ames Monroe of Virginia was the fifth President of the United States. Four of our first five presidents were from Virginia, and together, they were known as the "Virginia Dynasty." James Monroe had close personal ties to each of the other three members of this group of Virginia presidents. He served in the American Revolution with General George Washington, who

became our first president. When Monroe returned to Virginia from military service in the American Revolution, he studied law under Thomas Jefferson, our third president. Later, Monroe moved to the present-day Charlottesville area to live close to Jefferson, his good friend and mentor.

Eventually, Monroe, his wife Elizabeth and their daughters, Eliza and Maria Hester, lived on a farm called Highland, next to Jefferson's Monticello estate. James Madison, our fourth president, and his wife, Dolly, were also close friends of the Monroes. In fact, the Madisons may have been the very first house guests the Monroes entertained at Highland, after their move there in 1799.

James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in April 1758. His father was Spence Monroe, a farmer and joiner, and his mother was Elizabeth Jones Monroe. At the age of 16, James Monroe went to Williamsburg, Virginia, to study at the College of William and Mary. However, in 1776, he left college to join General Washington's army and fight for American freedom from England in the Revolutionary War. Monroe was a brave officer and was severely wounded at the Battle of Trenton, just prior to Washington's famous crossing of the Delaware. Monroe would also spend the winter at Valley Forge with Washington. After six years of war, America won its freedom from England, and a new nation, the United States of America was formed.

In Emmaunel Leutze's famous painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware, James Monroe is pictured behind Washington.

James Monroe devoted much of the rest of his life to serving his new country and to helping build the nation. From 1803-1807, he served as U.S. Minister in France, England and Spain. While in France, Monroe helped work out an agreement that permitted the United States to buy all the land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. This agreement became known as the Louisiana Purchase, and it doubled the size of the young United States of America. Later, Monroe served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War (1812) during part of Madison's administration.

James Monroe was probably one of the first leaders to view America as a whole nation, rather than as a collection of different regions. While president, the member's of his cabinet, his closest advisors, came from several different areas of the country. President Monroe also traveled widely throughout the nation. At one point in his presidency, Monroe wrote in a speech that all the countries in North and South America should be free from European control and dominance. This famous statement eventually became known as the Monroe Doctrine.

For all of his service to the United States however, James Monroe always had a special love for his native Virginia. As a young man, he was a member of the Virginia General Assembly in Richmond. There, he helped make laws for the state. Later, Monroe was chosen as Governor of Virginia four times. He also represented Virginia in Congress as a United States Senator. Even after he had retired as president, Monroe helped write a new constitution for Virginia. He also helped in governing the newly-formed University of Virginia, which had been founded by his friend, Thomas Jefferson. Monroe, in fact, once owned land where the Main Grounds of the University stand today.

After his beloved wife, Elizabeth, died in 1830, Monroe left Virginia for the last time to live with his younger daughter in New York City. He died there at the age of 73 on July 4, 1831, Independence Day, exactly five years after John Adams and, his old friend and fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, had died. In the final months of his life, Monroe surely thought of his native Virginia and his friends there. Monroe was first buried in New York, but in 1858, he was returned home to Virginia. He now rests in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

James Monroe was a great Virginian. He believed in individual liberties and in self-government for all people and played an important part in the growth and development of the young United States of America and of Virginia, the homeland he loved so much.