[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 48 (Thursday, April 27, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S3696]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO JAMES MONROE

  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. President, I am pleased today to recognize James 
Monroe, a Virginia patriot on the 248th anniversary of his birth and to 
honor his service to our Nation as a soldier, legislator and as the 
fifth President of the United States of America. I rise today to honor 
his undeniable legacy.
  James Monroe, born April 28, 1758, Monroe attended the College of 
William and Mary, fought with distinction in the Continental Army, and 
practiced law in Fredericksburg, VA. As a youthful politician, he 
joined the anti-Federalists in the Virginia Convention which ratified 
the Constitution, and became an advocate of Jefferson principles.
  A student of Thomas Jefferson's after serving in the Revolutionary 
War, James Monroe was an adherent of Mr. Jefferson's principles of 
individual freedom and restrained representative government, which 
would guide him through 50 years of public service. Elected to the 
Virginia General Assembly in 1782, Monroe served in the Continental 
Congress and in the first United Senate before his first two terms as 
Minister to France. He returned to his Virginia, and as many students 
of Mr. Jefferson have done since, served 4 years as a native Governor.
  Elected President of the United States in 1816, Monroe's Presidency 
has long been referred to as the Era of Good Feeling. James Monroe 
helped resolve longstanding grievances with the British and acquired 
Florida from the Spanish in 1819. James Monroe signed the Missouri 
Compromise that called for the prohibition of slavery in western 
territories of the Louisiana Purchase, which James Monroe was 
instrumental in obtaining. He renounced European intervention or 
dominion in the Western Hemisphere with one of our Nation's greatest 
foreign policy documents, the Monroe Doctrine.
  In 1820, Monroe achieved an impressive reelection, losing only one 
electoral vote, preserving the honor of a unanimous election for George 
Washington.
  My own family has strong ties to the legacy of James Monroe. My wife 
Susan and I enjoyed our wedding on the grounds of his home: Ashlawn-
Highland in Charlottesville. In fact, part of Monroe's property in 
Albemarle County is now on the grounds of his teacher's great 
institution of learning, the University of Virginia and is respectfully 
referred to as Monroe's Hill.
  The life of James Monroe is one that embodied virtue, honor and 
commitment during his accomplished life of public service. It is 
fitting that he would pass from this Earth on Fourth of July, 1831. It 
is with sincere admiration that I respectfully ask my colleagues to 
recognize James Monroe's 248th birthday as a reminder of his remarkable 
and magnificent leadership for the people of Virginia and the United 
States.

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