James Monroe

Contribution to History

James Monroe was a Virginia college student when the Revolution began. He left the College of William & Mary to fight, and he was wounded at the Battle of Trenton in December 1776. As President Jefferson’s envoy, he later helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase, which nearly doubled the size of the United States.

Monroe was inaugurated as the fifth President on March 4, 1817, the last Founding Father to hold the office. His terms came to be called the “Era of Good Feelings.” On December 2, 1823, in his annual message to Congress, he set out what became known as the Monroe Doctrine: Europe should not start new colonies in the Americas.

Why It Matters Today

Two centuries later, the Monroe Doctrine still comes up in debates over America’s role in its own hemisphere. President Kennedy cited it during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and in 2013 Secretary of State John Kerry declared its era over. Monroe’s record has a hard side as well: he enslaved dozens of people, and an honest history includes that. The line that started it all reads:

The Masonic Thread

Monroe was initiated in Williamsburg Lodge No. 6 on November 9, 1775, at 17, while he was a student at William & Mary, and he stayed active in the Craft until at least 1786. He spent a lifetime serving a young country through war, diplomacy and office. That steady habit of service is something any of us can practice.

Sources

• https://daculalodge433.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Presidential-Masons-v1.6.pdf (citing Williamsburg Lodge No. 6 records via Hertel)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Monroe
• https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/monroe-doctrine
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine
• Portrait image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Monroe_White_House_portrait_1819_(cropped)(2).jpg (Public domain)