Andrew Jackson – The Hermitage
November 12, 2011


General Jackson

 The ghost of Andrew Jackson wanders the fields of the Hermitage, calling for his beloved Rachel. But Rachel is no more. She lies under the garden gazebo patiently awaiting her husband. This is one of the many stories we heard during out visit to Andrew Jackson’s plantation outside Nashville, Tennessee.

We flew to Nashville early in the morning, rented a car and zipped over to the Hermitage plantation in 15 minutes. To reach the Hermitage, go east on I-40, take exit 221, drive for five more minutes and you’re there. The admission was $18 for adults with a $2 discount for AAA. For an additional $10 you can take a wagon ride (we did).
At the visitor center, we watched a 15-minute introductory movie on the life of Andrew Jackson, described by the narrator as a "Democratic autocrat." We have learned, as we continue our quest to visit every president's house, that the introductory films are not to be missed if you want to learn about a president, his family and his life.

Jackson served in the American Revolution as a teenager, running messages for the Americans. He was ideal for this role because he knew the Carolina woods. Sadly, the war was cruel to him. In addition to Jackson being captured and imprisoned, he lost his mother and both brothers. His father died before he was born.

Jackson became a lawyer at age 20 and in 1788 moved “West” to Nashville where he practiced law and speculated in land. In 1796, he was elected to Congress as a representative for Tennessee. But he found himself restless and resigned after a year.
He joined the Tennessee Militia as an officer. During the War of 1812 he commanded an army that included pirates (such as Jean Lafitte), freed slaves, and Native Americans to defend New Orleans from the British. Unlike many American troops, Jackson did not flee when attacked, but held his ground and decisively beat the British. His troops called him “Old Hickory” because of his toughness. And his fame grew.

In 1824 General Jackson — he liked to be called General — found himself a candidate for president. As we noted before, Jackson won the most popular and electoral votes but did not have the majority needed. The election was moved to the House of Representatives, which selected John Quincy Adams. Jackson was elected in his own right in 1828. In 1832, he won re-election under the newly formed Democratic Party.

Following the movie, we received a complimentary audio guide that contained 1.5 hours of information keyed to numbers on signs placed throughout the grounds. Always get the audio guides (especially when they're free!): Although they make conversations tough, they are quite informative and interesting.


Andrew and Rachel

The museum features life-size statues of General Jackson and his wife. They made a curious pair; he was lean and tall (6’ 1” and 140 lbs.) while his wife, Rachel, was short and chubby. Their love story is unique. Jackson met Rachel while he was boarding in her mother's house. Rachel was married to another man at the time. However, her marriage was troubled -- speculation was spousal abuse -- and Rachel came back to live at her mother’s house. Jackson and Rachel fell in love and married, thinking that her first husband had filed for divorce — but he had not. It was years before they discovered this, filed the necessary paperwork and remarried. This “bigamy” would come to haunt both of them later, when Jackson was running for president. Jackson and Rachel were unable to have children and adopted Andrew Jackson Jr., one of two twins born to a relative.


Hermitage

 The Mansion
After the introduction, we walked out the back door of the museum and followed a winding path to the mansion. It is the same path that the many visitors to the Hermitage took 170 years ago.
As we approached the mansion, Doug Stephenson, a large bearded man in period garb, greeted us. When we asked how he was doing, he said, “For an old fat man, I’m doing all right.”

The tour was similar to that of the Mount Vernon mansion in that there are different guides for each part of the house. Mr. Stephenson handed us off to Kim Choudhury in the main entrance. She was dressed in period garb. She confided that things were a bit out of the ordinary--one of the other guides was being buried that day. He had died suddenly following gall bladder surgery.

An interesting aspect of presidents' lives that we're discovering is the importance of the house, specifically the size of the house. Things haven't changed much. The Hermitage is a perfect example of the "bigger is better" mentality of America. Jackson and his wife, Rachel, lived in a small, two-room log cabin on the property when they were first married. But then they upgraded -- to the gigantic mansion visitors see today.

In an effort to make himself look wealthier than he was, Jackson did some creative things with the house. For example, the columns supporting the house and the fireplace mantels in the rooms are painted to look like they're marble, but they are actually wood.

Like John Adams before him, Jackson built himself a house with big rooms — in Jackson's case, rooms that could fit several from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello or James Madison's Montpelier in each one. The house and its rooms are by far the largest we have seen so far on our presidential journey.

Jackson's bedroom is particularly enormous and is shown to tourists complete with volumes of newspapers bound into volumes so he - an avid newspaper reader -- could read them and save them. He died in the bedroom in 1845, at the age of 78. He had many problems throughout his life: dysentery, malaria, and small pox as a child. He also had a bullet in chest near his heart that was constantly hemorrhaging. (More on that later.)

Despite the vast size of the rooms — or maybe because of it — guests had to sleep with each other. The Jacksons would get 20-25 visitors a night, who would have to smush into two guest bedrooms on the top floor. “That means you’re going to sleep with someone you don’t know,” Stephenson said.

Those who didn't fit in the beds slept on the floor. And many visitors, including Madison, Jefferson, James K. Polk, Martin Van Buren, the Marquis de Lafayette and Sam Houston, during the summer slept on the second-story porch where it was much cooler, with a breeze, than cooped up at the top of the house. Remember, heat rises.


Telemachus Wallpaper

 The best feature of the mansion was the wallpaper, which is basically a mural showing the story of Telemachus by Fenelon. It is resplendent with bright blues, browns and oranges. Following a fire in 1834, Jackson insisted on replacing the wall paper as it had been—he called it “Rachel’s wallpaper.”



The Wagon Ride

 Wagon Ride
After the mansion tour, we were given an option to ride a wagon pulled by two black Percherons, Molly and Rachel. The ride costs $10 and tickets may be purchased at the entrance or directly from the driver. Our driver, Carl, had a honey southern accent that we later learned was a mix of South Dakota and Tennessee.

The horses pulled us through fields and into the Field Quarter, the housing area of the “enslaved people” of the Hermitage. When I asked Carl why he -- and all the signage at the Hermitage -- used the word “enslaved people” rather than “slaves,” he replied that “the word slave is a cuss word” to him. The term “enslaved people” acknowledges the humanity of the people chained to the Hermitage. (It makes perfect sense and we will use that term from now on. “Slave” is a noun, and “enslaved” is an adjective. These people were not property (noun) but rather people subjected to an inhumane condition (adjective)).

Jackson treated the enslaved fairly well; not out of love or respect but rather to maximize their work. He believed that “willing hands work better.” In 1929 he advised one of his overseers to “…treat my negroes with humanity, & attention when sick; & not work them too hard, when well — that you feed and clothe them well…” Jackson considered the enslaved his “black family.” It is not known how the enslaved felt about Jackson.

As we mentioned, the original Hermitage consisted of wooden cabins. These were used from 1804 to 1821. When the mansion was built, the cabins were turned over to the enslaved people of the Hermitage. The enslaved population grew from nine in 1804, to 60-80 in 1821, to 150 in 1845.

Jackson kept families together, mostly to keep individuals from running away. The cabins were better than many of those in the surrounding plantations because they were constructed of brick and had wooden floors and fireplaces. The enslaved were allowed to hunt and fish (proved by archaeological digs that yielded many animal bones). They were also given one day off per week.

There has been much recent excavation in the area, some of which has been covered over by gravel. Atop the gravel are the outlines of the foundations of some of the cabins. The cabins were duplexes, each holding a family. Each living space consisted of a door, a window, and a fireplace. Because each family had between five and eight children -- Maria and Steve Baker actually had 19 — most of the living took place outside.

