The Monroe Years: an Era of "Thanks But No Thanks"

Florida: the final frontier. In 1819, Florida was purchased by the Monroe administration from Spain in exchange for the severance of any claims the United States may have held to the Texan territory. Being a pre-industrial era, it was not known at the time the importance of or the extent to which Texas' sweeping amount of coal and uranium could be unearthed in mines and brought to grocery stores.

James Monroe was a quiet man, but a strong man. He notoriously declared bankruptcy in 1780, only to secretly transfer his "lost assets of gold coins and fur pelts" from the National Bank in Philadelphia to a frontier bank several months earlier. Rumors were always the strongest force that existed to prove this, and he obviously denied the account wholeheartedly, most notably in his early campaign speeches of 1816, when he made a point of discrediting any and all rumors.

Daniel D. Tompkins, Monroe's devoted Vice President, in an early speech to the Federalist Society in 1818 said:

"What Jimmy lacks in Believability he makes up for in Integrity. Fur Pelts were a serious Thing back in the Eighties and late Seventies, and if this were even a truthful Account, one cannot Deny the Extent to which many Americans, Veterans of the War of Independence, mind you, felt it Necessary and in fact Essential to their own economic Independence to place their Assets into a Place of Hiding. The National Bank, you see, was already beginning to resemble the tyrant King George and such a Connexion--even in Theory--would have been utterly unbearable, not to mention thoroughly disheartening (after all we had been through).

"Oh! And did I mention his Wife? The three of us were all Alma Maters of the prestigious College of William and Mary. I met Elizabeth before Jimmy, and certainly had my Eye on her for the majority of my Time there, even after they started 'going steady.' She had quite the Vocabulary. A walking Thesaurus. She also wrote Poetry and played the Bassoon. Reed Instruments suited her Complexion, I believe. Of course we all know how she managed to free Madame LaFayette from the Guillotine during the French Revolution. I'd like to think I was the one who offered her such keen Insight into the Beauty and Grace of French Culture and Society. I am, after all, a Tompkins. And most Tompkins don't know this (or agree) but we are descended from Royalty. And thank God we are in a Period of Enlightenment, when I am allowed an Opportunity to assert my own Convictions and cast away my royal Roots."

Elizabeth K. Monroe certainly seemed an asset to Monroe during a time when Monroe alleged to have few. She was married at age seventeen, to a dashing and highly ambitious twenty-seven year old James Monroe. Monroe once told Elizabeth in her confidence, "It is...the Presidency that I seek. I have a Vision, milady, of the golden Waves of the Atlantic bidding good Morning to the saccharine ultramarine blue Waters of the Pacific. A unified Nation, my Buttercup, from Sea to twinkling Sea. This will be my Objective, my Doctrine that shall indeed be known in the Annals of History as The Monroe Doctrine." (1805, from I Traverse the Stria: The Lost Journals of Elizabeth Kortright Monroe, published by Wainwright Books, 1857)

Fast forward several years to Monroe's famous speech of 1823, when he officially declared his Monroe Doctrine as the official presidential prolegomenon to his Era of Good Feelings. A decisive cherry on the top of what was an extremely decadent 19th Century triple-decker chocolate cake. Echoed a century later by Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, Monroe made what was then the controversial declaration that "despite our Backgrounds, our given religious Credos, or our economic Standings, this is a Time we can all look forward to, as Citizens of God's only United States of America. For this is indeed an Era of Good Feelings!"

But was it truly an Era of Good Feelings? The Missouri Compromise of 1820 helped to widen the gap between slave states and free states, further adding the timbers that would conflagrate in 1861. And his speech declaring the Monroe Doctrine essentially severed all constructive ties between the United States and European nations. This was the strengthening of isolationism in America, a factor that would dictate the next hundred years of American policy-making. But with the United States outside of the realm of world politics, the growing tread of European hegemonic imperialism displayed no borders, no bounds. Theodore Roosevelt added his corollary to Monroe's doctrine, but only to the extent that outside forces hindered the other Americas. Once, when Roosevelt woke up early one morning at the White House, he believed that he had seen a ghost. This ghost was undoubtedly that of Monroe, as it was said to have shouted, "Too little! Too late!" The next morning, Roosevelt went to the presidential physician to ask for advice regarding the encounter. Dr. Edwin Peters, a religious man, told him, "Do not fear the emissaries of Darkness, for at the end of all tunnels, God shines forth his light." He prescribed Roosevelt a copy of the New Testament (King James Version) and told him to read the book of Matthew every evening before bed. He also gave Roosevelt a strong dosage of laudanum once every two days. Laudanum was a very popular drug, especially at administrative parties and balls in Washington at the time. Roosevelt was reported to have said, "If McKinley can take it and live to see another day, then by God, so can I." President McKinley died in office in 1901 from a fatal bullet received by future electric chair laureate Leon Frank Czolgosz.

History still has not placed an adequate verdict on Monroe's real significance as president. Laudanum is still available, but only as a behind-the-counter drug.