James Monroe

James Monroe (1758-1831) was wounded at the Battle of Trenton during the Revolution and went on to serve as a U.S. senator, minister to France and Britain, governor of Virginia, and secretary of state and of war under James Madison. A Democratic-Republican, he won the presidency in 1816 and was re-elected without serious opposition in 1820, as the Federalist Party faded and the years of his presidency became known as the Era of Good Feelings. His two terms included the Panic of 1819, the crisis over admitting Missouri as a slave state, the purchase of Florida from Spain and the 1823 message later called the Monroe Doctrine.

Admirers credit Monroe with a period of national unity after the War of 1812, a skilled diplomatic record that included the Florida treaty and recognition of the new Latin American republics, and a hemispheric principle that became a lasting basis of U.S. foreign policy. Critics argue that his administration did little to relieve the hardship of the Panic of 1819 and that the Missouri Compromise postponed rather than settled the conflict over slavery. Monroe enslaved people throughout his life, and historians note that his 1818 campaign in Florida was waged against Seminole and Creek communities that sheltered people escaping slavery. Later presidents also used the Monroe Doctrine to justify interventions in Latin America, which many in the region have viewed as imperial.