Month: April 2025

Remembering President James Monroe

Born this day on April 28, 1758, James Monroe was a Revolutionary War soldier, a diplomat, a Governor of Virginia, a U.S. Senator, and our fifth President of the United States. He is known for having formulated what became known as the “Monroe Doctrine,” a cornerstone of American foreign policy that asserted the Western Hemisphere was off-limits to European colonization, but which also served as the political rationale for America’s relentless acquisition of Western lands. His presidency also marked the “Era of Good Feelings,” characterized by national unity and economic growth. Monroe championed internal improvements, such as road and canal construction, and supported the Missouri Compromise of 1820, an admittedly flawed federal law, but which temporarily eased tensions over slavery.

Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and grew up in a family of modest means. His father, Spence Monroe, was a farmer and carpenter, and his mother, Elizabeth Jones Monroe, managed the household. Despite his humble beginnings, Monroe was an able student: he was educated at Campbelltown Academy, and later enrolled at the College of William and Mary in 1774, but never finished: when the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, Monroe joined the Continental Army, and participated in significant battles like the Battle of Trenton, where he was severely wounded, and the Battle of Monmouth. During the War, he became friends with men who would become important people in his later life: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Thomas Jefferson, to name a few. 

Monroe’s political career in the federal and state governments began in 1782 when he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. A year later, he served in the Continental Congress, where he advocated for the expansion of American territory and the creation of a strong federal government. Although he was not in government when Congress passed the U.S. Constitution, he did serve as a Delegate at Virginia’s Ratifying Convention in 1788, where he pressed for inclusion of a Bill of Rights (which was not adopted at that time), and ultimately voted against ratification for that reason.  In 1790, Monroe was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he gained a reputation as a staunch advocate for states’ rights and individual liberties. Monroe’s diplomatic career took off when President George Washington appointed him as Minister to France in 1794. During his tenure, he played a key role in negotiating the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States, and triggered a massive expansion of the United States into the West, ultimately to the Pacific Ocean. Monroe later served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War under President James Madison during the War of 1812. 

During his political career, Monroe was a close protégé of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, with whose support he was propelled into the White House in 1817.  After the end of his second term as President in 1825, he retired to his Virginia estate, Oak Hill. He struggled financially and faced personal losses, including the death of his wife, Elizabeth, in 1830. Monroe spent his final years living with his daughter in New York City, where he passed away on July 4, 1831 at the age of 73, having seen the nation transform itself from being a mere British Colony to a world power.

So today we honor James Monroe for his bravery on the battlefield, his diplomatic and political leadership, and his vital role in shaping the nation’s identity during its formative years. He was the last of the Virginians to lead our country in its first three decades, and who set the stage for the conquering of the American West. 

The interesting backstory on Lincoln is that he was not an abolitionist by any stretch, and as a Presidential candidate in 1860 he walked a careful line—never expressly declaring that slavery should be abolished, but rather that the institution of slavery should not be permitted to expand into the newly created states and territories of the West. Lincoln was not alone in this line of thinking, and in fact the preceding decade saw several legislative efforts to accomplish just that sort of compromise (the “Compromise of 1850” being one of them). As we’ve written before, his Emancipation Proclamation announced in January 1863 was his first and most overt declaration that slavery must end. Not coincidentally, the Proclamation was also a vehicle for Lincoln to now recruit freed slaves to fight for the Union at a time when the Union Army was being defeated on the battlefield (Antietam and Fredericksburg being prime examples) with massive losses of life. Of course, we know that the war continued for another 2 ½ years, during which time Lincoln authorized General Sherman’s infamous “March to the Sea,” which involved the wholesale destruction of much of the South’s factories, towns, railroads, and sources of food & clothing. By 1865, the South was in tatters. 

