JAMES MONROE
1817 - 1825
Arizona Timeline
1821 - Mexico gains its independence from Spain and considers most of what is modern day Arizona as part of its land.
1824 - American mountain men enter Arizona to trap beaver.
James Monroe was born in 1758
in Virginia. He graduated from
William and Mary, was wounded
at Trenton during the Revolution,
and as a senator from Virginia,
opposed the adoption of the
Constitution. He served as
governor of Virginia from 1799 to
1802. In 1803 he was sent to
France by President Jefferson to
help negotiate the Louisiana
Purchase. In 1811 Monroe
became President Madison's
secretary of state.
Elizabeth Kortright Monroe
was born in New York City in
1768 to an old New York family.
She married James Monroe in
1786. The couple had two
daughters and a son who died in
infancy. In the years before
Monroe's election as president the
family alternated between foreign
missions and their Virginia home.
President James Monroe was elected in 1816 and re- elected in 1820. Monroe's administration became known as “ the era of good feeling.” He signed
the Missouri Compromise, acquired Florida, and in 1823 promulgated the Monroe Doctrine which declared against foreign colonization or intervention in
the Americas. Monroe died in New York City on July 4, 1831.
Elizabeth Monroe went with her husband to France in 1794. While in Paris in the midst of the French Revolution she acted to save from the guillotine the
imprisoned wife of Lafayette by going to the prison and demanding to see her. Soon afterwards Madame Lafayette was set free. Though later poor health
curtailed her activities, she was an accomplished hostess and changed White House customs to create a more formal atmosphere. Elizabeth died in 1830
at the family's Oak Hill plantation.
