James Monroe Connections to Thomas Jefferson

James Monroe Connections to Thomas Jefferson

James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was a member of the U.S. Continental Congress, minister to France and Great Britain, governor of Virginia, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and fifth president of the United States. He was the last chief executive to personally fight for independence from Britain during the Revolutionary War. James Monroe fought under George Washington and studied law with Thomas Jefferson. He is remembered for the Monroe Doctrine, and Missouri Compromise, as well as for expanding U.S territory via the acquisition of Florida from Spain. Monroe, was the last of the Founding Fathers. He was a popular president who ran unopposed for a second term in 1820. With the opposition Federalist Party effectively moribund, the eight years of Monroe's administration (1817-1825) were called the “Era of Good Feeling.” James Monroe was an asset to Thomas Jefferson during his presidency from 1801-1809. Monroe served as a diplomat of foreign affairs in Europe. He is responsible for the negotiations of the Louisiana Purchase and the implementation of the Monroe-Pinkney Treaty.

After the malicious campaigning of the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson focused on reconciling the colonies and restoring the principles of the Revolution of 1776. Unlike Federalist leaders who supported big business, big cities, and big government, Jefferson believed in an agrarian society with strong local governments, anti-federalism. While Jefferson formulated his strategy to downsize the federal government and stimulate the country’s economy, Spain’s agreement to give Louisiana back to France jeopardized Pinckney’s Treaty, which provided Americans free navigation of the Mississippi River. Jefferson feared that the power-hungry Napoleon had designs on controlling the American frontier and would forbid Americans access to New Orleans, the most important shipping port in the south. This heavily threatened the American economy. In 1802, Jefferson ordered James Monroe to aid Robert Livingston in Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans and Florida. However, by 1803, the French army had suffered a humiliating defeat during a slave revolt in Saint Domingue, and Napoleon’s plans to conquer Europe demanded more men, money, and weaponry than anticipated. These events forced the French ruler to alter plans to expand the French empire into America. So, he decided to sell it all to help recover from war debts. Shortly thereafter, Livingston and Monroe were authorized to buy New Orleans and Florida for no more than $10 million, but they did not think they would have the opportunity to purchase more than 800,000 square miles. Since Napoleon demanded an immediate response, there was no time to send for Jefferson’s approval. The men negotiated with the French representatives and, in the spring of 1803, the United States government agreed to buy all of the Louisiana Territory for $15 million. This purchase more than doubled the size of the United States. The Louisiana Purchase proved how much of an asset Monroe was to Jefferson, the Monroe-Pinkney Treaty was another foreign affair Monroe was involved in.

Monroe was appointed Minister to the Court of St. James's in London following the Louisiana Purchase from 1803 to 1807. In 1806 he negotiated a treaty with Great Britain, known as the Monroe–Pinkney Treaty. It would have extended the Jay Treaty of 1794 which had expired after ten years. Jefferson had fought the Jay Treaty intensely in 1794–95 because he felt it would allow the British to subvert American republicanism. The treaty had produced ten years of peace and highly lucrative trade for American merchants, but Jefferson was still hostile. For the Americans, the goal of the treaty was to make the British abandon the practice of impressing sailors from American ships, as well as to address the neutral trading rights of American vessels in the ongoing Napoleonic Wars, among other commercial concerns.