land, to propose measures dishonorable and schismatic. Mr. Madison brought this thing at once before Congress, without preferring any complaint to the British govern• ment. The effect was to inflame the American people against England, and to screw up the public mind to that pitch requisite to overlook the risk and expenses of the war.

During the invasion of the capital by the British, the president retired into Virginia, and, for the time, established the government at Fredericktown, when he issued a proclamation calling upon all to unite their energies, in giving effect to the ample means possessed for "chastising and expelling the invader."

On the 17th of February, 1815, the president and Senate ratified the treaty of Ghent, and thus were freed from the horrors of a war declared just two years and eight months before. This event was followed by commercial treaties between the two countries on equitable terms. But English commodities. were thus brought into successful competition with American manufactures. These demanded protection, and the president, jealous of the decline of manufactures, through British rivalry, soon recommended in his messages prohibitory measures and conservative duties.

The expiration of his second term in the office of president now arrived, and Mr. Madison retired altogether from public life, and passed the remainder of his days in a dignified and honorable retirement, living in the strictest privacy at his seat in Montpelier, Virginia.

In August, 1839, he wrote an admirable and conclusive letter on the agitated topic of nullification. It was addressed to Mr. Edward Everett, of Massachusetts. It indicates a familiarity with the constitution peculiar to him, and is worthy to be impressed upon the mind and heart of every citizen.

During the latter part of his life, Mr. Madison was associated with Mr. Jefferson in the institution of the University of Virginia, and, after his decease, was placed at its head, with the title of rector. He was also president of an agricultural society in the county of his residence.

Thus did he occupy his declining years. And on the

and

anniversary of the day on which the Virginia Convention ratified the adoption of the constitution, of which JAMES MADISON was the father, this philosopher, statesman, patriot, sunk without a struggle to the grave, and his soul became a resident in the " spirit land." He died at his seat in Montpelier, Virginia, on the 21st day of June, 1836, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. Peace to his memory!

JAMES MONROE.

JAMES MONROE, the fifth president of the United States, was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, September, 1759. His ancestors had for many years resided in the province where he was born.

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When the colonies declared themselves a free and independent nation, James Monroe, now in his seventeenth year, was completing his classical education at the College of William and Mary. His youth precluded him from an active participation in the controversies which agitated the country. But upon the first formation of the American army, young Monroe, then only eighteen years of age, left college, repaired to General Washington's head-quarters at New York, and enrolled himself as a cadet in the regiment commanded by Colonel Mercer. The young cadet espoused the cause of his injured country with a firm determination to live or die with her struggle for liberty. He shared all the defeats and privations which attended the footsteps of the army of Washington, through the disastrous battles of Flatbush, Haerlem Heights, and White Plains. He was present at the subsequent evacuation of New York and Long Island, at the surrender of Fort Washington, and the retreat through the Jerseys. After having participated in the adversities of the gallant defenders of his country, he rejoiced with them in great and unexpected success.

At the battle of Trenton, he led the vanguard, and in the act of charging upon the enemy, he received a wound in his left shoulder, the scar of which remained until his death. He was promoted a captain of infantry, served, during the campaigns of 1777 and 1778, as aid-de-camp in

the staf of Lord Stirling, and endeavored to collect a regiment for the Virginia line, which was recommended by Washington, and authorized by the state legislature. This did not succeed. He then entered the office of Mr. Jefferson, at that time governor of Virginia, and pursued the study of the common law. He served as a volunteer during the two years of his legal pursuits.

In 1782, he entered upon a different field of action, as the supporter of a system of laws in a government he had fought and bled to establish. During this year, he was elected, by King George county, a member of the legisla ture of Virginia, and by that body elevated to a seat in the executive council.

On the 9th of June, 1783, he was chosen a member of Congress, and on the 13th of December took his seat at Annapolis; the same day on which, at the same place, the illustrious leader of the victorious revolutionary army resigned his commission. For three years he was a useful member of the confederate Congress, and retired from Congress at the expiration of this term, as, by the articles of confederation, no one was allowed to serve more than three years in six. About this time, he formed a matrimonial alliance with Miss Kortwright, of New York city, a lady celebrated for her beauty and conversational powers, whose external accomplishments, however, were surpassed by those of her mind, and those endearing qualities of the heart which cheer the gloom of existence.