The culmination of Lincoln’s war strategy was the surrender at Appomattox (which occurred in a private home, not at the courthouse). The meeting of Generals Grant and Lee was in many respects inevitable, as General Lee had come to realize that his Army was unable to match the resources of the Union Army much longer, and that further warfare would be futile. Lee was a reluctant party to the negotiations that led to the Articles of Surrender, while General Grant was, if anything, gracious in allowing Lee to surrender on generous terms— to the point that Grant’s concessions were heavily criticized by various political leaders when the terms of surrender became known back in Washington.  However, Lincoln’s appointment of Grant to serve as Commanding General of the Union Army was, in retrospect, a move that saved the Union: Grant was a warrior of the highest order, and took the battle to General Lee in unrelenting fashion. He was also willing to sacrifice thousands of soldiers’ lives in the process, sometimes shockingly so. His brilliant battlefield tactics leading up to the final surrender at Appomattox have been lauded by military historians, and his victories against the Confederate armies made him one of the most revered figures in America for the rest of the century.  As for General Lee, he effectively retired from public life, never apologetic about his decision to serve as the commander-in-chief of a Confederate army determined to fight to the bitter end. He was a hero to his former Confederate soldiers, and revered for many decades following his death in 1870.  Both men fought for causes they believed in, and both men will be remembered this month for finding a way to end the tragedy that was our Civil War. But it is Abraham Lincoln who left the most lasting legacy of all— the United States of America, and in his own words, “a more perfect union.” 

This month marks the 160^th anniversary of two major events in American history: the end of the Civil War following the surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. The nation mourned Lincoln’s death as no other American had ever been mourned, a testament to his courageous effort to abolish the institution of slavery in the United States, and his untiring effort to preserve the Union. The end of the Civil War put a stop to the horrific loss of life experienced during the war years, but as we know, it did not necessarily put a stop to the underlying tensions that led to war in the first place. Racism in America continued for the next hundred years, just in different forms. Enslaved persons became free, but they were still subjected to discrimination in countless ways. One has to wonder what our society might have been like had Lincoln not been assassinated. Would his presidency have led to a more tolerant attitude from the former Confederate states? Would he have been able to mend fences in ways that would have avoided the ugly period of “Jim Crow” laws in the South, which perpetuated discrimination against African-Americans? These questions are unanswerable, of course, much as one can only speculate on what America would have looked like if John Kennedy had not been assassinated in 1963. 

The interesting backstory on Lincoln is that he was not an abolitionist by any stretch, and as a Presidential candidate in 1860 he walked a careful line—never expressly declaring that slavery should be abolished, but rather that the institution of slavery should not be permitted to expand into the newly created states and territories of the West. Lincoln was not alone in this line of thinking, and in fact the preceding decade saw several legislative efforts to accomplish just that sort of compromise (the “Compromise of 1850” being one of them). As we’ve written before, his Emancipation Proclamation announced in January 1863 was his first and most overt declaration that slavery must end. Not coincidentally, the Proclamation was also a vehicle for Lincoln to now recruit freed slaves to fight for the Union at a time when the Union Army was being defeated on the battlefield (Antietam and Fredericksburg being prime examples) with massive losses of life. Of course, we know that the war continued for another 2 ½ years, during which time Lincoln authorized General Sherman’s infamous “March to the Sea,” which involved the wholesale destruction of much of the South’s factories, towns, railroads, and sources of food & clothing. By 1865, the South was in tatters. 

The culmination of Lincoln’s war strategy was the surrender at Appomattox (which occurred in a private home, not at the courthouse). The meeting of Generals Grant and Lee was in many respects inevitable, as General Lee had come to realize that his Army was unable to match the resources of the Union Army much longer, and that further warfare would be futile. Lee was a reluctant party to the negotiations that led to the Articles of Surrender, while General Grant was, if anything, gracious in allowing Lee to surrender on generous terms— to the point that Grant’s concessions were heavily criticized by various political leaders when the terms of surrender became known back in Washington.  However, Lincoln’s appointment of Grant to serve as Commanding General of the Union Army was, in retrospect, a move that saved the Union: Grant was a warrior of the highest order, and took the battle to General Lee in unrelenting fashion. He was also willing to sacrifice thousands of soldiers’ lives in the process, sometimes shockingly so. His brilliant battlefield tactics leading up to the final surrender at Appomattox have been lauded by military historians, and his victories against the Confederate armies made him one of the most revered figures in America for the rest of the century.  As for General Lee, he effectively retired from public life, never apologetic about his decision to serve as the commander-in-chief of a Confederate army determined to fight to the bitter end. He was a hero to his former Confederate soldiers, and revered for many decades following his death in 1870.  Both men fought for causes they believed in, and both men will be remembered this month for finding a way to end the tragedy that was our Civil War. But it is Abraham Lincoln who left the most lasting legacy of all— the United States of America, and in his own words, “a more perfect union.”