Under the floor, enslaved families often dug clay pits or root cellars – also known as “hidey ’holes” because they hid things there including slate and pencils (they were not allowed to read and write), coins, beads, etc.

Carl next took us to the former industrial area, which consists of a blacksmith shop, leather shop, spinning and weaving building, distillery, and other trades necessary to run daily life on a plantation. All of these building are gone now; only a grassy field remains.
The overseer’s cabin was just outside the enslaved area. The overseers were looked down upon by the owners (who would not socialize with them) and the enslaved (who would undermine them as best they could.)

Carl told us the story of Betty who would not give up her recipe for maple syrup. Carl said that was an example of someone trying to maintain her job security. Everyone laughed. After the ride, Carl told us the whole story. When the General, who was out of town, found out about her insubordination, he wrote his family a letter recommending that she be publicly whipped. So much for his “black family.”

Even so, Carl has a fondness for the General. He says that he can “still feel his aura.” Knowing about Jackson “makes me want to be a better employee.” The General had a way of instilling hard work and discipline.

When Carl goes out in the field and calls Rachel his horse, he images General Jackson, despondent over the loss of his Rachel, doing the same thing. Carl’s Rachel shows up, unlike the General’s.

The General was convinced that Rachel’s fatal heart attack on Dec. 22, 1828, was caused by the vitriol of the election of 1828. As we learned during out research, John Q. Adams’ close supporters called Andrew Jackson’s wife a bigamist. According to Carl, the General summed up his feelings by saying, “Although I know Rachel has forgiven them, God knows, I never will.” When he was president, Jackson said, “I find myself a solitary mourner, deprived of all hope of happiness this side of the grave, and often wish myself at the Hermitage there to spend the remnant of my days, & daily drop a tear on the tomb of my beloved wife.”

Carl is convinced that the ghost of Andrew Jackson haunts the Hermitage. One night, Carl’s boss saw three white lights floating in the field. When he approached, the lights disappeared. Later he saw the same three white lights but now accompanied by an additional blue light. Carl imagines that the white lights were Rachel, Andrew Donelson (Jackson’s beloved nephew), and Emily Donelson (Andrew Donelson’s wife and de facto first lady at the White House), and that the blue light was General Jackson, showing up to protect his cherished ones.

Walking the Grounds
After the ride, we walked around the grounds. Although the plantation is no longer at its peak acreage of 1,200, it is still quite large and we wandered for a couple of hours. In one building — the Cabin by the Spring —we happily found refuge on a cold, windy day and refreshments and stood next to a crackling fire, sipping hot chocolate and cider.


The Gazebo


We eventually ended up in the Garden and headed to the General’s tomb. He and Rachel lie next to each other under a Greek Revival stone gazebo. Also buried in the garden is Alfred, Betty’s son and a third-generation enslaved person. He became close to the Jackson family and did not leave the Hermitage after the Civil War. He eventually became a tour guide. Before he died at age 98, he asked the Ladies’ Hermitage Association that he be buried close to the General and Rachel Jackson. (However, he had to bribe the Ladies with a mirror to have his wish fulfilled.)

Jackson's Presidency
Jackson’s presidency was one of the most important of the first half of the 19th century. His era was called the Jacksonian Age and would influence the next four presidents. As Meacham (2008) writes,

“King Andrew the First,” as his foes styled him, was the most powerful president in the forty-year history of the office, but his power was marshaled not for personal gain — he was always in financial straits — but, as Jackson saw it, for what he believed was in the best interests of the ordinary, the unconnected, the uneducated. He could be brutal in his application of power, but he was not a brute. He could be unwavering, but he was not closed-minded. He was, rather, the great politician of his time, if success in politics is measured by the affirmation of a majority of the people in real time and by the shadow one casts after leaving office.”

He was an activist president and vetoed 12 bills during his two presidencies—more than all of his predecessors combined.

Jackson was also the first president of the modern Democratic Party. The party started as the Democratic Republicans of which Thomas Jefferson was the first. The party stood strongly against the Federalists and advocated states’ rights and strict interpretation of the Constitution.

One of the defining issues of his presidency was nullification. This was the concept that states could declare laws that they considered unconstitutional, null and void. In particular, South Carolina was opposed to a continuation of the so called 1928 “Tariff of Abominations” established during the presidency of John Quincy Adams and a follow-on 1932 tariff bill. The bills were established to protect Northern industries from low-cost imports. However, it hurt the South by raising their cost of imports and by reducing the sale of cotton to the British—who saw their American markets more challenging because of the tariff. South Carolina threatened to ignore the tariff. Jackson’s position on this was initially a mystery —particularly since he had Southern sympathies. But at an 1830 presidential dinner, he offered a toast: “Our Federal union, it must be preserved.” He would not support nullification.

The nullification issue lingered for several years and South Carolina began to arm itself to fight any Federal troops that might arrive to enforce the tariff. Jackson showed his political adroitness by having Congress pass a bill authorizing him to use force against South Carolina—the so called “Force Bill”—and another bill that reduced tariffs to an acceptable level. (It is interesting that three decades later, South Carolina would be the first state to secede from the United States.) (It is also noteworthy that the only Senator to vote against the Force Bill was future President, John Tyler; the other opponents of the bill abstained.)

Another Jackson legacy was his treatment of Native Americans. In his first inaugural speech he said, “It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our peopleIt was a lie. In 1830 Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act to move all the Indians in the East to west of the Mississippi River. Although treaties had been signed with the tribes, the growing population of whites, ever expanding westward— wanted the land for themselves. The Indians were granted land in the West, but there were no provisions made to transport them — they had to ride their horses (or walk if they had none). Thousands of Indians from many tribes died under horrific conditions. The Indians came to call Jackson “the Devil.” When the Cherokee trekked the “Trail of Tears" following Jackson’s presidency, 4,000 out of 16,000 died en route. It is one of Jackson’s most brutal and unconscionable legacies and a stain on our moral standing.

Jackson was also defined by his stand on the Second Bank of the United States. After the War of 1812, President James Madison established the Second Bank to help the United States finance the war, among other reasons. (Tom visited the Bank during his trip to Philadelphia. It is a stately Greek Revival building with Doric columns and now houses a wonderful portrait gallery.) The Bank received a 20-year charter that was set to end during Jackson’s term. Jackson was not a supporter of the bank because of what he viewed as elitist corruption. He simply wanted to pay off the national debt — which he did during his presidency, the only president to do so even to the present day. In his first inauguration he stated that “the unnecessary duration of [the national debt]… .is incompatible with real independence.” He withdrew all government deposits in the Bank and redeposited them in state chartered banks. He ended the Second Bank by executive order in 1833, although it continued to operate independently under a state charter. Congress retaliated by censuring him — the only president to be censured. Just before leaving office in 1836, his allies in Congress were successful in having the censure expunged from the record.

Old Hickory
There can be no doubt about Jackson’s courage. In addition to fighting in the Revolutionary War, the First Seminole War, and the Battle of New Orleans, he welcomed opportunities for violence. In 1806 he fought a duel to avenge a series of insults to Rachel and himself. The two men stood face to face at about 24 feet. Jackson allowed the other man to shoot first and received a bullet to his ribs. He did not falter, but slowly aimed his pistol and shot the other man dead. The bullet would remain in Jackson’s body throughout his life. In 1813 he was involved in a shoot-out with Thomas Hart Benton and members of Benton’s family and took a bullet in his arm. He carried that bullet for decades before it was removed. (Benton would go on to become a senator and an ally to Jackson.)

Later when he was president, the General was attacked twice, the second time by a would-be assassin — the first in presidential history — who shot two loaded pistols at him. Both misfired and Jackson charged the assailant with his cane.

