My eyes are fixed on you, son. My name is Elizabeth Jones Monroe. On April 28, 1758, you were born in our Virginia home in Westmoreland County. Your sister was glad to have a baby brother and to see how well you adjusted to the brothers who came after you.
My eyes are fixed on you, College of William and Mary student. My name is Judge Joseph Jones. When your father, Spencer Monroe, died, I was given responsibility for you. It was my encouragement that moved you toward a political career. You were only sixteen when you arrived at College, and your physical stature of more than six feet already demonstrated that others would look up to you throughout your life.
My eyes are fixed on you, lieutenant in the Third Virginia Regiment. My name is Colonel Hugh Mercer. As you served under my leadership, I observed the fervor of your revolutionary spirit which foreshadowed the kind of contributions that you would make with your life. You distinguished yourself by your valor at the battles in New York. Your vanguard action at Trenton resulted in a serious wound by a Hessian bullet, which you carried in your arm until the day you died. You were a brave, active, and sensible officer.
My eyes are fixed on you, colonel in the Continental Army. My name is General William Alexander. Your service as my aide-de-camp was exemplary at Valley Forge and the Battle of Monmouth. We served alongside General Washington and helped ensure the success of the revolution.
My eyes are fixed on you, Virginia Assemblyman serving on the Council of State. My name is Thomas Jefferson. I mentored you through studies of law and influenced your intellectual development. You have distinguished yourself by your abilities and total dedication to public service. In a letter which I wrote to James Madison, I commented that one could "turn your soul wrong side outwards and there is not a speck on it."1
My eyes are fixed on you, member of the Continental Congress. My name is George Mason, and we were among the few in number who thought the Constitution defective in its granting of excessive power to the federal government. You kept the United States from yielding our free navigation of the Mississippi to Spain. That was the groundwork for the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which made territorial government a reality.
My eyes are fixed on you, young lawyer. My name is Elizabeth Kortright. It was while you were in New York at the Continental Congress that we met. Although I was sixteen and you were twenty-six, we married within the year and moved to Fredricksburg so that you could practice law. Our forty-six years of marriage took us around the world.
My eyes are fixed on you, U.S. Minister to France. My name is President George Washington. I have great respect for you despite our political differences. I named you to this position in France to appease my Republican critics. I sent you to reassure France, strengthening our friendship with them and showing confidence in their republic. You had a vastly broader aim of committing us to the French cause, even to the point of war with Great Britain.2 When I finally took you out of France, the result was a deepened anti-American feeling there. Even worse was enduring your harsh attack on my foreign policy.
My eyes are fixed on you, governor of Virginia. My name is Patrick Henry. We had many things in common including graduating from the College of William and Mary, participating in the Continental Congress, and serving as Virginia governors. You took that office the year I died, almost twenty years after I was governor. Your administrative ability brought you favor in our great Commonwealth. Your four terms as governor were important in shaping Virginia and its policies.
My eyes are fixed on you, negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase. My name is Robert Livingston. The treaty identified you as a "Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary of the Said States."3 I was not pleased to have you show up in the midst of the negotiations which I had almost finalized. Although we always preserved the outward appearance of personal amity, there was a deep undercurrent of mutual irritation between us.4 Your initial assignment was to "purchase a site at the mouth of the Mississippi River to be used as a port of deposit."5 Although we were not authorized to do so, when Napoleon offered us all or nothing of Louisiana, we accepted immediately. April 30, 1803 will go down as the greatest real estate bargain in history, doubling the territory of the United States in one transaction. Your vision of a vastly expanded America through aggressive expansionism and your outspoken words as if the United States were a world power helped our nation to become just that.6
My eyes are fixed on you, Secretary of State. My name is James Madison. Even if you did run against me in the presidential election out of protest, I respected your leadership and resolve. In fact, I appointed you to hold two cabinet posts simultaneously when I also made you Secretary of War. You were a capable and active administrator.
