County, and a townhouse one block away from the courthouse in the city. The plantation house, eventually known as Monroe Hall, began receiving guests by the summer of 1793. Monroe sold these 800 acres eventually and the land became the site of the University of Virginia.

Monroe became a U.S. Senator (1790-1794) at the age of 32, backed by Thomas Jefferson and George Mason.

James Monroe was appointed ambassador to France in 1794 by George Washington. The family lived in Paris for three years in a very opulent villa called Folie de la Bouexiere on the fashionable Rue de Clichy. This French home was lavishly decorated in order to keep up appearances at the French court. The furniture purchased was brought back to the U.S. in 1797 and was used in the White House. Unfortunately, the house in Paris no longer stands today.

The ambassadorship was demanding - he had to walk a difficult path during the strained Franco-American relations. He reassured France of American support but kept the U.S. neutrality and out of any involvement with France’s war with England. During the French bloody revolution, many Americans and French aristocrats were imprisoned in harsh conditions. Monroe was able to secure the release of Thomas Paine. Ill from his imprisonment, Monroe brought Paine to his home where he recovered for more than a year. Thomas Paine had radical revolutionary views and a lot of disdain for the administration in Washington.

While in France, James Monroe’s diplomatic endeavors managed to free Madame de Lafayette, the Marquis de Lafayette’s wife, from prison. The Marquis was imprisoned in Austria while his wife was in Paris, awaiting beheading. Monroe sent his wife in the brightly colored carriage that everyone in Paris recognized as belonging to the American ambassador, to the jail where Madame de Lafayette was held. Crowds gathered to see his gracious and beautiful wife Elizabeth who spent time with the prisoner and assured her that she would be released. The French government was embarrassed that the much admired “La Belle Americaine,” Mrs. Monroe, had to visit such an awful place to see an old friend whose husband was a hero of the American Revolution. The eventual public clamor resulted in negotiations with Ambassador Monroe. The French government released Madame de Lafayette in short order and she and their children joined the Marquis in Austria.

TO BE CONTINUED

Note: Did you know that Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, is named after James Monroe? He supported the American Colonization Society's work to create a home for freed African slaves in Liberia.

Fun Memories of Paris

My husband’s memories of Paris were quite different from mine as if we were on different trips. We agreed that it was a cold and damp December that year. We visited during Christmas and New Year because we wanted to listen to the service at Notre Dame; we even climbed to the catwalk to see the gargoyles up close and the river Seine.

It was very damp, expensive, the French were very rude to Americans, and it smelled like urine everywhere.  And we had to watch for dog poo before we stepped in the streets in the endless drizzly rain.

Aside for the enthusiasm for our visit to Napoleon’s mausoleum and tombs of other generals, and the very interesting military museum, our memories partied ways.

I was enthralled by all the culture, the art, and the city’s history. It saddened me to see so much opulent beauty surrounding us, knowing how many people had suffered and paid for all this beauty with their forced labor and ultimately with their lives.

We stayed in a hotel in Montmartre, and I can honestly say that I’ve never been so cold in a hotel before. We trekked daily through the rainy streets to the metro where the loudspeakers, without fail, would make the same announcement on the train, in different languages, that, ladies and gentlemen, “robbers were on the train.”

We walked by the cemetery daily and sometimes past the metro station to Sacre Coeur where couples were loitering on the steps smoking and throwing their cigarette butts and trash on the ground. What a sacrilege! 

David liked the sunny side up egg on the pizza served in a restaurant at Versailles and the fresh and delicious pastries and croissants baked by men with hairy arms. He still remembers the fresh baguettes at the train station cafe in Paris buzzed by flies inside. You would think that they would go dormant in December! 

The well-manicured gardens and parks would have been lovely except for the fact that they were all dormant and the trees were brown. A few lovely potted flowers decorated Notre Dame.

Bathrooms were hard to come by which may explain the offensive smell of urine permeating everywhere but especially in the metro corridors and tunnels. It costs money everywhere to use the restrooms, even in cafes, one euro on the average, and in the round restrooms in the middle of the street that stunk to high Heaven.  They reminded me of Dr. Who’s time travel phone booth. 

A fun and delicious Greek restaurant in the vicinity of Notre Dame encouraged patrons to break plates on men’s heads. At his request, I hit my hubby with a plate but on the wrong side. It did not break and luckily, we are still married. He claims that I caused the dent visible on his bald head. Just kidding about the dent part. 

We went on the same trip to Paris but I vividly, not vaguely, remember many details and the beauty surrounding us inside museums and outside majestic buildings. Hubby remembered expensive restaurants and street food and the fact that we almost got mugged by the Eiffel Tower by a gypsy kid. 

I also enjoyed pretending that I did not speak any French because I wanted to hear how rudely the French spoke of the two of us before I responded to the pretentious and arrogant waiters.

 

Fredericksburg, a Historical Vortex

Chatham House facing the river

Fredericksburg, a crossroads of historical significance, has been called a vortex of the Civil War. The battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House have been fought here, with 100,000 casualties within twenty miles of town.

Three historical sites are maintained by the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Military Park: Chatham House, Salem Church, and the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. There is a 100-mile trail which follows the movement of the Union and Confederate armies from Wilderness to Petersburg, beginning at Germanna Ford.

