The Presidents #5: James Monroe

[Ardent15]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Monroe

Discuss him and his Presidency.

[Dr Morbius]

1. In a hurry to get these all in?

I will come back to one of the most popular Presidents of his era in a bit. I haven't come across the thread for John Adams.

[lazarus]

2. great at foreign policy

The Monroe Doctrine could, if interpreted properly, have led to a much better future for Central America and South America. But it was instead interpreted to make the US the daddy of the hemisphere.

[Ardent15]

3. Great at picking his Cabinet: John Quincy Adams...

..his Secretary of State, actually wrote the "Monroe" Doctrine.

[lazarus]

4. true

But picking the cabinet is a skill, too. And he and JQA worked together quite a bit.

[Zomby Woof]

5. J.Q. Adams was his secretary of state

He drafted the Monroe Doctrine.

The re-interpretation you speak of could be attributed to the Roosevelt Corollary, establish by T.R. His predecessor McKinley got the imperial ball rolling, and Teddy ran with it. His cousin would reverse course for a while with the 'Good Neighbor Policy', but that was all but over as per WW2.

[Zomby Woof]

6. He marked the end of the Revolutionary Era presidents

The last veteran of the American Revolution to serve, in fact.

His presidency, following the two terms of James Madison and the War of 1812, marked the end of the Federalist Party and ushered in what is called "The Era of Good Feelings." Monroe was the last to run virtually unopposed, for his second term in 1820. Contrary to myth, the sole electoral vote he did not obtain was not in order to protect George Washington's status as the only unanimously-elected president, but rather, the elector simply did not want to vote for Monroe.

Although an underrated president in many regards - particularly due to the lasting influence of 'The Monroe Doctrine' (see my post above about J.Q. Adams), his two terms were not without blemishes. There was an economic downturn in 1819, and in 1820, the Missouri Compromise was enacted - setting the stage for 40 years of tensions and further compromises regarding the presence of slavery in the republic and the interpretation of Amendment X.

[Dr Morbius]

7. The Missouri Compromise

is easy to fault today, but it forestalled war for two generations - at the same time it pretty much made war inevitable. Monroe was very much a hands-off President; the compromise originated with Mr. Taylor of New York and Mr. Clay of Kentucky was the force behind getting the bill passed. Congress was far more powerful than the President in those days; this is why Mr. Jackson's completely different idea of a Presidency upset the Washington applecart. So while Monroe does deserve some credit (although not a lot) for the great J.Q. Adams' Monroe Doctrine, he doesn't deserve much blame for the Missouri Compromise.

Monroe was much liked and respected in his first term, but the complete collapse of the Federalist party had a lot more to do with his almost unanimous reelection in 1820 than his popularity. The Era of Good Feeling basically ended with the panic of 1819. Just to give folks an idea of his politics, he vetoed a bill for improvements to the Cumberland Road, because he felt civic improvements were the responsibility of the states, not the federal government. Sound familiar?

He fell into financial ruin after he was President and died about six years later. The last of the Virginians in the White House until Tyler. More than that, I don't much recall. There's a good biography of John Quincy Adams by Paul C. Nagel, and it contains much insight about Monroe from the perspective of the nation's greatest Secretary of State.

[Zomby Woof]

8. I agree

I said "blemish", but it was not meant to damn Monroe or blame him - just highlighting the more contentious part of his presidency. The upside was definitely delaying the war.

I recall Jefferson's words that the MC was "like a firebell in the night".