James monroe biography video on george

Let us by all wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties. Monroe lived a life defined by revolutions. He was never one to back down from a fight, whether it be with Alexander Hamilton, with whom he nearly engaged in a duel prevented, ironically, by Aaron Burror George Washington, his hero turned political opponent.

Fortunately, James proved to be a very capable and bright young man. James got admission in the College of William and Mary. Unfortunately, his education got terminated midway when the Revolutionary War broke out. Then he joined the local Virginia Militia and also the Continental Army. Soon he earned the ranks of a Major and fought under the commandment of George Washington.

He got shot in the shoulder while fighting in the Battle of Trenton, but soon recovered just around the winter at Valley Forge. Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape "Donate to the archive" User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in. Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. Metropolitan Museum Cleveland Museum of Art.

Internet Arcade Console Living Room. Open Library American Libraries. His studies were frequently interrupted by the unrest that marked the Virginia capital of Williamsburg in the days leading up to the American Revolution. The young Monroe met and socialized with men like Patrick Henry, George Mason, George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, and others leading the protests against the perceived tyranny of the British government.

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All were involved in the American Revolution, the creation of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. He was severely wounded at Trenton, nearly bleeding to death from a severed artery. During his war service, Monroe became friends with the French volunteer the Marquis de Lafayette, the Prussian volunteer, the Baron von Steuben, and the Baron Johan de Kalb, who hailed from a Franconian enclave in Bavaria.

From these Europeans, and others he fraternized with, Monroe developed a more worldly perspective on the American struggle, which to his fellow Virginians was more a battle between Englishmen over their natural rights. While Washington and Monroe fought on the fields of battle, Jefferson and Madison were largely relegated to the debates in Congress and the state legislature.

Following his war service, Monroe returned to Williamsburg, Virginia and resumed his studies at the College of William and Mary which had been interrupted by the call to arms. He then read the law, under the tutelage of his friend and mentor, Thomas Jefferson. Before the war, Monroe had studied Latin, mathematics, and philosophy.

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Monroe needed those rewards. Though he was by then a moderately wealthy planter, by contemporary Virginia standards, he had little ready cash. His wealth was in the land he owned and the enslaved people that worked it for him. Madison, also a student of the law, suggested that Monroe consider politics as a means of helping build a law practice.

Two years later, he was elected to the Congress of the Confederation. During that time, he worked with and corresponded regularly with Jefferson, Madison, Washington, and other Virginia luminaries, creating the core of what would later be known as the Virginia Dynasty under the Constitution. He, like many ambitious politicians, fumed at the constraints imposed by the Articles of Confederation, which prevented Congress from accomplishing much of anything.

He also traveled extensively in what was then called the West, including western New York and Pennsylvania, the Ohio River country, and the Northwest Territory. He was one of the principal authors of the Northwest Ordinancewhich defined the first organized incorporated territory of the United States, including the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota.

The Northwest Ordinance was one of the few accomplishments of the Confederation Congress to have any lasting effect on American history. They were married on February 16, Monroe was then 27 years of age, his bride but Eventually they had three children together, a son, James Spence Monroe, who sadly died in infancy, and two daughters, Eliza and Maria.

Monroe kept the surviving children close to him for the rest of his life. When he traveled, as he did extensively, he usually brought his family with him. Evidently, he remembered the sting of being orphaned. There Monroe established a law practice and re-entered politics.

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He served in the House of Delegates and the Virginia Ratifying Convention when that body was formed to debate and ratify the draft Constitution. In the debates over the merits of the Constitution, Monroe is most notable, at least to modern eyes, for his staunch opposition to the creation of the Electoral College. Monroe viewed the College, with some prescience, as easily corruptible by political interests within the separate states, and supported the idea of direct election of the President by popular vote.

His views did not prevail.

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InMonroe ran for Congress under the newly adopted Constitution. His opponent was his friend, James Madison. In a campaign which would be unthinkable to modern Americans, the two opposing candidates traveled the district together, presenting their views to the electorate and seeking their support. Madison prevailed, in a district which had been drawn to his advantage by allies within the State Legislature.

The word gerrymandering had not yet been coined to describe such political machinations, but it was one of the earliest examples of such in American history. He called his new estate Highlands.