The four major battle sites are: Fredericksburg Battlefield (Dec. 11-13, 1862, a decisive victory for the Confederates), Chancellorsville Battlefield (April 27-May 6, 1863, a major victory for Gen. Lee with the grievous loss of  Gen. Stonewall Jackson who was mortally wounded in the battle), Wilderness Battlefield (May 5-6, 1864, the first confrontation between Gen. Lee and Gen. Grant), and Spotsylvania Battlefield (May8-21, 1864, 30,000 men lose their lives in the desperate fighting for the ‘Bloody Angle’).

Fredericksburg in the distance from Chatham House

Overlooking the Rappahannock River, the 18^th century plantation called Chatham House stands majestically surrounded by huge trees and gardens. During the fierce battles, the house became headquarters and hospital for the Union army in two major campaigns.

Gazebo at Chatham House with a very old tree nearby

During the Chancellorsville campaign, the Salem Church, a house of worship whose name means peace, was at the center of the battle in 1863. In a small building dubbed the Stonewall Jackson Shrine, Gen. Stonewall Jackson died on May 10, 1863, eight days after he was wounded at Chancellorsville.

Marye's Union Cemetery

A 400-foot railroad bridge was built in nine days over the gorge at Potomac Creek Bridge. Lincoln said facetiously that the construction was made of “beanpoles and cornstalks.” The Fredericksburg City Dock was the site where Union troops fought their way across the Rappahannock River over a pontoon bridge on December 11, 1862.

Masonic Cemetery

In 1862, the ambulance that carried the wounded Stonewall Jackson made its way on Guinea Station Road past beautiful antebellum homes which still survive today despite intense fighting nearby.

Masonic Cemetery

Weedon’s Tavern was the location in January 1777 where a Committee of Law Revisors composed of Thomas Jefferson and four delegates met to begin the task of revising laws to reflect the independence from Britain. They presented eventually 126 statutes to the Assembly for adoption. George Weeden, the tavern’s owner, had been an ardent supporter of American independence from Britain and commanded Virginia troops in Gen. Washington’s Continental Army.

Gen. Hugh Mercer's monument

The Masonic cemetery in old town Fredericksburg dates to 1784 including burials of people who came from England, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, Williamsburg, and Boston. Several people buried here have fought in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Kenmore plantation

George Washington grew up in Fredericksburg and became a member of the local Masonic Lodge the year it was founded as the Fredericksburg Lodge #4, Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons, in 1752. These Masons established the Masonic Cemetery in 1784 with 270 graves. People buried here are family members of the original lodge, with some re-burials of members of the American Masonic Lodge #63 which had splintered off from Lodge #4 in 1799 but did not survive beyond the Civil War.

Religious Freedom monument

Mary's meditation rock

Cemetery by Mary's monument

Among the buried in this Masonic Cemetery are:

-          Colonel Fielding Lewis, an iron forge owner during the American Revolution where repairs were made to damaged weapons and manufactured new ones as well.

-          William Woodford, commanded Virginia troops in Washington’s army at Brandywine, Great Bridge, and Monmouth, captured in Charleston in 1780, imprisoned on a ship in New York harbor where he died;

-          Brigadier Gen. George Weedon, a veteran of the French and Indian War and commander of Continental troops and Virginia militia, blocked the British breakout at Gloucester Point in the Yorktown campaign;

-         Gen. Hugh Mercer, a Scottish soldier for the exiled Charles Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie); Mercer met Washington on the Pennsylvania frontier during the French and Indian War and joined the American Revolution; he was mortally wounded at Princeton in 1777.

The Hugh Mercer monument was erected on Washington Avenue in 1906 by the U.S. government. In addition to being a battle-hardened general, Mercer was “a doctor who fled Scotland after the Battle of Culloden, where he had supported the Stuart cause.” After he met Col. George Washington in Pennsylvania, on his advice Mercer moved to Fredericksburg to practice medicine and run an apothecary. The archives claim that Gen. George S. Patton is a great, great, great grandson of Hugh Mercer.

On the same Washington Avenue is located the Thomas Jefferson Religious Freedom Monument which represents all 16 religious denominations in the U.S. On January 13, 1777, Thomas Jefferson met with his committee, George Mason, Edmond Pendleton, George Wythe, and Thomas Ludwell Lee to draft the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

According to the archives, Thomas Jefferson considered the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, the Declaration of Independence, and the founding of the University of Virginia as his three major accomplishments.

Mary Washington's Monument

On the same Washington Avenue are Kenmore estate, Betty Washington Lewis and Colonel Fielding Lewis home built in 1752. Betty was Gen. George Washington’s sister. Mary Washington lived with her daughter and eventually died in her home. She was buried not far from her favorite spot, the Meditation Rock. There is an obelisk monument dedicated to Mary Washington in the vicinity of historic Kenmore on Washington Avenue.

Marye’s Heights is now the final resting place of the Union soldiers killed in the surrounding areas during the Civil War, reinterred in 1865 by the U.S. government in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery.

The Confederate soldiers were reinterred in the Fredericksburg City Cemetery founded in 1844. The Confederates had been unceremoniously buried on all the battlefields. Five Confederate generals are buried here and one Lucy Ann Cox, the wife of a Confederate soldier who followed her husband for four years in battle. She was made an honorary Confederate veteran; her tombstone reads, “A sharer of the toils, dangers, and privations of the 30^th Infantry C.S.A. from 1861-1865.”

Fredericksburg stands witness as a historical vortex of the brutal battles between brothers who shed their innocent blood to maintain the economic interests of the wealthy in power.

NOTE: Photos by Ileana Johnson taken January 2023