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James Monroe
Fifth President of the United States
This First Day Cover was sponsored by the
Masonic Stamp Club of New York and was cancelled on April 28th, 1958 in Montross,
Virginia. It is listed in the Scott catalog as number 1105 and 326,988 were made.
On New Year's Day, 1825, at the
last of his annual White House receptions, President James Monroe made a
pleasing impression upon a Virginia lady who shook his hand:
"He is tall and well formed.
His dress plain and in the old style.... His manner was quiet and dignified.
From the frank, honest expression of his eye ... I think he well deserves the
encomium passed upon him by the great Jefferson, who said, 'Monroe was so honest
that if you turned his soul inside out there would not be a spot on it.'
"
Born in Westmoreland County,
Virginia, in 1758, Monroe attended the College of William and Mary, fought with
distinction in the Continental Army, and practiced law in Fredericksburg,
Virginia.
As a youthful politician, he joined the anti-Federalists in the Virginia
Convention which ratified the Constitution, and in 1790, an advocate of
Jeffersonian policies, was elected United States Senator. As Minister to
France in 1794-1796, he displayed strong sympathies for the French cause; later,
with Robert R. Livingston, he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase. His
ambition and energy, together with the backing of President Madison, made him
the Republican choice for the Presidency in 1816. With little Federalist
opposition, he easily won re-election in 1820. Monroe made unusually
strong Cabinet choices, naming a Southerner, John C. Calhoun, as Secretary of
War, and a northerner, John Quincy Adams, as Secretary of State. Only Henry
Clay's refusal kept Monroe from adding an outstanding Westerner. Early in
his administration, Monroe undertook a goodwill tour. At Boston, his visit was
hailed as the beginning of an "Era of Good Feelings." Unfortunately
these "good feelings" did not endure, although Monroe, his popularity
undiminished, followed nationalist policies. Across the facade of nationalism,
ugly sectional cracks appeared. A painful economic depression undoubtedly
increased the dismay of the people of the Missouri Territory in 1819 when their
application for admission to the Union as a slave state failed. An amended bill
for gradually eliminating slavery in Missouri precipitated two years of bitter
debate in Congress. The Missouri Compromise bill resolved the struggle, pairing
Missouri as a slave state with Maine, a free state, and barring slavery north
and west of Missouri forever. In foreign affairs Monroe proclaimed
the fundamental policy that bears his name, responding to the threat that the
more conservative governments in Europe might try to aid Spain in winning back
her former Latin American colonies. Monroe did not begin formally to recognize
the young sister republics until 1822, after ascertaining that Congress would
vote appropriations for diplomatic missions. He and Secretary of State John
Quincy Adams wished to avoid trouble with Spain until it had ceded the Floridas,
as was done in 1821. Great Britain, with its powerful navy, also opposed
reconquest of Latin America and suggested that the United States join in
proclaiming "hands off." Ex-Presidents Jefferson and Madison counseled
Monroe to accept the offer, but Secretary Adams advised, "It would be more
candid ... to avow our principles explicitly to Russia and France, than to come
in as a cock-boat in the wake of the British man-of-war." Monroe
accepted Adams's advice. Not only must Latin America be left alone, he warned,
but also Russia must not encroach southward on the Pacific coast. ". . .
the American continents," he stated, "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 Power." Some
20 years after Monroe died in 1831, this became known as the Monroe Doctrine.
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