JAMES MONROE

James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758, in Westmoreland County in the area of Virginia called the “Northern Neck”. In 1774 he entered the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. At the outbreak of the American Revolution he left the College and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Third Virginia Regiment. He fought at the battles of Harlem Heights, Trenton, Brandywine and Monmouth, and wintered at Valley Forge with General Washington. The famous painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” depicts him as the young man standing behind Washington in the boat and holding the flag. By the end of the war he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

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After the war Monroe returned to Williamsburg to read law with Thomas Jefferson and to prepare for a life of public service. He was very successful in public service, being elected to more public offices than any other President of the United States.

As is well known, his Presidential Message in December 1823 proclaimed what has been called his young nation’s “Declaration of Independence in Diplomacy” known as the Monroe Doctrine.
Monroe married Elizabeth Kortwright of New York City in 1786. The Monroes had two daughters, Eliza and Maria Hester, as well as a son who died before the age of two. The Fifth President of the United States was never a wealthy man, since public offices in his time paid small salaries and left him little time to earn money from law or from his farms such as “Highlands” (later called “Ash Lawn”).
On July 4, 1831, James Monroe died at the New York residence of his younger daughter. He was buried in New York City, but in 1858 he was re-interred in Hollywood Cemetery near the James River in Richmond.