[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 7751]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                JAMES MONROE, FIFTH PRESIDENT 1817-1825

  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. President, I rise today on the 246th anniversary of 
his birth, to recognize James Monroe, a Virginia patriot, and honor his 
service to our Nation as a soldier, a diplomat, a legislator and as the 
fifth President of the United States of America.
  James Monroe, born April 28, 1758 in Westmoreland County, was born, 
raised, and educated in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Foregoing his 
studies at the College of William and Mary, James Monroe joined the 
Williamsburg Militia in 1775 in defiance of the British King. He served 
gallantly in the Continental Army on the battlefield at Harlem Heights, 
White Plains, Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth, eventually 
rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
  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 fifty years of public service. Elected to the 
Virginia General Assembly in 1782, Monroe served in the Confederate 
Congress and in the first United States Senate before his first of two 
terms as Minister to France. He returned to his Virginia, and as many 
students of Mr. Jefferson have done since, served four years as 
Governor.
  During Thomas Jefferson's Presidency, James Monroe returned to France 
and was essential in the negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. 
His foreign policy experience led James Madison to name him both 
Secretary of State and Secretary of War as the United States was once 
again pulled into war with Great Britain in 1812.
  Elected President of the United States in 1816, Monroe's Presidency 
has long been referred to as the Era of Good Feeling, during which time 
he helped resolve long-standing grievances with the British, acquired 
Florida from the Spanish in 1819, signed the Missouri Compromise and 
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 re-election, losing only one 
electoral vote, reserving a unanimous election for George Washington.
  My own family has many 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 where her family has worked for 
many years. 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 July Fourth, 1831.
  It is with sincere admiration that I respectfully ask my colleagues 
to recognize James Monroe's 246th birthday as a reminder of his 
remarkable and magnificent leadership for the people of Virginia and 
the United States of America.

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