EDUCATORS ’ PERSPECTIVE
unpaid assessment of many years ’ standing .” McGrath observes , “ Even entombed , Monroe still owed money .” In 1903 , Elizabeth Monroe ’ s remains were moved from Monroe ’ s Oak Hill estate and laid to rest next to her husband in Richmond .
Brian Grinder is a professor at Eastern Washington University and a member of Financial History ’ s editorial board . Dr . Dan Cooper is the president of Active Learning Technologies .
Photograph of James Monroe ’ s Highland Plantation , located three miles south of Monticello . Monroe initially failed to sell Highland to extinguish his debts , but he eventually had to turn over all but a few hundred acres to the Bank of the United States in order to settle his debt there .
the $ 15,533 recommended by the House . A disappointed Monroe agreed to the payment , which he received in 1826 . The lower-than-expected amount forced him to turn all but a few hundred acres of Highland over to the Bank of the United States in order to settle his debt there . He also sold most of Highland ’ s enslaved people for $ 5,000 . The proceeds were used to reduce Monroe ’ s indebtedness to Astor .
Although Monroe accepted the payment approved by Congress in 1826 , he wasn ’ t finished with his claims against the United States . Through well-placed friends in Congress and with the help of his son-in-law , Samuel L . Gouverneur , Monroe pressed for additional payment for unremunerated services rendered to the federal government . These included a loss on the sale of a house Monroe purchased in France but was forced to sell after he was abruptly dismissed from his position as minister to France in 1796 , premiums for loans he personally negotiated for the government during the War of 1812 , reimbursement for two inspection tours of the country as President and a curious what-if argument . The argument , according to historian Lucius Wilmerding , went as follows : What if Monroe had not spent 50 years in public service but instead applied “ the prime of his life to his own private affairs ?” Wouldn ’ t he be much better off ? Shouldn ’ t the nation step in and make matters right ?
After years of wrangling , a largely unconvinced Congress chose to award Monroe $ 30,000 not because of his financial claims , but because he was a popular former President who was suffering in poverty . The aged and ailing Monroe moved to New York to live with his daughter , Maria Gouverneur , and it was there that John Quincy Adams visited him on April 27 , 1831 . In his diary , Adams wrote that Monroe was “ extremely feeble and emaciated .” He learned that the $ 30,000 recently allotted by Congress had been paid and distributed to Monroe ’ s creditors . Adams concluded his diary entry for the day noting that Monroe “ is now dying , at the age of 72 , in wretchedness and beggary . I sat with him perhaps half an hour .” Monroe died on July 4 , 1831 .
Though his debts were paid , Monroe was buried in New York because there was no money available to pay for burial in Virginia next to his beloved wife , Elizabeth . In 1858 , 100 years after his birth , Monroe ’ s remains were moved to a cemetery in Richmond , Virginia . McGrath cites an 1858 article in the Churchman , which laments the fact that : “ The fifth President of the United States has had as yet no tomb of his own , and even now is resting in a vault upon which there is an
Notes
1 . In her book , As I Remember , Marian Campbell Gouverneur , the wife of James Monroe ’ s grandson , Samuel L . Gouverneur , Jr ., reproduced the contents of this letter , noting that , “ Mr . Astor ’ s solicitude concerning Mr . Monroe ’ s financial obligation was duly relieved , and that debt paid in full .”
2 . Monroe participated in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829 as chair of the Convention , but he was forced to resign because of poor health before the Convention completed its work .
Sources
Adams , John Quincy . Memoirs of John Quincy Adams , Comprising Portions of his Diary from 1795 to 1848 . ( Vol . 1 ). Books for Libraries Press . 1969 .
Ammon , Harry . James Monroe : The Quest for National Identity . McGraw-Hill . 1971 .
Gouverneur , Marian . As I Remember : Recollections of American Society during the Nineteenth Century . D . Appleton and Company . 1911 .
McGrath , Tim . James Monroe : A Life . Dutton , an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC . 2020 .
Monroe , James . The writings of James Monroe , including a collection of his public and private papers and correspondence , now for the first time printed . ( Vol . 7 ). AMS Press . 1969 .
Unger , Harlow Giles . The Last Founding Father : James Monroe and a Nation ’ s Call to Greatness . Da Capo Press . 2009 .
Wilmerding , Lucius . James Monroe : Public Claimant . Rutgers University Press . 1960 .
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