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durantedianne 's review for:
The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness
by Harlow Giles Unger
I disliked James Monroe (POTUS 1817-1825) when I met him while researching the Reynolds Affair (http://diannedurantewriter.com/archives/3285). But I've decided to read a biography of each of the United States presidents in order, and I resolved to try to look at Monroe objectively. Unger's description of him as "the last Founding Father" made me hopeful. Unfortunately, I quickly came to dislike Unger even more than I disliked Monroe. For example: Unger's prologue states that "Washington's three successors - John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison - were mere caretaker presidents" (p. 2). Biographers do get attached to their subjects, but such statements made it a struggle to read Unger. My takeaways from the bio:
1) Monroe, like Madison, was a politician rather than an executive: he appointed people because of the party they belonged to rather than because they could to the job superlatively well.
2) Monroe didn't stick to his principles. In September 1814, soon after British troops burned the Capitol and the White House, Monroe was named Madison's secretary of War pro tem. "Monroe scrapped the republican principles of his youth and drew up a plan to draft a standing army of 100,000 men, raise their rates of pay, and exempt those who found recruits to serve as substitutes. Even as a young man, Monroe had never clung obstinately to any political position if he recognized it to be contrary to the nation's interests." (p. 249). What's the point of winning the war if you don't preserve the individual liberties that the country stands for?
3) Monroe deserves credit for helping to open more of the future continental U.S. to American settlers. In 1819, by the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain ceded Florida and all claims to the Pacific Northwest, in exchange for a promise that the U.S. would not settle Texas and the Southwest. The Treaty of 1818 fixed the northern border between the U.S. and Canada as far west as the Rockies: British and Americans were no longer fighting in the Midwest (p. 294). During Monroe's administration, some 40 treaties were signed with the Indians, so settlers west of the Appalachians were no longer in danger from Indian attacks. The Russo-American Treaty of 1824 kept the Russians out of the Pacific Northwest (p. 312). The Monroe Doctrine (1824) was the natural outgrowth of Monroe's push to clear the present continental U.S. for settlement: "The American continents, 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 powers." (p. 350)
4. Monroe was financially irresponsible. Without a profitable plantation or an established law practice to bring in steady revenue, he was continually in debt ... yet he continued to buy expensive homes (in Virginia, Paris, and Washington), expensive furnishings, and expensive gowns for his wife. When he left office he was $75,000 in debt - a huge amount at the time.
I still don't like the man.
On to John Quincy Adams!
1) Monroe, like Madison, was a politician rather than an executive: he appointed people because of the party they belonged to rather than because they could to the job superlatively well.
2) Monroe didn't stick to his principles. In September 1814, soon after British troops burned the Capitol and the White House, Monroe was named Madison's secretary of War pro tem. "Monroe scrapped the republican principles of his youth and drew up a plan to draft a standing army of 100,000 men, raise their rates of pay, and exempt those who found recruits to serve as substitutes. Even as a young man, Monroe had never clung obstinately to any political position if he recognized it to be contrary to the nation's interests." (p. 249). What's the point of winning the war if you don't preserve the individual liberties that the country stands for?
3) Monroe deserves credit for helping to open more of the future continental U.S. to American settlers. In 1819, by the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain ceded Florida and all claims to the Pacific Northwest, in exchange for a promise that the U.S. would not settle Texas and the Southwest. The Treaty of 1818 fixed the northern border between the U.S. and Canada as far west as the Rockies: British and Americans were no longer fighting in the Midwest (p. 294). During Monroe's administration, some 40 treaties were signed with the Indians, so settlers west of the Appalachians were no longer in danger from Indian attacks. The Russo-American Treaty of 1824 kept the Russians out of the Pacific Northwest (p. 312). The Monroe Doctrine (1824) was the natural outgrowth of Monroe's push to clear the present continental U.S. for settlement: "The American continents, 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 powers." (p. 350)
4. Monroe was financially irresponsible. Without a profitable plantation or an established law practice to bring in steady revenue, he was continually in debt ... yet he continued to buy expensive homes (in Virginia, Paris, and Washington), expensive furnishings, and expensive gowns for his wife. When he left office he was $75,000 in debt - a huge amount at the time.
I still don't like the man.
On to John Quincy Adams!