Final Words
The final words for our narrative come from Meacham (2008) who wrote of the attributes of Andrew Jackson which “included a belief in a generally limited federal government, a debt-free nation, and a country in which the people, acting through the states more fully and frequently than through Washington, made a larger number of important decisions about public affairs. Experience had taught him, however, that there was virtue in the Union and in custom, even if he himself flouted custom when it suited him.”

References
Lee, S.P. and P. Passell. 1979. A New Economic View of American History. W. W. Norton & Company. New York, New York.

May, G. 2008. John Tyler. Henry Holt and Company. New York, NY.

McDougall, W.A. 2004. Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828. Harper Collins Publishers. New York, NY.

Meacham, J. 2008. American Lion: Andrews Jackson in the White House. Random House. New York, New York.

John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams – Washington, D.C.
October 22 & 29, 2011

First, let us say that John Quincy Adams is one of Tom’s favorite presidents to date. He was an abolitionist, a champion of higher education and scientific research, and a master of languages. The only strike against him is that he didn’t seem to care much for his mother, the esteemed Abigail Adams.

Since we had already visited Boston to learn about John Quincy Adams’s dad, we sought another significant location to learn about JQA. It turns out that he is more closely associated with Washington, D.C., than most of his predecessors. He served as Secretary of State in the Monroe administration, as president for one term, followed by 16 years in the House of Representatives. In fact, he died in the U.S. Capitol after collapsing while giving a speech.

We spread our acquaintance JQA over two weekends. The first weekend, on Oct. 22, we were downtown to participate in an “Urban Dare.” (This is basically an Amazing Race-like treasure hunt to locate clues throughout downtown D.C. Competing against 90 other teams, we were given a list of 13 clues and given six hours to find the answers and take photographs proving we had reached the correct site. Most of the destinations were statues of historic figures and easy challenges like jump rope, three legged runs, and making balloon swords. OK, we could not make a balloon sword, but still….)

George Washington University Campus
Following our successful completion of the Urban Dare – we placed 37th -- we visited the John Quincy Adams House on the nearby George Washington University Campus. It turns out that JQA was a key contributor to the founding of the university in 1821 when it was called Columbian College. Starting during his tenure as Secretary of State, he helped establish and operate the College. As an advocate of higher education and scientific research, he was involved with the college for 30 years. At his funeral, the school’s professors and students marched in the funeral procession. (The 1998 plaque in front of the building interestingly reads, “To date this is the only time in U.S. history that a former President’s son has become president.” Little did they know that two years later, George W. Bush would become president and create the second father-son team.)

Smithsonian Castle
We next visited the site of another JQA accomplishment, the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall. The Castle, designed by James Renwick Jr. in 1846, is the original building of the Smithsonian Institution. Unbeknownst to us, if it had not been for JQA, the Smithsonian would not have been established. The story is told in Nina Burleigh’s fine book, The Stranger and the Statesman (2003). The Stranger is John Smithson, a wealthy British scientist who died in 1828 and left a $500,000 fortune (the equivalent of tens of millions now) to the United States to be used for the “establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men.” The Statesman was JQA, who fought for eight years to convince Congress to apply the money as intended.

This is a remarkable story in that Smithson actually left all his money to his nephew with the stipulation that “In the case of the death of my said Nephew without leaving a child or children, or the death of the child or children he may have had under the age of twenty-one years or intestate, I then bequeath the whole of my property…. to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men.” It was a seemingly random act since Smithson had never visited the United States nor shown sympathy for Republicanism. Smithson also could not have known that his nephew would die young six years later without any heirs.

When the money reached the U.S., Congress applied the money to other uses including the purchase of worthless state bonds. JQA, who had long advocated for federally funded scientific research, fought hard to have the money replaced and was finally successful in 1846.

U.S. Capitol
The following weekend, we visited the U.S. Capitol. October 29 turned out to be the earliest snowfall in Washington in 40 years. A cold, raw rain fell for most of the day, but the afternoon was punctuated by big, sloppy snowflakes that covered Cathy’s umbrella. (Yes, we seem to choose rainy or cold days to visit presidents.)

To tour the Capitol, you need to sign up beforehand for the free tickets. You can do this online at www.visitthecapitol.gov. Be sure to leave enough time to get through security and do not bring any food or water with you. Cathy’s bottle -- even after she drained it -- was sadly banished to the recycle bin.

The tour begins with a 12-minute movie about Congress and the Capitol. The theme is “finding common ground” among 300 million or so U.S. citizens to move the country forward. The movie ends with the Latin phrase “E Pluribus Unum,” which means Out of Many, One.

It is worth noting that although many of us think that the current Congress is completely dysfunctional, it has almost always been like this. There have been battles in the halls of Congress going back 200 years. In fact, in 1798 two members of the House of Representatives got into a physical battle that involved the use of tongs from one of the fireplaces! Another ruckus erupted in 1877 that caused the Speaker of the House to cancel the session. The only time Congress has been completely unified was during national emergencies such as the World Wars and following 9/11.

Following the movie, we were given headsets so that we could hear our tour guide. We began our tour in the Crypt, which is the base of the Capitol. It consists of 40 sandstone columns supporting the enormous weight of the upper building and the dome. It’s called the Crypt because it was supposed to have been the resting place of George Washington. But since Washington’s will expressly stated his desire to stay put in Mount Vernon, his body was never moved. So nobody is buried there. The Crypt does contain 13 statues, one for each of the original 13 colonies.

We next visited the Capitol Rotunda, which is the open area beneath the dome. The ceiling is painted with the “Apotheosis of George Washington,” a biblical-feeling work that shows a seated George Washington, wearing his blue uniform, his legs covered by a red blanket. It feels a lot like the Sistine Chapel, which we visited several years ago. There is also a frieze around the base of the dome representing 411 years of American history, beginning with Columbus and ending with the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.

Many famous people have laid in state in the Rotunda starting with Henry Clay in 1852 and most recently President Gerald Ford in 2007. Rosa Parks is the only woman and second African American to lay in state, in 2005. We tried paying our respects to her back then, but the line snaked at least a mile long outside the Capitol.

The final room was the one we had come to see--Statuary Hall, formerly the Old Hall of the House.

The election of 1824 was decided in this Chamber. Since none of the candidates had won a majority of the Electoral College votes, the vote was thrown to the House of Representatives. John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson – who had won the popular vote -- and William Crawford were the top three vote getters. Backroom political maneuvering gave JQA the endorsement of the fourth candidate, Henry Clay. Implied in this endorsement was a possible major role for Clay in a JQA administration. In a secret ballot, the House voted for JQA. (The subsequent appointment of Clay as Secretary of State caused a political uproar and led to JQA’s defeat to Andrew Jackson in the next election.)

JQA was inaugurated in this room on March 4, 1825. His inauguration speech, flowery to our ears, noted the success of the United States since its founding 36 years before: “a population of four million has multiplied to twelve. A territory bounded by the Mississippi has been extended from sea to sea.” He noted the passing of the (as yet unnamed Founding Fathers) by saying, “Since the adoption of this social compact one of these generations has passed away. It is the work of our forefathers.”

JQA was defeated in the 1828 election. However, in 1830 he was elected to the House of Representatives representing Massachusetts. The House met here from 1807 to 1857. The location of his desk is marked by a plaque in the floor.

The current dome was installed in 1902 and produces a whisper effect in some places. Our tour guide gathered us around the location of JQA’s desk and walked 50 meters away. We could clearly hear her talking from that location. As she moved closer, she was no longer audible. The myth that JQA would sit at his desk and overhear the conversations of other representatives is not true since the current dome postdates him.

Like his father’s, JQA’s death was dramatic. He suffered a severe stroke in this room while giving a speech on February 21, 1848. He was taken into the Speaker’s Chamber just off the Hall where he lingered for two days before dying.

