Today is the anniversary of the birth of the last American Revolution figure to be President. So, in honor of the man holding the flag in the painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” here are some interesting facts and trivia about the only candidate to get all but one of the electoral votes (Washington got them all.) *** You can find info like this for each of the Presidents on the site menu.
NAME – James Monroe
- NICKNAME(S) – The Last of the Cocked Hats (for his old fashioned clothing)
- BIRTH / DEATH – April 28, 1758 Westmoreland County, Va. / 1831 – NYC
- FATHER – carpenter, farmer
- MOTHER – housewife
- COLLEGE – William and Mary
- WIFE – Elizabeth
- KIDS – two girls, one boy (died in infancy)
- PETS – Siberian Husky (Sebastian)
- RELIGION – Episcopalian
- ANCESTRY – Scotch
- AGE – 58
FIRSTS:
– first President to ride in a steamboat
– first President whose inauguration was outdoors
– first President who had been a Senator
– first President to have a daughter buried in the White House
BACKGROUND:
– fought in the Revolutionary War
– Continental Congress 1789
– Senator 1790-94
– Ambassador to France 1794-96
– Governor of Va. 1799-1802
– Minister to France and England 1803-08
– Secretary of State to Madison 1811-17 / Secretary of War 1814-15
– President 1817-1825
FIRST LADY: Elizabeth was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. While with her husband in France, she helped arrange the release of Lafayette’s wife and children from imprisonment during the Revolution. As First Lady, she insisted the staff call her “Your Majesty”.
RETIREMENT: He retired to his plantation called Ash Lawn, but he had fallen into debt and lived only comfortably on his pension. He died in 1830 and Elizabeth followed a year later.
TRIVIA:
– favorite food – spoon bread (like bread pudding)
ANECDOTES:
Because he was boring, Monroe does not have many interesting anecdotes. He does feature in a sequel to Hamilton’s famous “Reynolds Affair”. Before the duel with Burr, there was almost a duel between Hamilton and Monroe. In 1792, Monroe was a Senator and his committee got wind of possible financial malfeasance by Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton. Monroe and two other committee members were sent to interview Hamilton. Hamilton was forced to reveal that the smoke was from his affair with Mary Reynolds. He had paid off her husband, but not with government funds. He provided documents, including letters. Monroe and the others were convinced that Hamilton was innocent of anything illegal and agreed to keep the letters confidential. Unfortunately, in 1797, the clerk of the committee passed the documents on to journalist James Callendar, who was the Matt Drudge of his day. He had earlier “outed” the Jefferson-Hemmings affair. Hamilton assumed Monroe had leaked the information. He made a trip to NYC to confront him. Hamilton was accompanied by his brother-in-law John Church. When Hamilton accused Monroe of doing him wrong, Monroe proclaimed his innocence. Hamilton called him a liar. Monroe called him a scoundrel. Hamilton suggested they settle it on the dueling field. Monroe said to get his pistols. At this point, Church intervened and cooler heads prevailed. However, the men began to exchange inflammatory letters daring each other to duel. It got to the point where Monroe asked a friend to go to Hamilton and negotiate. His friend was Aaron Burr. Burr managed to convince the men to stand down. Things were cool for a while, until Hamilton published a pamphlet bringing his story of the affair to the public. He included insinuations that Monroe had leaked the documents. The potential duel was on again, with Monroe sending a letter challenging Hamilton. Hamilton wrote back, accepting. But he never mailed it and today we don’t remember a Hamilton-Monroe duel.
– Boller, pp. 53-54
– https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/time-when-alexander-hamilton-almost-dueled-james-monroe-180957045/
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