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Senate Years of Service: 1790-1794 Party: Anti-Administration
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MONROE, James, (nephew of Joseph Jones and uncle of James Monroe [1799-1870]),
a Delegate and a Senator from Virginia and 5th President of the
United States; born in Westmoreland County, Va., April 28, 1758; pursued
classical studies; attended William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va., in
1776 and left to enter the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War; appointed
a lieutenant in the Third Virginia Regiment, participated in numerous
engagements, and was severely wounded in the Battle of Trenton; rose to the
rank of lieutenant colonel; member, State assembly 1782; Member of the
Continental Congress 1783-1786; resumed the study of law; admitted to the bar
and engaged in practice in Fredericksburg, Va.; member, State assembly 1786;
delegate to the State convention to consider the Federal Constitution in 1788;
unsuccessful candidate for election to the First Congress; elected to the
United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William
Grayson; reelected in 1791 and served from November 9, 1790, until his
resignation May 27, 1794; appointed by President George Washington as Minister
Plenipotentiary to France 1794-1796; Governor of Virginia 1799-1802; appointed
by President Thomas Jefferson as Minister Plenipotentiary to France in 1803,
and Minister Plenipotentiary to England 1803-1807, and during this period
headed a diplomatic mission to Spain; returned home in 1808; member, State
assembly 1810-1811; Governor of Virginia 1811; appointed Secretary of State in
the Cabinet of President James Madison and served from 1811 to 1817; also
served as Secretary of War 1814-1815; elected in 1816 and reelected in 1820 as
President of the United States and served from March 4, 1817, to March 3, 1825;
retired to his farm in Loudoun County, Va.; member and president of the
Virginia constitutional convention of 1829; moved to New York City in 1831, and
died there July 4, 1831; interment in Marble Cemetery on Second Street, New
York City; reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va., July 4, 1858.
Bibliography
American National Biography;
Dictionary of American Biography; Ammon, Harry.
James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1971; Monroe, James.
The Writings of James Monroe. Edited by Stanislaus Hamilton. 7
vols. New York: G.P. Putnams Sons. 1898-1903.
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