The Hall is now used to display statues of prominent Americans. Each state is allowed two statues made of bronze or marble. Thirty-eight of these statutes are in the Hall.

JQ Adams, the Man
John Adams was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on July 11, 1767. He was brought up under the lofty expectations of his father, John Adams, who was a lawyer at the time of his birth, and his mother, Abigail, who insisted throughout his life that he overcome his “slovenly” ways and consistently strive to improve himself. She basically browbeat JQA at every opportunity either in words or in her many letters. When he was 8 years old, his mother took him to an overlook so he could witness the Battle of Bunker Hill.

JQA accompanied his father to Europe and became fluent in French and Russian. By age 14 his Russian was so good that his father assigned him to accompany the U.S. ambassador to Russian for several years.

He returned to the United States to enter Harvard and became a lawyer in 1790. He was appointed by President George Washington to be the Minister to the Netherlands. When his father because president, he was assigned to be the minister to Prussia.

In 1802, he was elected to the Senate and served until 1808. In 1809, President James Madison appointed him as minister to Russia. He was also the leader of the peace commission that negotiated the end to the War of 1812.

When James Monroe was elected president in 1816, he did not have to think hard about who to appoint as Secretary of State. With his vast diplomatic experience, JQA was the obvious choice. Remini (2002) calls JQA “the greatest Secretary of State to serve that office.”

While Secretary of State, JQA negotiated Monroe’s Florida Treaty, which expanded the United States by purchasing Florida as well as a large area that extended from the Louisiana border to the Pacific Northwest. (General Andrew Jackson figured prominently in the Florida portion, but we’ll cover that later.)

He was also the main architect of the Monroe Doctrine. As we learned before, the Monroe Doctrine was three paragraphs that James Monroe gave in a congressional speech in 1823, the so-called “Principles of 1823.” The Doctrine stated that the European powers were no longer permitted to colonize or otherwise interfere in North or South America below Canada. At the same time the United States declared its intention to stay out of internal European affairs.

JQA PresidencyJQA was a disaster as president. Although he had served as a diplomat for most of his life, he was unskilled at partisan politics; and those early 1800s politics were as bad as anything we see today. He was plagued throughout his presidency by an embittered Andrew Jackson and his allies (including future presidents Martin Van Buren and John Tyler).

Part way through his presidency, JQA became a strong advocate for a strong federal government role in improving the lives of citizens. It was almost as though he had become a Federalist again. He advocated a massive infrastructure program that included roads, canals and bridges. He also advocated the founding of a national university, an observatory, and a naval academy. In his 1925 inauguration speech he announced his intention to undertake federally financed public works: “…nearly twenty years have passed since the construction of the first national road was commenced. The authority for its construction was then unquestioned. To how many thousands of our countrymen has it proved a benefit? To what single individual has it ever proved an injury?” Similar debates about the role of government in creating the nation’s infrastructure still rage today.

In 1828 Congress passed the so-called Tariff of Abominations. These were protective tariffs that were applied unevenly — favoring the Southern (Democratic leaning) states at the expense of the New England states (Adams supporters). JQA signed it in 1828.

The election of 1828 was purportedly the dirtiest to date. JQA was labeled a pimp, Andrew Jackson’s wife a bigamist, and Jackson’s mother a prostitute. In addition, Adams and his wife Louisa were excoriated for allegedly having had premarital sex. Notice that the common theme here is sex, which has brought down more than one presidential candidate even now. The other hot-button issue was religion. Accusations of Unitarianism and Catholicism dogged Adams while accusations of Free Masonry haunted Jackson.

Adams was decisively defeated by Andrew Jackson. Like his father, he was so embittered over his loss that he did not attend the inauguration of his successor.

His Next CareerBut JQA’s career was nowhere near over. A year later, he was recruited by his home state of Massachusetts to represent it in Congress. He easily won the election and served 17 brilliant years.

He slowly became an abolitionist, particularly after the 1836 House vote that prohibited any anti-slavery debate. This prohibition became known as the Gag Rule. For eight years he fought hard against it, alienating many of his colleagues. The rule was finally overturned in 1844.

In 1841, Adams went to the Supreme Court to defend 39 slaves who had taken over the Spanish ship, the Amistad. These slaves took control of the ship as it made its way to from Cuba to Puerto Rico. The Amistad then sailed north to New York, where the ship was taken by the United States. Spain petitioned to have the slaves returned as property. Adams’ arguments were successful and the former slaves were free to return to Africa.

JQA was nicknamed “Old Man Eloquent” following a speech he gave castigating Daniel Webster for advocating too much power to the presidency. Even his enemies, the Democrats, loved this speech. Some of his writings regarding slavery were so inspiring, that Abraham Lincoln was said to have borrowed his ideas 30 years later.

Personal Life
JQA was harassed by his mother, Abigail, throughout her life. She constantly harangued him about improving his appearance and his slothful ways. Even when he was overseas with his father, she sent him letters of admonition. Nobody knows how this affected him, but when his mother lay on her deathbed in Quincy, JQA, now Secretary of State in Washington, did not go to her. He did not attend her funeral, either.

JQA was married to Louisa Catherine Johnson. She does not receive the historical attention of Martha Washington, Abigail Adams or Dolly Madison. However, she was a solid presence in his life and raised three sons.

He was plagued by depression throughout his life. The loss of two of his three sons -- one by suicide and the other by alcoholism — certainly didn’t help.

Was JQA the first (and maybe only) president with Asperger’s Syndrome? He was unquestionably one of the most brilliant of the presidents. He mastered anywhere from five to nine languages (accounts vary) including French, Dutch, Russian, Spanish, Italian, German, Greek, Latin, and of course English. Burleigh (2003) describes journalist Anne Royall’s first meeting with JQA. In Royall’s own words she writes: “He neither smiled nor frowned but regarded me with a calmness peculiar to him, awaited my business. He never smiled while I was in his company, it is a question with me whether he ever laughed in his life…”

ReferencesBurleigh, N. 2003. The Stranger and the Statesman: James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the Making of America’s Greatest Museum: The Smithsonian. RB Large Print. Prince Frederick, MD.

Nagel, P. 1997. John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, NY.

Remini, R.V. 2002. John Quincy Adams. Henry Holt and Company. New York, NY.

Philadelphia

Although we had gotten to know a little about our friends Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe; we felt that something was missing. We needed to see the place where these Founding Fathers had all gathered and created “the grand experiment” called America—we needed to visit America’s birthplace, Philadelphia. Since Cathy was attending her nephew’s first birthday in North Carolina, I, Tom, made the trip on my own.

Philadelphia is about 140 miles from our home in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, an easy 2.5 hour trip up I-95. The Philadelphia historical area is bordered by the Delaware River and 7th Street (east to west) and Race Street and Spruce Street (north to south). Since I had lived in Philadelphia in the late 1980’s, I knew my way around. I originally intended to save money by parking on the street but was not able to find a legal spot, so I opted for a parking garage. All day parking just outside the historical area was $17.50.

My main goal was to visit Independence Hall, since that is the place where both the Declaration of Independence AND the Constitution were conceived, created, and signed. So I headed immediately to the Independence Visitor Center to get my free entry ticket. But I got distracted as I walked down Chestnut Street.

The Signer
In a small park on Chestnut Street, right next to the Second Bank of the United States, stands a larger than life statue of a man of the Colonial era. He is called The Signer and he holds a document high overhead in one hand and flourishes a quill pen in the other. It is a dramatic pose.
I have always been interested in this statue. Why? Because when I lived in Philadelphia in the mid-1980s, I was friends with a man who claimed to be the model for The Signer. To this day, I don’t know if he was telling the truth. But he could strike The Signer’s pose dead on. That, and the date of the statue (1980) made me believe that his claim could be true. So I’ve decided that someone had to be the model for the statue, so why not him?