In 1787, he established himself in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and, in 1788, he was chosen a member of the Virginia Convention to decide upon the federal constitution. He opposed its adoption in the form presented, proposing sundry amendments. Upon the death of the Honorable William Grayson, in December, 1789, Mr. Monroe was chosen to fill the vacancy thus occasioned in the Senate of the United States, which he filled until 1794. Hle favored the objects of the French revolution, and violently opposed President Washington's proclamation. of neutrality. At the expiration of his senatorial office, he was appointed minister plenipotentiary to France. lle was received in that country with splendid ceremony by the National Convention, as one who strongly

favored the revolution. At the close of Washington's administration he was recalled On his return to the United States, he published a work, in explanation of his own opinions and proceedings, in an octavo volume of four hundred and seven pages.

At a subsequent period, with the true nobility of a mind which disdains to cherish preconceived opinions if erroneous, he cast off all remembrance of past animosity, and harmonized in an entire and perfect veneration of the character and policy of Washington.

In 1799, Mr. Monroe was elected governor of Virginia, which office he filled three years. He was appointed, on the 11th of January, 1803, envoy extraordinary to France, and in April of the same year minister plenipotentiary to England. The next year, he was appointed minister to Spain, in connection with Mr. William Pinckney, for the purpose of settling a disputed question of boundary. He remained at Madrid five months. From thence he returned to London, where, in 1806, he was joined by Mr. Pinckney. Their mission ended in 1807, when they returned home. For a little while he enjoyed uninterrupted quiet, but, in 1808, was again elected to the office of governor of Virginia, served three years, and, in 1811, was appointed, by President Madison, secretary of state. Üpen the resignation of the secretary of war, Mr. Monroe discharged voluntarily all the duties of the war department, beside his own, He was regularly appointed secretary of war in 1814. He devoted his energies to that exclusive department until the return of peace, then reassumed the office of secretary of state, by appointment, and continued therein until the close of Madison's administration.

On the 5th of March, 1817, Mr. Monroe was inaugurated president of the United States. Among the early appointments of the president, was Mr. John Quincy Adams, as secretary of state. About the 1st of June, the president left Washington on a tour through the states, which elicited a most general expression of kindness, respect, and courtesy. After the session of Congress held 1817-18, the president left Washington, accompanied by the secretaries of war and the navy, to survey the Chesapeake Bay, and the country lying on its extensive shores, most exposed

to the invasions of an enemy. At the close of his first term, President Monroe was reëlected by a unanimous vote, with the single exception of one electoral vote in New Hampshire, which was for J. Q. Adams. This indicated the confidence of a free people in their president. The administration of Mr. Monroe closed on the 3d of March, 1825. He retired to his residence in Loudon county, Virginia, where he discharged the ordinary judicial functions of a magistrate, and also of the curator of the University of Virginia. In the winter of 1829-30, he served as a member of the Convention called to revise the constitution of Virginia. He was unanimously chosen to preside; but, before the close of the labors of the Convention, he was compelled to retire, because of severe illness. The ensuing summer, he was bereaved by death of his beloved partner. Soon after this, he removed to New York city, where the flickering lamp of life held out its lingering flame, until the dawning of the glorious day of a nation's birth and glory, when the soldier and the statesman was folded in the embrace of death, on the 4th of July, 1831, aged seventy-two years.

"Such was the man who presents the only example of one whose public life commenced with the war of independence, and is identified with all the important events of our history, for a full half century."

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, the sixth president, was born 1767. His ancestors resided in America from 1630, near a century and a half before the revolution. Thus early rooted in the soil, a warm attachment to the cause and rights of America has been, from generation to generation, the birthright of the family. The principles of American independence and freedom were instilled into the mind of John Quincy in the very dawn of his existence.

From the eleventh year of his age, until the eighteenth, he resided for the most part in Europe, having accompanied his father when appointed as a joint commissioner to France, with Franklin and Lee. When only fourteen