Monroe

“ Monroe was as mild-mannered a man as ever knocked an astonished ruffian into the gutter. He was so well built and so finely proportioned that although one could not but admire him, few realized that his muscles were like tempered steel, nor suspected the wonderful athletic feats he could perform when put to it. ”

“ He saw these traits now in Monroe, not that his face had presented them to him on any other occasion, but the telegram had revealed to him too forcibly what he could not before comprehend. Why did Mr. Jarney send it, if the coming of Monroe was not for some insidious purpose? he asked himself.
"You do not often come to New York, Mr. Monroe—at least, not to this office," said John, breaking the ice for a plunge into Mr. Monroe's perverseness toward a hateful silence. ”

“ Here the inclined ridge of the plateau, connecting the pinnacle of Washington with the peaks of Monroe, is traced along its whole extent. At this distance its craggy outline breaks in light ripples, announcing nothing of that wilderness of stones assailing the climber. All the asperities are softened into capricious harmonies. Below yawn the ravines.
The tracks of old slides and torrents in the side of Monroe remind you of the branches of a gigantic fossil tree, exposed by a fracture dividing the mountain in two. Such is, in fact, the impression received by looking at this mountain ”

“ Monroe followed languidly, puckering his mouth into a low whistle, that might have meant more than the blowing out of good humor. With most men, whistling means the venting of a superfluity of joy; but with Monroe, it might have meant a cooling drop in his cup of anger. Cobb came lolling after them, in his usual undisturbed forbearance.
Debouching into the parlor, with the stellar lights trailing, the king touched a button; presto! starlight, moonlight, sunlight, all together, in one grand aurora borealis, flashed mute darkness into palpitating day. ”

“ Monroe is an elegant, accomplished woman. She possesses a charming mind and dignity of manners, which peculiarly fit her for her elevated station. Her retired domestic habits will be much annoyed by what is here called society, if she does not change the etiquette (if it may be called so) , established by Mrs. Washington, Adams and Madison, a routine which her feeble constitution will not permit her to encounter. To go through it, she must become a perfect slave to the sacrifice of her health. ”

“ To him and his guns, flanking the approaches and ready to pile the moat full of Seceders, the country owes the safety of Fortress Monroe.
Within the walls are sundry nice old brick houses for officers’ barracks. The jolly bachelors live in the casemates and the men in long barracks, now not so new or so convenient as they might be. In fact, the physiognomy of Fortress Monroe is not so neat, well-shorn, and elegant as a grand military post should be. ”

“ Mrs. Monroe died suddenly in 1830, and thus was ended the old home-life. Oak Hill was closed, and the crushed husband sought refuge from loneliness in the home of his daughter, Mrs. Gouverneur, in New York, whose devoted affection soothed his pathway to the grave.
The venerable Dr. Francis tells us that he often met Mr. Monroe walking out when the weather was fine, and that on these occasions he was the object of the most affectionate attentions. He has often met him making purchases for the family, at the Centre Market, where all the stallmen knew and honored him. ”

“ There is all the more reason for this because you will observe that the men who are trying to force us to do what they advocate, by shouting "Monroe" at us, all drop the Monroe doctrine as soon as their use of it is proved false in history and by the record—but they do not drop the plans they propose on that account. If, then, they do not abide by Monroe, but only use his name as a club with which to stun us, let us repudiate Monroe at the outset, so that we may stand on an even footing. ”

“ He also served as secretary of war at the same time, and, as the treasury was empty, pledged his private means for the defense of New Orleans. Monroe was of plain, simple manners, of excellent judgment and of the highest integrity. While his career did not stamp him as a man of genius, yet it proved him to be that which in his situation is better—an absolutely "safe" man to trust with the highest office in the gift of the American people. Under Monroe the United States made greater advancement than during any previous decade. ”

“ Monroe spend almost ten years in Europe, returning only when the country was plunging again into a second war with the mother land. She gladly sought retirement at Oak Hill, her husband’s Virginia home, and the following years passed in the enjoyment of the serene pleasures of country life—Mr. Monroe engaged during the day in reading and taking the general supervision of his plantation, while she supervised the education of their two daughters and the household duties, which, in a Virginia, home were always arduous. ”

“ Monroe was the antithesis of Morris. Where Morris was brilliant, Monroe was dull; where Morris was bubbling with a sense of humor, Monroe had none at all; where Morris was a lover of dinners and dances, Monroe was indifferent; where Morris was a Cavalier, Monroe was a Puritan in his relations with women; where Morris was an aristocrat, Monroe was a democrat; Morris was a monarchist at heart, Monroe, a robust republican; Morris an enemy of the French Revolution, Monroe, a friend. ”

“ THROUGH MANY CHANGING YEARS WITH the advent of the Monroes, social life at the President’s House underwent a transformation. Its character could have been forecast from the fact that, although for the six years Monroe had been at the head of the Cabinet his family had been with him in Washington, they were as nearly strangers to the great body of citizens as if they had been living in New York or Boston. ”

“ Monroe was Governor of Virginia Mrs. Monroe presided over the executive mansion with so much distinction that she won great popularity. She was eminently fitted to fill the position of First Lady of the Land when her husband succeeded James Madison as President, after the War of 1812. The White House in Washington was not what it is to-day, and Mrs. Monroe's health was poor during their residence there, but one of their pleasures was the entertaining of La Fayette, when he visited the United States in 1824. ”