Independence Visitor Center
Once I had taken the obligatory shots of The Signer, I scurried off to the Independence Visitor Center to get a mandatory ticket to Independence Hall. Tickets are issued that allow entry to 80 people every fifteen minutes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., roughly 2,500 tickets per day. When I arrived at the Visitor Center it was 11:30 a.m. and they were running low on tickets. My brief stop at The Signer might cost me. When I got to the ticket counter, they had but five more tickets--I had made it with seconds to spare. However, I would have to wait until 4:30 for the tour. But that was no problem; I was happy just to get a ticket. Plus there are plenty of other sites to see.

The Visitor’s Center has two small movie theaters, both of which I visited. One shows a 20 minute film called Choosing Sides. The film describes four young characters of the Colonial period who must make decisions about their loyalties: a patriot, a loyalist, a Quaker, and the last can only be described as the fence sitter (but I can’t be sure since I fell asleep and missed this part.) The second theater shows a 30 minute film called Independence. Hollywood director, John Houston, is the director. The film begins as a zombie show as several key figures from the Revolutionary era literally return from the grave: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Rush. James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, is unjustly neglected and only has a cameo. For most of the film, the actors are bathed in a fog to represent the unholy act of the rising from the dead. Following the re-enactment of the signing of the Constitution, Ben Franklin returns to the grave with the mournful warning, “you have a Republic if you can keep it.”

Predidents' House
Just across the street from the Visitor’s Center is an open air exhibit on the site of the house that both Presidents Washington and Adams rented during 1790-1800 when the capital was in Philadelphia. They rented the house from Robert Morris, a wealthy patriot who sadly ended up in debtor’s prison. The exhibit sits atop the glass enclosed foundations of the original house, now 10 feet below street level. The house is but a five minute walk from where the Congress met in the Pennsylvania State House next to Independence Hall.

Strangely, the majority of the exhibit is devoted to the evils of slavery. I’m not sure why such an exhibit is located at that particular spot, but I guess it’s as good a spot as any to highlight this evil practiced by four of the first five presidents. The slavery exhibit focuses on the slaves owned by Washington and his wife, Martha. Under Pennsylvania’s “gradual emancipation” law at the time, slaves brought in from out of state could claim their freedom after six months. However, clever slave owners such as Washington, rotated their slaves out of state so that they could not claim their freedom. In addition, Washington signed the Fugitive Slave Act which required the return of slaves who crossed state lines.

One of the Washington’s slaves, a woman named Oney Judge, did manage to escape while in Philadelphia. President Washington had his steward, Frederick Kitt, run an advertisement for her capture. “Ten dollars will be paid to any person (white or black) who will bring her home….” (She was never caught and lived to a ripe old age in New Hampshire.)

Carpenter’s Hall
This relatively little known building is a must see. Not because of what it looks like, but because of the four major events that happened there. First, the First Continental Congress met here in the fall of 1774 to discuss their grievances against England following the passage of the so called Intolerable Acts. (The Intolerable Acts were a series of acts passed by Great Britain in response to the Boston Tea Party. These acts called for the closure of Boston Harbor, stronger control over the Massachusetts government, restrictions on the trials of royal officials, and quartering of troops in the homes of private citizens.) That Congress consisted of representatives from 12 of the 13 colonies. Georgia did not attend because they needed England’s help in dealing with their Indian problem at the time. This First Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Association, which restricted trade with England.

Second, in December of 1775, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, and Francis Daymon met with Julien Achard De Bonvouloir of France to discuss French military support for the Revolution. France, an avowed enemy of the British, was eager to assist the colonies. The meeting was held in tight secrecy because France, obviously, did not want the British to know of their possible involvement.

Third, in June of 1776, an “Extra-Legal Body” of Pennsylvania citizens declared the official Pennsylvania Assembly invalid and opted to join the other colonies in the fight against England.

And last, this building was the temporary site of the First Bank of the United States until the actual First Bank building was constructed a few blocks away. The original vaults still exist in the basement.

The building, which has been in continuous use for more than 230 years, still contains some original Windsor chairs from the First Continental Congress. The Carpenter’s Company, consisting of 180 professional in the building, engineering and architectural professions, still meets here.

First Bank of the United States
The First Bank of the United States is not open to the public so I could only admire it from the outside. The Romanesque building is a monument to Alexander Hamilton who fought hard for a national bank. The bank enabled the states to combine their Revolutionary War debt as well as create a common currency. The South resisted the notion of a Federal bank claiming it was unconstitutional. However, George Washington signed a bill chartering the bank in 1791.

Second Bank of the United States
Because the charter for the First Bank ran for only 20 years, it expired during the term of James Madison. It took another half decade and the accumulation of additional war debt (from the War of 812) to convince Congress to charter the Second Bank in 1816.

The Second Bank building, modeled on the Parthenon, was open. It is now a gallery containing the portraits of dozens of the major figures of the Revolution. A majority of the portraits are by Charles Wilson Peale but there are others by Gilbert Stuart and Thomas Sully. The building also contains a large statue of George Washington by William Rush. There is also a full length painting of Lafayette looking regal in his cape.

Old City Hall
The Old City Hall, located next to Independence Hall, housed the Supreme Court from 1791 until 1800. It looks much like the modern courtroom of today except for the prisoner’s box in the middle of the room. One of the park rangers remarked that many people think the first Chief Justice was John Marshall but it was, in fact, John Jay, the co-author of the Federalist. John Marshall actually argued a case here and lost. The only original furnishing remaining is the Chief Justice’s uncomfortable looking wooden chair.

Congress Hall (Old name: County Courthouse)
On the other side of Independence Hall is the County Courthouse, now called Congress Hall. It was in this building that Congress met for the first ten years of the new republic (1791 to 1800). Here also the First Bank of the United States was originally established (1791), the Navy established (1798), and the Alien and Sedition Acts passed (1798).

The House of Representatives met downstairs and the Senate met upstairs. The House of Representatives had a similar configuration to that of today with much room for mingling and listening to debates. The Senate Chamber upstairs is smaller but more impressive. The Great Seal of the United States, created in 1782, is painted on the ceiling. The eagle holds arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other. The eagle’s head faces toward the olive branch, symbolizing the United States’ preference for peace while always being prepared for war.

Great Essentials Exhibit
In the west wing of Independence Hall is the Great Essentials Exhibit which contains original copies of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. (I’m not sure what an “original copy” actually is.) The light is kept low to preserve the documents, making them difficult to view. However, it was nice to be so close to these historical documents. (No tickets are needed to view this part of Independence Hall.)

Independence Hall (Pennsylvania State House)
And then finally it was time to visit Independence Hall. All day I had been thanking my good fortune for snagging one of the last tickets for the tour. However, as I waited in the line to enter the building, I learned that the Park Service allows people without tickets to get in if the 80 person limit had not yet been reached during any quarter hour segment. During my tour, they let in about 50 people without tickets—so I could have easily scored a tour without a ticket.

Much of Independence Hall is original but it was reconstructed in 1828. It is currently undergoing renovation and the clock tower is covered in scaffolding.

The highlight of Independence Hall is the Assembly Room where the Second Continental Congress met from May 1775 until December 1776. In this room sat many of the same delegates as the First Continental Congress with the addition of such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. It was here that the Declaration of Independence was conceived. Our guide, Larry, said that Thomas Jefferson wrote ninety percent of the Declaration of Independence. (I was disappointed that he didn’t give credit to the other authors: John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Benjamin Franklin.) The Declaration was accepted here on July 4, 1776 and on July 8, John Nixon read the Declaration of Independence in State House Square (now called Independence Square). Following the reading the King’s coat of arms was burned.

