James Mon-roe was, like Wash-ing-ton, Mad-i-son and Jef-fer-son, born in
Vir-gin-i-a. Our first Pres-i-dent was just twen-ty six years old when,
in West-more-land County, on A-pril 28th, 1758, was born the boy who was
to be the fifth Pres-i-dent. His fa-ther, Colo-nel Spense Mon-roe, owned
a big farm and was quite rich. Lit-tle James was sent to good schools
and did not have to work to earn the means to stay in school. He learned
at first to hunt, to skate and to swim; and was good friends with all
the boys; but through all the fun and school work came up the talk of
war; of the long strife with Eng-land and the fierce red men. It was
hard for a brave boy to hear such talk and yet keep on at his books,
and though Mon-roe did go to Wil-liam and Mary Col-lege, he did not stay
long, for we hear of him in 1775 at the camp near Bos-ton. In 1776 we
see him at the head of a band of men, and from that time on he was in
the thick of the fight. He fought at White Plains and Har-lem Heights,
and was so brave that the great Wash-ing-ton gave him high praise for
his work, and made him, when but eight-een years old, a cap-tain in the
ar-my. At the great fight at Tren-ton he got a bad wound and had to rest
for some time. In the big fights of the war this brave young man was one
of the first in the field; his hopes were ev-er high, and he put heart
in-to the weak and worn men who looked to him for help in the sad years
of the war. In 1780 he be-gan the stud-y of law with his old friend
Thom-as Jef-fer-son and soon led the bright men of the day.
So good a friend of his was Jef-fer-son, that the home to which Mon-roe
took his bride in 1785, was planned for him by Jef-fer-son, who, so it
is said, al-so gave him the nails to build it with.
In 1794 he was sent to France to look out for A-mer-i-ca's rights, but
he found talk of war there at that time. The peo-ple did not want a king
an-y long-er, but wished to be-come a free land like A-mer-i-ca, with
a pres-i-dent at the head; and Mad-i-son, who was a Re-pub-li-can, took
sides with the Re-pub-li-cans in France. The king did not like this, and
so Mad-i-son had to come home at the end of two years.
But he met with a wel-come at home, and his own State made him its
Gov-ern-or. In 1803 he was once more sent to France; this time to buy
the State of Lou-is-i-an-a from the French, and he paid Na-po-le-on for
this large State $15,000,000.
Twice Mon-roe was sent to Spain and once to Eng-land, where his task
was to force Eng-land to stop her search of A-mer-i-can ships. You
know he could not do this, for that was the cause of the War of 1812.
Tired and sad at heart, he came back home, and was glad to rest for a
while in his own home; but he was of too much use to his coun-try to be
i-dle long. Once more, in 1811, he was made Gov-ern-or of Vir-gin-i-a.
Then came the War of 1812; and it was Mon-roe, now Sec-re-ta-ry of
State, who, at the head of a few men, saw the Brit-ish land near
Wash-ing-ton and sent word to Mad-i-son to leave the cit-y. He al-so
act-ed as Sec-re-ta-ry of War at this time, and so well did he do his
part that in 1816 he was named for Pres-i-dent by the Dem-o-crats. He
got the most votes and so took the first place in our great land.
His first act was to pay off the great debt which the War of 1812 had
brought on us. He did this in a ver-y short time; and now our trade grew
so great that rail-roads were built; and so our first rail-road was made
while Mad-i-son was Pres-i-dent.
[Illustration: FIRST RAILROAD TRAIN.]
There was a fierce war with the In-di-ans in Flor-i-da at this time; but
Gen-er-al Jack-son was sent down there and he forced them to lay down
their arms and keep the peace.
Just at this time, too, we got Flor-i-da from the King of Spain, and
gave up Tex-as, af-ter pay-ing a big sum of mon-ey to the A-mer-i-cans,
who had been robbed by Spain.
Mis-sou-ri came in-to the Un-ion while Mon-roe was Pres-i-dent, and
there was a fierce storm of words; the North said she should not hold
slaves after she was a State, the South said that she should.
At last Con-gress gave way to the South-ern States; but made a law that
there should be a line drawn through the land, north of which no State
should hold slaves.
In 1825 Mon-roe was free to go to his home at Oak Hill, Vir-gin-i-a,
and here he lived un-til 1830. His wife died in that year, and then he
went to live with his daugh-ter in New York. He died here on the 4th of
Ju-ly, 1831, and his name is one that the whole land loves and hon-ors.
He was bur-ied in New York, but on the one hun-dredth an-ni-ver-sa-ry
of his birth, his bod-y was tak-en to Rich-mond, Vir-gin-i-a, and a
hand-some stone raised o-ver his grave.
[Illustration: JAMES MONROE.]
[Illustration: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.]