“ Monroe, and possessed of a face upon which beauty was written in unmistakable lines. Tall and gracefully formed, polished and elegant in society, she was one fitted to represent her countrywomen at the court of St. Cloud. Her position, as the wife of a wealthy Virginia Senator, surrounded by luxury and prosperity, proud of her husband and of her country, was calculated to enhance the pleasure of a trip to Europe, while the comparative infrequency of a voyage across the Atlantic heightened the pleasure with which she received the announcement of his appointment. ”

“ Monroe for the command of the army, and he has shown a zeal in organizing his Department which tends to confirm me in that belief.... Mr. Monroe is not a brilliant man, and no one expects to find a great captain in him; but he served through the War of Independence with much bravery under the orders and by the side of Washington. He is a man of great36 good sense, of the most austere honor, the purest patriotism, and the most universally admitted integrity. He is loved and respected by all parties, and it is believed that he would soon gain the hearts of all his officers and soldiers. ”

“ Monroe, sent by Jefferson as envoy extraordinary, to treat, in conjunction with the regular minister to France, for the cession of the Floridas and of the island of New Orleans to the United States; the object of the latter being to secure the Mississippi down to its mouth as their western boundary. Monroe's arrival was most opportune. ”

“ One idea is consistently represented by Monroe from the beginning to the end of his public life—the idea that America is for Americans, that the territory of the United States is to be protected and enlarged, and that foreign intervention will never be permitted. In his early youth Monroe enlisted for the defence of American independence. He was one of the first to perceive the importance of free navigation upon the Mississippi; he negotiated with France and Spain for the acquisition of Louisiana and Florida ”

“ Their eldest daughter, Hortensia, a very beautiful girl, married Lord Rogers, of Baltimore.
Young and ambitious, full of enthusiasm and admiration for the principles of a free government, Mr. Monroe left the shores of his native land, whose liberty he had so recently assisted in establishing. He had entered the service of his country as a cadet in a corps under the command of the gallant General Mercer, of Virginia. Soon afterward he was appointed a lieutenant, and joined the army at New York. ”

“ Having no hint of Mr. Monroe's intentions, Mr. Jarney proceeded:
"Yes; she has improved so rapidly lately that I feel, myself, like coming out of a long illness. My daughter and I are planning a trip, Monroe, just as soon as she is quite able."
"A trip!" said Monroe, without expressing his surprise in his visage.
"We had thought of going to Europe," pursued Mr. Jarney; "but my business affairs are such that I cannot leave here this summer."
"Where then?" asked Monroe, as if it were any of his affair where they went. ”

“ Monroe published his dramas and poems in a volume. From this time his paper became more Freethought and less political. In April, ’82, he removed to Indianapolis, Indiana, and changed the name to The Age, afterwards Monroe’s Ironclad Age. Dr. Monroe is a clever writer and a modest man, with a remarkable fund of [231] natural humor. Among his publications are poems on The Origin of Man, etc., Genesis Revised, and Holy Bible Stories. ”

“ Monroe was to express her patriotism and interest in historical accuracy through cataloguing and making inventories of the furnishings of the White House. This lady, Mrs. Herbert Hoover, in searching the records, learned of the Monroe furniture and of its ultimate resting place in the Monroe shrine, and asked permission to copy [Pg 111] it at Government expense, the copies to be placed in the White House. ”

“ Monroe lived was the most eventful in the history of nations, and her record is of interest and value, in a twofold degree. The women who stamp the influence of their virtues on a time of public excitement and wonderful changes, bear in their natures strength of character worthy of emulation; and they become the benefactors of succeeding ages, as they were the blessings of their own. The memorials of such should be familiar to the children of America, who under the genius of Republican institutions, are the inheritors of, and successors to, their fame and positions. ”

“ Nature, by fitting them for the service of the human race on a broad scale, has stamped them with the evidences of her destination and their duty." Monroe was born for the public, and knew what destiny lay before him; while in Livingston's mind New York had thenceforward a candidate for the Presidency whose claims were better than Monroe's. ”

“ They were married in New York in 1786, during a session of Congress. Soon after their marriage Philadelphia was chosen as the Capital, Congress adjourning to that city. Senator Monroe and his gifted wife took up their residence in that city. In 1794 he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to France. With the prestige of his position as a senator and as a person of wealth and with Mrs. Monroe's accomplishments, they were destined to represent their country with great success. ”

“ The few hundred children about Fortress Monroe, now gathered into schools, after the pattern of this first school, are types of one million of children throughout the sunny South, on whom the sunlight of knowledge is yet to shine. ”

“ It would be a grateful duty to speak of the noble young men who forsook ease and pleasure, as did White, Gay, and Monroe, and endured all manner of privations in the cause of the enslaved and down-trodden of my race. Gay, Monroe, and myself are the only ones of those who now survive who participated as agents in the one hundred conventions. Mr. Monroe was for many years consul to Brazil, and has since been a faithful member of Congress from the Oberlin District, Ohio, and has filled other important positions in his State. ”

“ Twice within a few months Monroe crossed the Alleghanies for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the actual condition of the country. One of the fruits of his western observations was a memoir, written in 1786, to prove the rights of the people of the west to the free navigation of the Mississippi. Toward the close of 1784 Monroe was selected as one of nine judges to decide the boundary dispute between Massachusetts and New York. ”

“ Left penniless, with a widowed mother and an invalid younger brother, Monroe had worked his way through college, and thus acquired the highest qualifications either as a teacher, or a physician, and it was also known that he could make a good living as a blacksmith or a carpenter. It as not to be wondered at, therefore, that the western young men who attended Wissacompton College, few of whom were overburdened with riches, should admire and respect an individual who had conquered difficulties as Monroe had done. ”