That same summer, the Congress began work on the Articles of Confederation. This was a document that outlined the governing of the new states. It was put to the states for ratification in 1777 and passed by 1781. However, the Articles of Confederation was a weak document that only loosely regulated the states and did not allow for the collection of taxes. Without funding, the government could not operate.

In the summer of 1787, delegates from the 13 states met in this room to fix the Articles of Confederation. James Madison was successful in arguing that the Articles of Confederation needed to be replaced and not amended. This gathering became known as the Constitutional Convention. Notables from past Congresses, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were absent. However, James Madison convinced George Washington to attend and Washington was quickly elected as president of this Constitutional Convention. He sat in what later became known as the Rising Sun chair. The term was coined by Benjamin Franklin who pronounced the carving of the half sun on the back of the chair as a rising rather than a setting sun, representing the rising of the American republic. On the 17th of September 1787, the Constitution was signed by the delegates and put forward to the states for ratification. (The ratification was completed by June 1788.)

Following the tour, I asked Larry, who is African American, “What is the most meaningful thing for you ”? He said the most important thing for him was the Founders’ ability to compromise to move the Constitutional process forward. They realized that they would have to compromise on slavery or no deal on the Constitution was possible. They had to do the same with state’s rights, although I believe these two issues are closely linked. Larry was also taken by the amendment process that allowed the Constitution to accommodate new information and interests.

Liberty Bell Center
Because the long line of earlier in the day had disappeared, I made a quick stop at the Liberty Bell Center. (Hint: you can actually view the bell from the outside the building through a special window designed for the purpose.) Inside, a series of exhibits describes the history of the Liberty Bell and how it had been subsequently used world-wide as an icon for freedom. During World War Two, the Liberty Bell icon was prominent on Liberty Bonds used to raise money for the war effort. The bell, with its prominent crack, is placed at one end of the Center and is constantly guarded by a National Park ranger. (The bell was attacked by a person with a hammer not long ago.)

Final Thoughts
On Slavery. It is the human condition to view history backwards rather than forward. But sometimes we should try to view it from the perspective of those we study so that we can better understand their viewpoint. So, to understand the actions of the Founding Fathers we need to look at history from their perspective, not ours. Each was born into a pre-existing culture and were shaped by it, just as we are by ours.

The institution of slavery—principally to provide labor for plantations—was deeply entrenched in southern colonies when the Founders were born and raised. The Virginians—Washington, Jefferson, and Madison—were raised in this slave dependent culture while John Adams, whose father was a Massachusetts preacher, was not. Although the Founders were outraged enough to challenge the intolerable yoke of British oppression, most had no similar outrage against slavery. Most seemed to be disturbed by it, but not profoundly. They were unwilling to challenge slavery in any meaningful way.

One very important thing to remember is that the delegates from the southern colonies were immovable in their support for slavery. All the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were aware that—in the near term—there would be no challenging the concept of slavery without also destroying the creation of the Constitution.

On Memorial Day. Since it was Memorial Day weekend, Larry reminded us that owe our freedom to George Washington and his soldiers. That is a good ending to this day.

James Monroe, President No. 5 (1817-1825)
Ash Lawn 

It was a drizzly cool May day when we found ourselves yet again in the pursuit of another president — this time James Monroe. To see his plantation, Ash Lawn, we needed to retrace our steps from last January; Ash Lawn is just a few miles from Jefferson’s Monticello, outside Charlottesville, Virginia. (This is no coincidence, but more on that later.)

The admission was $12.00 for each adult ticket but they threw in a nice AAA discount of $1.00 for us. There is no museum per se at Ash Lawn, hence no movie to give us a sense of the man (and a chance to nap). There is a museum at his birthplace, just outside Fredericksburg, Va.

Note that the home has not always been called Ash Lawn. It was called Highland in Monroe’s day. Subsequent owners renamed it Ash Lawn for the majestic ash trees that line the entrance drive.

We were greeted at the house by Allison, a self-proclaimed history buff. She was extremely knowledgeable, but Tom had a hard time following her rapid-fire delivery. Cathy was forced into the note-taking role.

The first thing we learned is that the majority of the house is not from Monroe’s era. It is only the “white” portion of the home that is original. It consists of five rooms on a single floor.

As noted above, it is no coincidence that Monroe lived so close to Jefferson. He sought to live close to his friend (and father figure), who in fact selected the house site for Monroe. James and his wife, Elizabeth, occupied the house from 1799 to 1823 — except for their eight years in the White House.

What we would call the living room holds an original bust of Napoleon. The bust was a gift to Monroe, who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase with France while serving as Jefferson’s Minister to France.

The house has many portraits and paintings. Among them are portraits of Washington, Ben Franklin and a print of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – according to tour guide Allison, it was fashionable in the late 1700s and early 1800s to have those three pieces of art hanging in your house.

Highland was pretty small, compared with Monticello and Montpelier. So Monroe didn’t have many house guests. However, James and Dolly Madison, who lived about 30 miles away in Orange, were the first overnight guests. The Marquis de Lafayette also stayed with the Monroes, sleeping in a guest house near the main house. As Allison said, “Lafayette slept everywhere in Virginia.”

Under the house, we visited the kitchen. We learned that the Monroes were the first family in the U.S. to have a waffle iron. They also had a cookie press, which had George Washington’s likeness on it – Pillsbury would be jealous.

We also learned about tea bricks. Tea leaves were very expensive and tea bricks were much cheaper. Yes, they are bricks of tea. Kitchen help would grate off the tea leaves from the brick with something like a lemon grater and then put that into a tea cup. Each square is called a cachet, and each cachet would make 20 cups of tea.

Outside the house, we wandered the rather small but nice grounds and eventually found ourselves in the old ice house. There another guide, Gerald, was giving a lecture on Monroe’s role in the expansion of the United States. Monroe negotiated the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million while serving as Jefferson’s Minister to France.

Who was James Monroe?
Monroe held more political offices than any other U.S. president: Virginia state delegate, member of the Continental Congress, U.S. senator, ambassador to France, Virginia governor, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and, of course, President.

Throughout his life James Monroe preferred to be called Colonel. He was the first veteran since Washington to be elected president. His Revolutionary War credentials are deep. In December 1776, he crossed the Delaware twice with General Washington--first as a scout and second as a combatant. He was wounded in the Battle of Trenton the next day. He also joined General Washington at the infamous winter at Valley Forge (1777-1778).

Monroe began his political life in 1782 when he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly. He served at the Confederation Congress in Philadelphia from 1783 to 1786.

Allison told us that Monroe is the only person to be fired by two different presidents. He was fired by President Washington for favoring the French too much when John Jay was negotiating “Jay’s Treaty” with Great Britain. Monroe loved France and hated Britain, which obviously was an issue when negotiating treaties and walking a fine line between the two countries, which were constantly quarreling--and the U.S. hadn’t decided yet whose side to take in their spats.

Monroe also was fired by President Jefferson for not negotiating a favorable treaty over Britain’s impressment of American sailors. Monroe had actually negotiated a treaty with Britain in 1806 that would have ended the slave trade in both countries, but Jefferson didn’t like the language regarding the impressment issue. Britain agreed to stop taking American sailors, but the treaty didn’t explicitly say that Britain “didn’t have the right to take” American sailors. Jefferson was furious and refused to send it to the Senate for ratification.

Monroe also served as Secretary of State under President Madison and later was appointed to the second position of Secretary of War.

