James Monroe grew up in a world of rich Virginia
planters, but what is more notable, perhaps, was who they were,
not what they did. Growing up, Monroe met and befriended many of
the men who would lead the United States–a nation that did not
exist for the first two decades of Monroe's life–over the next
half century: John Marshall, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Richard
Henry Lee; and the list went on and on. His service in the Revolutionary
War yielded even more famous connections, chief among them George
Washington, who gave Monroe glowing letters of introduction.
Monroe's America was still largely agrarian and rural,
although over the course of his lifetime it would more than double
in size physically (largely thanks to his own efforts with the
Louisiana Purchase and the eastern seaboard would fill up with
people. Britain's attempts to raise revenue from the colonies to
finance the French and
Indian War angered many American colonists and hotbeds
of resistance sprung up in Boston and Virginia. The introduction
of British troops to American cities in response to the growing
unrest created a time-bomb waiting to go off. After full-scale war
broke out, the First Continental Congress became the coordinating
body of government for the colonies. The Revolution
went poorly for the Americans for many months until the British
surrender at Saratoga convinced the French that the Americans could
win. With French help, the British finally surrendered at Yorktown
and sued for peace. The Treaty of Paris firmly established the
independence of the former colonies, which now were called the
United States. When the country's first attempt at forming a democratic
government, the Articles
of Confederation, proved too weak the Constitution
was adopted. Monroe's adult life was a series of trials and errors
as the new government tested its authority, broadened its scope
and Congress, the president and the judiciary battled it out for
control of various governmental functions. Political parties formed.
On the foreign front, Monroe served overseas in the diplomatic corps
when America had few friends on the world stage and was thought
of largely as an oddity. His work in securing the Louisiana Purchase
helped ensure that the country would have enough space to grow
and thrive, but other countries still freely provoked the United
States, thinking it too weak to respond, as witnessed by incidents
like the XYZ Affair (see John Adams and
the entire War
of 1812. It would not be until after his Monroe Doctrine
was issued that other countries would really take the U.S. seriously.
In fact, it was not until almost Monroe's death that the country
had developed to the point where it could take itself seriously.
