James Monroe: The Last Of The Crooked Hats

Mikey Urton, William Roberts, Ryan Baas, Jacob Wheeler

James Monroe, The Last of the Crooked Hats.

Biography

(William Roberts)

James Monroe was born on April 18th, 1758, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Monroe was a soldier for the Revolutionary War. He was wounded in the Battle of Trenton. Washington made Monroe as the minister of France from 1794 to 1796. During the presidency of Thomas Jefferson In 1803, Monroe was sent to France with another person and they signed the papers for the Louisiana Purchase. When inaugurated as the fifth president in 1817, Monroe took a tour to all the states. He died on July 4th, 1831, at age 73 in New York City.

Click here to view a video about him.

Events During Monroe's Presidency

(Mikey Urton,

Jacob Wheeler, Ryan Baas)

The Monroe Doctrine was a speech given by Monroe to congress on December 2, 1823. The speech’s main goal was to prevent any European powers from claiming and territory. It stated that any Europeans claiming territory in the Americas would be treated as an “act of aggression”. An interesting fact about this speech is that despite Britain being a European nation herself, she agreed with the speech for fear of trade being handicapped in the Americas, so much so that Britain even defended the neutrality of the territories with their strong navy. The Monroe Doctrine is highly considered to be the highlight of Monroe’s presidency as well as his legacy.
Monroe’s Doctrine was a very influential event in our country’s history.

By keeping European nations out of America, Monroe ensured future territory gains for our country, and land was a very valuable thing back then. How much land you have is directly proportionate to how powerful your country can eventually be, so the fact that the U.S. has so much land today is truly a blessing. We have Monroe and the Monroe Doctrine to thank for that. The Monroe Doctrine was used by president Tyler to justify taking Texas, as well as by president Roosevelt in order to prevent Europeans from forcibly taking debt. Roosevelt’s use of the doctrine became famous under the name “Roosevelt’s

corollary”.

The Missouri Compromise was where Monroe gifted the South with a new slave state and the North a new free one. The new free one Missouri hence the name. The South kept asking and asking for a new slave state and they got one. Maine was also then awarded to the North to even out the delicate balance between slave and free states. This compromise also drew a line between slave and free states splitting the Louisiana Territory in halve. This remained the law until the Nebraska - Kansas act in 1854, 34 years later.

The Missouri Compromise was an eventful debate between the slave and free states. It split up the country even more and was finally overridden in 1854. Even though tensions between the North and South where high this just calmed theses tensions for a while. The impact of the Missouri Compromise was obviously an important event by creating 2 new states it just rose the tensions between the North and South and was finally resolved in 1854.

The acquisition of Florida, also called the Adams-Onís Treaty, was a dispute over the possession of Florida during Monroe’s presidency that ended with the United States acquiring Florida.

Florida was owned by Spain since the Treaty of Paris in 1783, but it was poorly governed by them as there were many attacks by Native Americans, many encouraged by British privateers, that the Spanish did little to stop. Spain sent Don Luis de Onís to negotiate for the ownership of Florida. These negotiations started with secretary of state Monroe, and were finished by John Quincy Adams when Monroe was the president. Native Americans often times raided settlements in Georgia, provoking president Monroe to send General Andrew Jackson with some troops to invade Florida. Andrew Jackson executed two of the British that encouraged the Native American raids. John Quincy Adams and Don Luis de Onís soon reached an agreement that the United States would become the proprietor of Florida at a small cost in

1819.

The Adams-Onís treaty had a large impact on the United States because we now have another state that has made many contributions to the U.S. such as being ranked seventh in agricultural exports of all the states, among other things. The acquisition of Florida also prevented further tension between the United States, Spain, and Britain. The Adams-Onís treaty may have also helped John Quincy Adams to become the next president because he played such an instrumental role in it.

Ranking
(Jacob Wheeler and William Roberts)
President Monroe is ranked typically form the 7th all the way to the 21st best president. He had a very unique run. Like in 2008, his popularity took a drive to the dumpster, but it finally came back in 2010. Our group agrees with the historians because Monroe was very tame during his presidency therefore it explains the tank in 2008. The rise in popularity is due to further research and Monroe is now probably ranked at what he should be. Our group thinks that Monroe should be ranked 7th not only because he is a founding father, but the fact that he showed that America is not just a pushover nation.