James Monroe was the last Founding Father to be elected President. He was first elected as President in 1816 and was re-elected in 1820. He is the only president besides George Washington to run unopposed. However, he lost one vote in the electoral college when an elector from New Hampshire voted for John Quincy Adams—the next U.S. president—instead.

Monroe had many legacies in his two terms as president, some large, some small.

His first legacy is probably the expansion of the U.S. during his two terms in office. As president, he bought Florida and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana from the Spanish for $5 million.

He was a tireless proponent of national security and reached treaties with every major power. He convinced Congress to fund a system of coastal fortifications and built forts all along the coasts to protect the U.S. from foreign enemies. He also secured the border with Canada, which was owned by Britain. He vowed never to allow the United States to be attacked as it had been by the British during the War of 1812 when they were able to easily reach Washington, DC and burn it.

In 1820, President Monroe faced the so-called Missouri Compromise, a bill that allowed Missouri to join the Union as a slave state but restricted slavery in future states that were located above latitude 36°30′ north. This was 30 years after the Compromise of 1790 that located the nation’s capital in the slave holding south in exchange for the establishment of the First United States Bank. These compromises were leading inexorably toward the Civil War.

It is prescient that during the contentious Congressional debates, Georgia Congressman Thomas W. Cobb screamed at New York Congressman James Tallmadge, Jr. that “if you persist, the Union will be dissolved. You have kindled a fire which all the waters of the ocean cannot put out, which seas of blood can only extinguish.” Tallmadge replied: “ Let it come!” And it would…40 years later (May, 2008).

His most enduring legacy is the Principles of 1823, which later became known as the Monroe Doctrine. These were actually three paragraphs in a speech he gave to Congress in December 1823. He thought the U.S. was too weak to fight lots of wars, so he thought a policy of sticking to affairs in the Western Hemisphere would be advantageous to the fledgling country. As well, South American countries were declaring their independence from Spain and Portugal and he wanted to keep them secure from recolonization. Essentially he told Europe to stay the heck out of the of the Americas and the United States would stay the heck out of Europe. (Not that the United States was actually powerful enough to do much in Europe.) (Historians are divided on how much of the Monroe Doctrine is attributable to Monroe and how much to his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams.)

But other small legacies are important, too. For example, he was the first president to make rules about where people sat at dinner in the White House, a European custom. And his daughter Maria Hester was the first presidential daughter to be married in the White House.

Monroe struggled financially his entire life. Plantations were not big money makers, and Monroe suffered when tobacco prices dived. He did try to diversify, and ran a quarry, grist mill, blacksmith shop and added a sheep farm. He also started switching to wheat when tobacco prices fell. And one of his slaves was a spinner, who was able to make lots of money for Monroe with her woven goods.

But he was able to acquire a lot of land out west in poker games, since land often was used as payment. And he was able to exchange land grants for items he wanted to buy for the house.

Yes, we continue to be amazed by the lack of financial acumen by the Founding Fathers. Although Allison told us that Jefferson was actually a great financial adviser, though he was deeply in debt when he died.

Jefferson’s death affected Monroe, particularly the fact that Monticello and all of Jefferson’s belongings had to be auctioned off because he was so deeply in debt. At that point, Monroe started trying to get his financial house in order. Still, his son-in-law had to sell all of Monroe’s 3,000 books – and all of his slaves -- when he died.

It is worth noting that in the early days of the United States, the pay for public service was not high and public servants were required to pay much of their expenses out of pocket. According to Hart (2005), Monroe petitioned Congress and several presidents for unpaid expenses. His entreaties were largely ignored and he died destitute.

Following our tour we asked Allison her impressions of Monroe. She said that she was aware that many people think Monroe did whatever Jefferson and Madison told him to do. But she believes that he was very much his own man—although admittedly a better administrator and delegator than intellectual thinker.

Monroe’s French Connection
Monroe loved France, and you can tell by looking around his house. The design of the house, which was built by Jefferson, is French. Much of the décor inside is French, including the French wallpaper, which many rich colonists used to convey their status to guests. And Monroe’s French-designed serving pieces are in the White House. Monroe and his family were the only Americans to attend Napoleon’s coronation as Emperor of France in 1804. This is no coincidence since Monroe’s daughter, Eliza, was close friends with the daughter of Empress Josephine, Hortense, from a previous marriage.

Monroe was in quandary the first time he went to Paris. The French Revolution was underway, Robespierre had been to the guillotine, and the Republic had taken over. He didn’t know who to present his official diplomatic papers to, so he presented them to the Assembly, which was a first. (The French turmoil was advantageous to Monroe and Elizabeth, though – the Republic needed money and was auctioning off Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s possessions at Versailles, so the Monroes were able to buy lots of French stuff at a discount.)

Monroe and Slavery
Monroe did the most of the Founding Fathers to end slavery, but he never freed any himself.

He had about 30 slaves on his plantation doing everything from working the tobacco crops to spinning yarn and making candles. He, like Jefferson, thought slavery was evil but couldn’t figure out how to deal with it.

The big hang-up, apparently, was that he and other politically active slave-owners thought it was the state’s responsibility to pay landowners for freeing the slaves since the slaves were considered property. He also believed that freeing the slaves would lead to a never-ending race war. (While governor of Virginia, he quashed a planned 1800 slave revolt and had 26 slaves hanged including the instigator, Gabriel Prosser.)

The United States abolished the slave trade in 1808 when Monroe was Secretary of State under Madison. However, the law allowed states to decide what to do with any slaves captured from slave ships sailing from Africa caught off the states’ shores. And since slaves were valuable, selling slaves quickly became a good way for states to make money. Rhode Island, for example, was a big slave-trading state. And many New England states traded slaves down to the Caribbean since they didn’t allow slavery themselves.

And as the country expanded south and west, slaves became more valuable in those areas, where new and successful crops were being grown, such as cotton and sugar cane. Slaves sometimes were sold in New Orleans and Georgia for twice what they would go for in Virginia.

In fact, Monroe had a problem with slaves trying to run away. So he threatened to sell them to landowners in New Orleans, which had a much higher death rate than Virginia.

Skin color also determined the value of a female slave – the lighter skin the better, particularly in New Orleans. Why? Because light-skinned slaves could be used for prostitution.

And of course female slaves were more valuable than male slaves for the obvious reason that they could produce offspring. But also, their jobs were year-round since they did the kitchen and house work. Men worked the fields, but not in the winter.

Although Monroe never freed his own slaves, he did support the American Colonization Society, which established Liberia in West Africa as a place for freed slaves to colonize. Its capital was named Monrovia in his honor.

References

Hart, G. 2005. James Monroe. Henry Holt and Company. New York, NY.

May, G.  2008.  John Tyler.  Henry Holt and Company.  New York, NY. 

Unger, H.G. 2009. The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness. Da Capo Press. Philadelphia, PA.

James Madision

President No. 3 (1809-1817)
Montpelier The day after we toured Monticello, we were off to Montpelier, James Madison's estate in nearby Orange County. Now, Cathy is a graduate of James Madison University, in relatively nearby Harrisonburg, so she was particularly looking forward to this visit, since she never did a road trip during college.

Montpelier is in Orange, about 45 minutes outside Charlottesville, Va., on Route 20. Because the ground contains a horse race track as well as the mansion and visitor center, they collect the $16 entrance fee immediately upon entering the property.

We started off at the visitor’s center with a movie on the life of James Madison, our fourth president and also the father of the Bill of Rights.

Note: We highly recommend watching the visitor center films on your tours of the presidential estates. Tour guides have time to only tell you so much, and films are able to fill in many of the gaps.

Following the film, we walked over to the mansion about 5 minutes away and were met by Bob Davis, our tour guide, and two other visitors from South Carolina. (Note: A big advantage to visiting in the winter is that it is not crowded.)

