James Monroe Archives - Journal of the American Revolution

People Posted on November 29, 2022

Thomas Paine on Popular Government in America: Evolution of a Radical’s Thinking

It would be hard to find a more strident, vocal supporter of popular government during America’s founding period than Thomas Paine. The proposals put forth in his January 1776 pamphlet Common Sense for an “unmixed” and unchecked democratic scheme for America, designed to replace the British arrangement of balanced and mixed powers of King, Lords […]

by Jett Conner

People Posted on October 6, 2022October 4, 2022

“Characters Pre-eminent for Virtue and Ability”: The First Partisan Application of the Electoral College

Scholars typically cast the outcome of the second presidential election as either a forgone conclusion or a non-event.[1] After all, George Washington ran unchallenged and once again received unanimous support from the Electoral College.[2] Shifting academic focus from the first magistrate to the second, however, reframes the 1792 contest as a struggle for the soul […]

by Shawn David McGhee

People Posted on January 4, 2022January 3, 2022

An Absent Clause: The Exclusion of Madison’s 16th Amendment

A separation of powers is a defining structural feature of the federal government established by the United States Constitution, yet an explicit statement of the concept exists nowhere in the document. If James Madison had had his way there indeed would have been a clause pronouncing the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches to be distinct […]

by Phoenix Dalto

People Posted on September 9, 2021September 7, 2021

A Donkey, A Suit, and a Quixote for George Washington

At the beginning of March 1777, Arthur Lee, a delegate to the United States Congress, urgently requested to meet with the Marquis de Grimaldi, who until just a few weeks before had been the Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs of King Carlos III of Spain, and who was now on his way to take […]

by Elisa Vargas

People Posted on September 4, 2021September 3, 2021

This Week on Dispatches: John A. Ruddiman on James Monroe’s America Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews John A. Ruddiman, Associate Professor of History at Wake Forest University, on his recent article about James Monroe’s military experience during the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the […]

by Editors

People Posted on August 12, 2021August 11, 2021

“A Mere Youth:” James Monroe’s Revolutionary War

Late in his life, after retiring the presidency, James Monroe drafted his own history. He was still struck, five decades after the War for Independence, by the “high character of that epoch and of those in whose hands its destiny fell.” He looked back and saw that war as “a school of practical instruction . […]

by John A. Ruddiman

People Posted on June 24, 2021June 21, 2021

When War Came to the Thompson-Neely Farmstead

Gen. George Washington did not sleep here but many of his soldiers did—that is, on the grounds or nearby. The historic site known today as the Thompson-Neely house and farmstead is located in upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and is a featured attraction of Washington Crossing Historic Park (WCHP). In fact, it is the historic focal […]

by David Price

People Posted on May 26, 2020May 21, 2020

Presidential Power: Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and the Louisiana Purchase

In 1813, Thomas Jefferson received a letter from Marguerite Brazier Bonneville, a French emigre and Thomas Paine’s former caretaker. Bonneville asked the former president if she could publish Paine and Jefferson’s correspondence. Paine had left most of his estate including all of his personal papers to her in his will when he died in 1809. […]

by Jett Conner

People Posted on May 27, 2019May 24, 2019

The Annapolis Convention of 1786: A Call for a Stronger National Government

Speaking at South Carolina’s ratification convention in 1788, Charles Pinckney derided the Articles of Confederation as a “miserable, feeble mockery of government.” Pinckney was a young but significant figure at the Constitutional Convention along with his cousin Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. While coastal South Carolinians, rooted in Charleston, were likely to prevail in support of the […]

by Jason Yonce

People Posted on January 31, 2013August 28, 2016

James Monroe: Bona Fide Hero of the American Revolution

“It may be doubted whether so small a number of men ever employed so short a space of time with greater and more lasting effects upon the history of the world.” -British Historian George Otto Trevelyan After firing-off a few ineffectual shots, the Hessian pickets turned tail and bolted south into the small town of […]

by Rick Britton

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