author
James Monroe
1758–1831
A Revolutionary War veteran who became the fifth president of the United States, he is often remembered for the Monroe Doctrine and for leading the country during the so-called Era of Good Feelings. His long public career also included service as governor of Virginia, diplomat, senator, secretary of state, and secretary of war.
1 Audiobook
State of the Union Addresses
by James Monroe
About the author
Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1758, James Monroe came of age as the American colonies moved toward independence. He left college to join the Revolutionary cause, served in the Continental Army, and was wounded at the Battle of Trenton. After the war, he studied law with Thomas Jefferson, beginning a political career that would carry him through some of the most important offices in the early republic.
Monroe served as a U.S. senator, governor of Virginia, minister to France and Britain, secretary of state, and secretary of war before becoming president in 1817. His presidency is closely tied to the "Era of Good Feelings," a period marked by a sense of national confidence after the War of 1812, though serious tensions over slavery and sectional balance were already growing beneath the surface.
He is best known today for the Monroe Doctrine, the 1823 statement that warned European powers against further interference in the Americas. As the last U.S. president who was also a Founding Father, Monroe stands at the meeting point between the Revolutionary generation and the expanding nation that followed. He died on July 4, 1831, becoming the third early president to die on Independence Day.