preview

James Monroe: The Fifth President of the United States Essay

Decent Essays

James Monroe wasn’t born to live an ordinary life, but an extraordinary one. He was born April 28, 1758, in his parents house in a forest area of Westmoreland County, Virginia. His father Spence Monroe (1727-1774) worked as a planter and carpenter. James’s mother Elizabeth Jones (1730-1774) married his father in 1752 and they both had several children together. James grew up with his siblings by the same teachings of his mother. His parents died when he was a teenager. When he became of age, he attended the College of William and Mary and fought in the Continental Army. After he was wounded in New York serving in George Washington’s army he met Elizabeth Kortright. They got married on February 16, 1786, when he was twenty-seven and …show more content…

His era of good feelings did not last. Economic depression sprouted up in the Missouri Territory in 1819, because the failure of the state not becoming a Union state being a slave state. This became the Missouri Compromise bill, which paired Missouri as a slave state with Maine, a free state, and forbade slavery north and west of Missouri forever.
James Monroe had many memorable moments in his two four year terms and the most famous of these moments is the Monroe Doctrine. December 2, 1823 the Monroe Doctrine was delivered to Congress. This document was a response to the threat of conservative governments aiding Spain in the reconquest of it’s former Latin American colonies. Great Britain agreed with Monroe in not aiding Spain, until Spain’s threat hit Florida. Monroe believed that Spain should leave Latin America alone and also that Russia should not grow into the Southward coast of the Pacific. ". . . the American continents," he said, "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."

Leaving the White House after two terms, Monroe and his wife went to spend their days at their estate “Oak Hill” in Loudoun County, Virginia. After his wife died in 1830, Monroe moved to New

Get Access