Tuesday, February 7, 2023

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment