(April 28, 1758–July 4, 1831), was the 5th President of the United States, 1817–25, having served in public office for fifty years; acquired Florida from Spain, 1819; added Maine, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama and Mississippi to the Union; proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine, 1823, which forbade European powers from interfering with the independent nations of the Western Hemisphere; Regent of University of Virginia, 1826–31; Secretary of State under James Madison, 1811–17; Secretary of War, 1814–15; Governor of Virginia, 1811; U.S. Minister to Great Britain and Spain, 1803–07; helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon, 1803, which doubled the size of the United States; Governor of Virginia, 1799–1802; U.S. Minister to France, 1794–96; U.S. Senator, 1790–94; member of the Virginia State Convention, 1788; served in the Virginia Assembly, 1786–88; married Eliza Kortwright, 1786; delegate to the Continental Congress, 1783; Officer in the Continental Army, 1776–79; graduated from the College of William and Mary, 1776; and home-schooled as a child by the Reverend William Douglas, being fellow-students with John Marshall, who became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, March 4, 1817, in his First Inaugural Address, President James Monroe stated:
Under this Constitution … the States, respectively protected by the National Government under a mild, parental system against foreign dangers, and enjoying within their separate spheres, by a wise partition of power, a just proportion of the sovereignty … are the best proofs of wholesome laws well administered. …
And if we look to the condition of individuals what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has oppression fallen in any quarter of our Union? Who has been deprived of any right of person or property? Who restrained from offering his vows in the mode which he prefers to the Divine Author of his being? It is well known that all these blessings have been enjoyed in their fullest extent. …
If we persevere in the career in which we have advanced so far and in the path already traced, we can not fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence, to attain the high destiny which seems to await us. …
I enter on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor.1491
On December 2, 1817, in his First Annual Message to Congress, President James Monroe stated:
For advantages so numerous and highly important it is our duty to unite in grateful acknowledgments to that Omnipotent Being from whom they are derived, and in unceasing prayer that He will endow us with virtue and strength to maintain and hand them down in their utmost purity to our latest posterity.1492
On November 16, 1818, in his Second Annual Message to Congress, President James Monroe stated:
For these inestimable blessings we can not but be grateful to that Providence which watches over the destiny of nations. …
When we view the blessings with which our country has been favored, those which we now enjoy, and the means which we possess of handing them down unimpaired to our latest posterity, our attention is irresistibly drawn to the source from whence they flow. Let us then, unite in offering our most grateful acknowledgements for these blessings to the Divine Author of All Good.1493
On Tuesday, November 14, 1820, in his Fourth Annual Message to Congress, President James Monroe stated:
When, then, we take into view the prosperous and happy condition of our country … it is impossible to behold so gratifying, so glorious a spectacle without being penetrated with the most profound and grateful acknowledgements to the Supreme Author of All Good for such manifold and inestimable blessings. … And more especially by the multiplied proofs which it has accumulated of the great perfection of our most excellent system of government, the powerful instrument in the hands of our All-merciful Creator in securing to us these blessings.1494
On Monday, March 5, 1821, in his Second Inaugural Address, President James Monroe stated:
That these powerful causes exist, and that they are permanent, is my fixed opinion; that they may produce a like accord in all questions touching, however remotely, the liberty, prosperity, and happiness of our country will always be the object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good. …
With full confidence in the continuance of that candor and generous indulgence from my fellow-citizens at large which I have heretofore experienced, and with a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, I shall forthwith commence the duties of the high trust to which you have called me.1495
On December 3, 1821, in his Fifth Annual Message to Congress, President James Monroe stated:
Deeply impressed with the blessings which we enjoy, and of which we have such manifold proofs, my mind is irresistibly drawn to that Almighty Being, the great source from whence they proceed and to whom our most grateful acknowledgments are due.1496
On Tuesday, December 7, 1824, in his Eighth Annual Message to Congress, President James Monroe stated:
The view which I have now to present to you of our affairs, foreign and domestic, realizes the most sanguine anticipations which have been entertained of the public prosperity. … For these blessings we owe to Almighty God, from whom we derive them, and with profound reverence, our most grateful and unceasing acknowledgments. …
Having commenced my service in early youth, and continued it since with few and short intervals, I have witnessed the great difficulties to which our Union has been exposed, and admired the virtue and intelligence with which they have been surmounted. From the present prosperous and happy state I derive a gratification which I can not express. That these blessings may be preserved and perpetuated will be the object of my fervent and unceasing prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.1497
President James Monroe, who was a member of the Episcopalian Church, admonished:
The establishment of our institutions forms the most important epoch that history hath recorded. … To preserve and hand them down in their utmost purity to the remotest ages will require the existence and practice of the virtues and talents equal to those which were displayed in acquiring them.1498