VALHALLA Published by The Annual Staff JAMES MONROE HIGH SCHOOL Sepulveda, Californ:a 19GO Volume II
DEDICATION This year we dedicate our yearbook to a giant among men statesman, patriot, educator and Virgin:a aristocrat- the man whose name our school proudly bearsJAMES MONROE James Monroe mingled with the acknowledged greats of the post-revolutionary period: Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Calhoun, Lafayette, and John Quincy Adams, names regarded as emblematic of the courage and daring of those days of fateful insurrection and inspired leadership. These were men whose powerful logic and compell'ng belief in the merit of their cause inshgated a revolution doomed to defeat by sheer improbability. These were men who could, and did, accomplish the impossible-a complement of great minds and rare individuals, Monroe among them, who found themselves brought together as if by predestinat.on to establish a nation of free men upon a virgin continent. James Monroe was born April 28, 1758 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, of Scotch and Welsh descent and, like other great men in history, he began early in life to train for his future; he was never too tired or busy to take on a new task. In his old age Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, revisited the United States and was warmly received. It was as a boy of sixteen, after having left William and Mary College to join the Revolutionary war, that he first distinguished himself in battle. By the time Monroe was nineteen he had been through the campa:gns of Trenton, Brandywine, and Germantown, proving in every instance to be a brave and sensible officer. At the conclusion of the war he retired from the army and turned to law. He studied under Thomas Jefferson, Governor of Virginia, who was impressed with this perceptive student and was hereafter one of Monroe's staunchest friends. With the revolution over, politicians were frantically regrouping to seize the governmental reins of the new republic, and, in the flurry, Monroe found himself elected to the Virginia Assembly. When Monroe was only twenty-three, his fellow assemblymen nominated him to represent Virginia at the Constitutional Congress of 1781. During the next nine years, Monroe helped establish the constitut:onal committee. He then returned to his native state to serve on the Virginia Constitutional Convention. It was after this, in 1790, that he served as a United States Senator, garnering such respect for his decisive cction on political matters that the people of Virginia reciprocated by electing him to the Gubernatorial S':)at in 1795. He continued to be so popular with the people that he served as Governor for four terms. He f:nally withdrew from the post to fulfill an appointment as Secretary of State to James Madison. During this period James Monroe also served as Secretary of War and as Envoy Extraordinary to France, Spai'1 and England. It was while serving as diplomatic rep:esentative to France that he was prevailed upon to negotiate with the unpredictable French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, for an immense land area known as the Louisiana Territory. Further complicating the already difficult mission, Jefferson asked that Monroe operate within a shroud of secrecy, thus not alerting the opposition that doubtless would have attacked his action as "unconstitutional," thereby losing forever the incomparable opportunity offered the territoriallyrestricted nation. ILLINOIS 1818 MAINE 1820 MISSISSIPPI 1817 MISSOURI 1821 £81 FLORIDA TERRITORY ESTABLISHED 1822 In 1816. James Monroe was elected fifth President of the United States on the Republican ticket. During his presidential tenure Monroe was called upon to mediate and advise on the settlement of Liberia, to lead in the negotiation with Spain which resulted in the acqusition of Florida, and to spearhead the compromise with Britain which established once and for all the unalterable boundary between the United States and the Canadian Province. Unhampered by partisian bickering and dissension in the ERA OF GOOD FEELING, Monroe formulated and, with a monumental stroke of statesmanship, announced the Doctrine which now bears his name The Monroe Doctrine stated that no enemy from Europe would be permitted by the United States to molest or disturb the independence of South America. Monroe's administrations saw five new states and a new territory admitted. There were now 24 states in the Union. 5
6 Bitter debates ended with the Missouri Compromise, admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. An administration of eight years, one of the most dignified and successful in history, stood behind Monroe, and with his departure from the presidency and the battleground of international relations, James Monroe left a stronger, more prosperous nation, a nation reaffirmed in the ideals of democracy and respected among sister states. Further evidence of the tireless will of a lover of freedom, was a political edifice of safe, united and free countries, an entire hemisphere united in a brotherhood of strength and freedom. The precepts of the Monroe Doctrine insured this brotherhood. No man before or since the time of James Monroe has left a more outstanding record of duty to his country. He held more offices than any president past or present. He served as an officer in the Continental Army, as a member of the Executive Council of the Virginia Legislature, a member of the Continental Congress, a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention, United States Senator, American Envoy to France, England and Spain, negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase, Governor of Virginia for four terms, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, twice as President of the United States, and last of all as Regent of the University of Virginia. James Monroe was an extraordinary man in the history of our country. Five years to the day after the death of Adams and Jefferson, James Monroe's earthly triumphs and struggles ceased in 1831 on the fifty-fifth anniversary of the birth of his beloved country-the fourth of July. The Monroe Doctrine proclaimed the independence of the Americas from further rule or other domination by Europe.
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