JAMES MONROE: THE LAST REVOLUTIONARY PRESIDENT, PART I
James Monroe was the last of the "Virginia Dynasty" to be elected President. He was also the last of the Revolutionary War veterans to serve in the White House. He wore a cocked hat, knee breeches, silk stockings, cockade and sword long after such attire went out of fashion. Like his close friend, Thomas Jefferson, he insisted on "friendly, republican, and unassuming manners." Once a foreign diplomat came to the White House to call on the President and came across a "bald-headed. watery-eyed man in a striped seersucker coat, a dirty waistcoat spotted with ink, and slippers down at the heels," working at a desk. The diplomat was shocked that the President would employ such a sloppy clerk, but was even more surprised to find that this person was the President of the United States himself.
Monroe's term is remembered for the Monroe Doctrine and the Era of Good Feelings. Monroe was optimistic about the nation's future, and looked forward to its glorious future. The frontier was moving westward and industry was growing. Monroe represented the heroes of the Revolution to the next generation as they built the new nation.
James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia on April 28, 1758. He was tutored at home until he was twelve, when he enrolled in the local school taught by Parson Archibald Campbell, "a disciplinarian of the sternest type..." One of his classmates was his neighbor, John Marshall, later the Chief Justice of the United States. The two boys walked the several miles to school and back each day, sometimes taking their rifles and shooting game on the way.
At the age of sixteen, he entered William and Mary College. His father died the next year and the Revolutionary War was getting started. Although barely eighteen, Monroe was commissioned a lieutenant in the Third Virginia Regiment.
Monroe's regiment was ordered to New York, arriving too late to prevent the fall of New York City. Monroe fought at Harlem Heights, Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. At Trenton, Monroe led a gallant charge against an arsenal, taking two 3-pound cannons that were about to be turned on the Americans. He was wounded in the shoulder and almost bled to death, and took two months to recover. For his bravery, he was promoted to captain. Later scouting for General George Washington, he was promoted to major for his heroism.
He then returned to Virginia, and was named military commissioner of Virginia with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. His efforts to raise more troops failed, but he took advantage of the time and studied law with then-Governor Thomas Jefferson. His promotion and his opportunity to study with Jefferson were largely due to one of Washington's rare letters of recommendation in which he said of Monroe, "He has, in every instance, maintained the reputation of a brave, active, and sensible officer."
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