JAMES MONROE

The life of “the last Founding Father to hold the presidency.”

In this deliberative take on Monroe (1758-1831), McGrath, a two-time winner of the Commodore John Barry Book Award, mines the Revolutionary and post-1812 eras, concentrating on Monroe’s two-term presidency. A mentee of Thomas Jefferson and Revolutionary War hero in his home state of Virginia, Monroe served as a delegate on the Continental Congress and notably voted against the ratification of the Constitution. He was partly embroiled in the revelation of Alexander Hamilton’s being blackmailed for his affair with Maria Reynolds—did Monroe reveal it to Jefferson? The bad blood would nearly cause them to fight a duel a few years later. As the author shows, Monroe certainly helped stoke the political animosity between Jefferson’s supporters and Hamilton’s Federalists. Serving as George Washington’s ambassador to France when the mood in Paris was still dangerously revolutionary, Monroe was recalled due to his handling of the Jay Treaty, and his veneration of Washington was deeply shaken. McGrath follows Monroe from his time as governor of Virginia to his role as Jefferson’s envoy in negotiating the Louisiana Purchase. Later, he served as James Madison’s secretary of state and secretary of war, at the same time, while war with Britain raged. As president, he was able to defuse political tensions between the parties, and the Federalists were neutralized. Under his tenure, “he sought an Indian policy that would please both white and Native Americans, and came up woefully short,” and he freed only one of his more than 200 slaves. McGrath, whose wide-ranging research is evident from the extensive list of primary sources, considers Monroe's legacy as “put[ting] his country on the world stage, for better and worse, for all time.” It’s a sturdy, straightforward text that will appeal to fans of presidential biographies, if not general readers.

A proficient, readable life, though McGrath does not convincingly explain why a new biography on Monroe is necessary now.