My eyes are fixed on you, President of the United States. My name is Senator Rufus King from New York. My title is Senator because when I ran as a Federalist in 1816, you defeated me soundly with an electoral college vote of 183 to 34. You were the first President who had been a Senator. Your conciliatory policy toward the Federalists opened the door to the "Era of Good Feelings." It was a season of national optimism, expansion, and growth.
My eyes are fixed on you, President for a second term. My name is General Andrew Jackson. You won with 231 of 232 electoral votes. You would have received all the electoral votes had not one of the electors from New Hampshire felt that nobody should share that historic honor with George Washington. Your ability to handle foreign affairs is exemplary. Your many territorial additions included the ceding of Florida from Spain after my controversial invasion in pursuit of hostile Indians.
My eyes are fixed on you, author of the Monroe Doctrine. My name is John Quincy Adams. I was Secretary of State when you gave your annual address to Congress on December 2, 1823. Your public declaration of American policy was a bold step, independent of Great Britain. You declared that the United States would interpret any interference in American states as an unfriendly act and that the American continents were closed to further colonization. That policy statement ended foreign encroachment of the American continent and restated our intentions to stay out of the affairs of Europe. Through that speech, you established us as the leader in this hemisphere.
My eyes are fixed on you, beloved father. My name is Maria Hester Monroe, the youngest of your two daughters. I was the first bride to be married in the White House when I became Mrs. Samuel L. Gouverneur. We had many wonderful times together. I especially remember the year after mother died when you came to live in my home in New York City until your death of pulmonary tuberculosis on July 4, 1831.
My eyes are fixed on you, visionary and leader. My name is President Theodore Roosevelt. My Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine was built on the foundation of your leadership. Eighty years after you spoke those fateful words, they were still shaping affairs in our hemisphere. My cousin, President Franklin Roosevelt, attempted to win friends with his Good Neighbor Policy, transforming the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral American manifesto into arrangements for mutual action against aggressors.
My eyes are fixed on you, man of lasting influence. My name is Stephen Mancari. Fixing my eyes on you through the viewpoint of many significant figures in the history of our nation has given me a look at a great man of integrity, honest patriotism, devotion to duty, personal charm, genuine thoughtfulness, sound judgment, and diplomatic astuteness. You committed your whole life to public service, yet you were a modest man whose integrity won you the esteem of many and the unwavering loyalty of your friends. President Jefferson, your life-long friend and mentor, spoke kindly and prophetically when he said, "All eyes, all hopes are now fixed on you." This was true in the early days of your life. It was true when those words were spoken upon your release to France to negotiate regarding the Louisiana territory. It is still true two hundred years later. You are the perfect prototype of a public servant: honest, hardworking, self-sacrificing, judicious, and trusting in democracy. Your good judgment and conscientious attention to the public welfare made you a trusted soldier, a passionate visionary, a worthy president, a lifelong diplomat, and a significant contributor to American history. Our eyes are still fixed on you.
1 Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, (Princeton, New Jersey, January 1950), January 30, 1787, XI, 97.
2 Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, (New York: Oxford Press, 1993), 498.
3 Treaty between the United States of America and the French Republic, www.jamesmonroe.org/purchase.html
4 Harry Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity, (London: University Press of Virginia, 1990), 215.
5 Harry Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity, (London: University Press of Virginia, 1990), 203.
6 Peter Kunhardt, The American President
Bibliography
Ammon, Harry, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity, rev. ed. London: University Press of Virginia,1990.
Bains, Rae. James Monroe: Young Patriot. Mahwah, New Jersey: Troll Associates, 1986.
Kelley, James. James Monroe: American Statesman. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2000.
Kunhardt, Peter W. The American President. New York: Riverhead Books, 1999.
Sandak, Cass R. The Monroes. New York: Crestwood House, 1993.
Wilmerding, Lucius, Jr. James Monroe, Public Claimant. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers, 1960.
http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/nbk/bios/05pmonr.html
http://geocities.com/presfacts/monroe.html
http://whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jm5.html