The Mansion Montpelier has just undergone a five-year, $24 million renovation in which the mansion was brought back to its original size, and it now represents the house when the Madisons lived there, not when the DuPont family lived there and expanded upon it.

Currently, the house is devoid of furnishings — it looks like a house for sale where the owners have already moved out.

It seems Dolly Madison sold most of the house's contents as well as the house itself after the death of her husband to help drum in some quick cash. Archivists are now searching to find the original pieces or at the least to learn what types of furnishings were in the house so that they can purchase or build copies. They have had limited success, though, and the success they have had — red velvet wallpaper for the dining room, for example — has not come cheap.

One piece of furniture that historians are sure Madison used was a “campeachy chair.” This low-slung brown chair was a comfort to Madison, who suffered from severe rheumatism for most of his life. (It was a comfort to us as well: We found a replica of this surprisingly comfortable chair in a warm sunny room and Cathy used the opportunity to grab a quick nap. You'll notice a trend — we tend to sneak in a nap on most of our presidential visits. Don't even ask about art museums, but let's just say that any nice, dark film room in an art museum is visited early and often.)

Upstairs, gazing out on the Shenandoah Mountains from Madison's study, Bob pointed to dark spots on the wooden floor that he said were likely ink spots and might indicate where Madison’s desk had been. It was in this room that Madison reviewed the pros and cons of different governmental systems and developed the Virginia Plan prior to attending the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

In another upstairs room is a cutaway of one of the walls that showed the renovation nicely. When the archivists were working on the walls, they found mouse nests that contained pieces of paper from Madison's time — a most valuable finding, indeed.

His Life Montpelier already belonged to the Madison family when James was born in 1751. Like Jefferson, Madison was a bibliophile. He read all of his father’s books by the age of 11. Madison attended college at the far off College of New Jersey, now known as Princeton. (Unlike the other Virginian presidents, he did not go to nearby William and Mary.)

Constitutional Convention James Madison is considered the pivotal figure in the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787 to find a way to strengthen the confederation of states as outlined in the Articles of Confederation.

How did historians come to this conclusion?

--First, Madison was key in persuading George Washington to attend the convention. He (and others) believed that without Washington’s involvement, the public would not accept the results. --Second, prior to attending the Constitutional Convention, he spent the spring of 1787 studying world governments to learn what did and didn’t work. From his research, he developed the Virginia Plan.
--Third, Madison persuaded the Virginia delegation and eventually all of the delegates to throw out, and not merely amend, the Articles of Confederation.
--Fourth, Madison was the only delegate to attend every meeting of the Constitutional Convention.
--Fifth, Madison, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay wrote The Federalist, a series of 85 newspaper articles that explained to the public the reasons for the Constitution.
--And finally, Madison led Virginia to ratify the Constitution over the objections of the brilliant orator Patrick Henry.

Bill of Rights Madison eventually came to the view that the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government. In 1789, he penned a series of amendments to the Constitution, of which the first 10 became known as the Bill of Rights. These include the freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, the freedom from self-incrimination, etc., that we know so well. In 1791, the amendments were ratified under the rules set forth in the Constitution.

Dolly Madison Madison did not marry until well after the Constitutional Convention in 1794 at the age of 43. He married a much younger Quaker widow, 26-year-old Dolly, having been introduced to her by — the not yet infamous — Aaron Burr. Dolly was taller than the 5-foot-4, 100 pound Madison.

Dolly was a popular extrovert and part of the reason for Madison’s political success. Our tour guide told us that one of Madison’s opponents said he could have beaten Madison alone but not the two together.

Political Life While Madison served in the House of Representative, he was an ally and confidant of President Washington. However, over time their political philosophies diverged as Madison aligned with Jefferson’s Republican views of limited central government. Later he served as President Jefferson’s Secretary of State for two terms, including during the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

Madison, the Republican Madison's conversion to Republicanism is odd since he was a staunch Federalist at the time he wrote the Federalist with Hamilton. Author Joseph Ellis suggests that the reason that Madison and Jefferson became so opposed to the Federalists was because of slavery. They saw the power of the federal government after Hamilton set up a national bank (the Bank of the United States) to consolidate national finances and absorb state war debt. They feared that if the government could do set up a national bank, it also could also abolish slavery. And as planters and plantation owners, they could not see any way to run the Virginia economy without slavery.

Madison held dozens slaves at this plantation. Our guide, Bob, said that he treated his slaves well and that they attended Madison's funeral. However, we spied this rather telling sign at the mansion: “These last few days I saw a Negro ninety-five years old engaged in splitting wood. He belongs to President Madison.” — Baron de Montlezun, 1816.

We also read a sign describing how Madison had brought one of his slaves, Billey, to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention. Following the Convention, Madison declined to return Billey to the plantation because he was afraid that the Billey would advocate the idea of freedom to the other slaves. Madison said, “I am persuaded that his mind is too thoroughly tainted to be a fit companion for fellow slaves in Virginia.” He ended up selling Billey in Pennsylvania. Madison thought his action justifiable since he didn’t get as much money as he could have elsewhere and because in Pennsylvania a slave could be held only for seven years.

Presidency Madison was elected president in 1808 and served two terms. The War of 1812 occurred on Madison’s watch. The main issue was that Britain was stopping American ships and kidnapping what they claimed were British deserters and “impressing” them into service on British ships. (British sailors worked under notoriously harsh conditions.) The war went on until 1815 and featured naval engagements on the Great Lakes, the burning of the White House, the writing of the “Star Spangled Banner” during the bombardment of Ft. McHenry, and Andrew Jackson’s heroic defense of New Orleans (after the peace treaty had already been signed).

Later Life The “Sage of Montpelier” retired to his plantation in 1817. With the help of Dolly, he spent his time editing his notes from the Constitutional Convention. Since the meetings were held in secret, his Notes on the Debates of the Federal Constitution notes represent his version of the events of the time.

Madison died in 1836 at the age of 85, the last of the Founding Fathers to die. After Madison died, the much younger Dolly wore black mourning clothes for the rest of her life. She died deeply in debt and had to sell off much of Montpelier. Some of this was due to the profligacy of Payne Todd, her son from her first marriage.

We find it troubling that both Jefferson and Madison managed to become so deeply in debt. For all of their political acumen, they couldn’t seem to manage their household finances.

Place in History For his masterful accomplishments at the Constitutional Convention, Madison is relatively unheralded. We wonder how much of this is due to recent (say last 100 years) publicity and promotion. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation has been around since 1923 and has the advantage of funding from thousands of descendants. Montpelier was owned by the DuPonts until 1984 and was not fully transferred to the Montpelier Foundation until 2000. In addition, Madison and Dolly had no children — hence no descendants.

We should always remember that in the absence of irrefutable evidence, history is interpreted and shaped by those who were born after historical events. For example, the simple phrase “Founding Fathers” did not even exist until coined by Warren G. Harding in 1916. Somehow we always thought the term was used immediately after the Constitutional Convention.

It was interesting to also learn that some of the tour guides think that the Montpelier Foundation is not promoting the Constitution as well as it could at this important time in our history. In recent months, the Tea Party movement has been pushing the strict interpretation of the Constitution. In fact, the week before we visited Montpelier, the incoming House of Representatives read the entire Constitution on the chamber floor. (However, they left out some parts that have been amended, effectively removing any mention of slavery. This is disturbing since the reading becomes part of the Congressional Record.)

References
Ellis, J. 2000. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, New York.

Ellis, J. 2007. American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, New York.

Wills, G. 2002. James Madison. Henry Holt and Company. New York, New York.