|
 Leading
the charge
at the
Battle of
Trenton, a
musket
ball
struck his
shoulder,
hitting an
artery.
He
recovered
and
continued
to fight
for
General
Washington,
becoming
friends
with
French
officer
Lafayette.
His name
was James
Monroe,
born APRIL
28, 1758.
Home-schooled
as a child
by
Reverend
William
Douglas,
James
Monroe was
fellow-students
with John
Marshall,
who became
the Chief
Justice of
the
Supreme
Court.
Monroe
graduated
from the
College of
William
and Mary,
studied
law under
Thomas
Jefferson,
and was a
delegate
to the
Continental
Congress.
He served
as U.S.
Senator,
Governor
of
Virginia,
Secretary
of War,
and
Secretary
of State,
where he
negotiated
the
Louisiana
Purchase
which
doubled
the size
of the
United
States.
Elected
the 5th
U.S.
President,
James
Monroe
acquired
Florida
from
Spain,
1819;
added
Maine,
Illinois,
Missouri,
Alabama
and
Mississippi
to the
Union; and
proclaimed
the Monroe
Doctrine,
1823,
which
forbade
European
powers
from
interfering
with the
independent
nations of
the
Western
Hemisphere.
In his
First
Inaugural
Address,
March 4,
1817,
President
James
Monroe
warned:
"What
raised us
to the
present
happy
state?...The
Government
has been
in the
hands of
the
people. To
the
people,
therefore...is
the credit
due...
It is only
when the
people
become
ignorant
and
corrupt,
when they
degenerate
into a
populace,
that they
are
incapable
of
exercising
the
sovereignty.
Usurpation
is then an
easy
attainment,
and an
usurper
soon
found. The
people
themselves
become the
willing
instruments
of their
own
debasement
and
ruin...
James
Monroe
continued:
"If
we
persevere...we
can not
fail,
under the
favor of a
gracious
Providence...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."
When
Muslim
Barbary
Pirates
committed
terrorist
attacks,
President
James
Monroe
refused
appeasement
and
instead
deployed
the U.S.
Navy, as
he stated,
March 5,
1821:
"Our
relations
with the
Barbary
Powers are
preserved...by
the same
means that
were
employed
when I
came into
this
office. As
early as
1801 it
was found
necessary
to send a
squadron
into the
Mediterranean
for the
protection
of our
commerce."
In his 5th
Annual
Message,
December
3, 1821,
President
James
Monroe
reiterated:
"A
squadron
has been
maintained
in the
Mediterranean,
by means
whereof
peace has
been
preserved
with the
Barbary
Powers...From
past
experience...it
is
distinctly
understood
that
should our
squadron
be
withdrawn
they would
soon
recommence
their
hostilities
and
depredations
upon our
commerce."
In 1823,
President
James
Monroe,
with the
U.S.
Congress,
ordered
Decatur,
Alabama,
to be
founded in
honor of
Commodore
Stephen
Decatur,
the
renowned
U.S. Naval
officer
who forced
the Muslim
pirates to
surrender,
ending the
Barbary
Wars.
In his
First
Annual
Message,
December 2
1817,
President
James
Monroe
stated:
"In
grateful
acknowledgments
to that
Omnipotent
Being...in
unceasing
prayer
that He
will endow
us with
virtue and
strength."
On
November
16, 1818,
in his 2nd
Annual
Message,
President
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...Let
us then,
unite in
offering
our most
grateful
acknowledgments
for these
blessings
to the
Divine
Author of
All
Good."
On
November
14, 1820,
in his 4th
Annual
Message,
President
James
Monroe
stated:
"When...we
take into
view the
prosperous
and happy
condition
of our
country...it
is
impossible
to
behold...without
being
penetrated
with the
most
profound
and
grateful
acknowledgments
to the
Supreme
Author of
All Good
for such
manifold
and
inestimable
blessings...especially...our
most
excellent
system of
government,
the
powerful
instrument
in the
hands of
our
All-merciful
Creator in
securing
to us
these
blessings."
On March
5, 1821,
in his 2nd
Inaugural
Address,
President
Monroe
stated:
"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
a firm
reliance
on the
protection
of
Almighty
God."
On
December
3, 1821,
in his 5th
Annual
Message,
President
Monroe
stated:
"Deeply
impressed
with the
blessings
which we
enjoy...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."
On
December
7, 1824,
in his 8th
Annual
Message,
President
James
Monroe
stated:
"For
these
blessings
we owe to
Almighty
God...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...
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."
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."
James
Monroe
stated:
"Of
the
liberty of
conscience
in matters
of
religious
faith, of
speech and
of the
press; of
the trial
by
jury;...of
the
benefit of
the writ
of habeas
corpus; of
the right
to keep
and bear
arms...
If these
rights
are...secured
against
encroachments,
it is
impossible
that
government
should
ever
degenerate
into
tyranny."
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