In 1794, he married Mrs. Dorothy Todd, a young widow lady, whose bright intelligence and fascinating manners were to gain her celebrity as one of the most remarkable women who ever presided over the domestic arrangements of the Presidential Mansion.

Of a weak and delicate constitution, and with the habits of a student, Mr. Madison would have preferred peace to war. But even he lost patience at the insults heaped upon the young Republic by it ancient mother; and when, at length, on the 18th of June, 1812, Congress declared war against Great Britain, he gave the declaration his official sanction, and took active steps to enforce it. Though disasters in the early part of the war greatly strengthened the Federal party, who were bitterly opposed to hostilities, the ensuing Presidential canvass resulted in the re-election of Mr. Madison by a large majority, his competitor, De Witt Clinton, receiving eighty-nine electoral votes to one hundred and twenty-eight for Madison. On the 12th of August, 1814, a British army took Washington, the President himself narrowly esca ping capture. The Presidential Mansion, the Cap itol, and all the public buildings were wantonly burned. The 14th of December following, a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent, in which, however, England did not relinquish her claim to the right of search. But as she has not since attempted to exercise it, the question may be regarded as having been finally settled by the contest.

On the 4th of March, 1817, Madison's second term having expired, he withdrew to private life at his paternal home of Montpelier, Orange County, Va. During his administration, two new States had been added to the Union, making the total number at this period nineteen. The first to claim admittance was Louisiana, in 1812. It was formed out of the Southern portion of the vast Territory, purchased, during the Presidency of Jefferson, from France. Indiana-the second State-was admitted in 1816.

After his retirement from office, Mr. Madison passed nearly a score of quiet years at Montpelier. With Jefferson, who was a not very distant neighbor, he co-operated in placing the Charlottesville University upon a substantial foundation. In 1829, he left his privacy to take part in the Convention which met at Richmond to revise the Constitution of the State. His death took place on the 28th of June, 1836, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.

M

JAMES MONROE.

ADISON'S successor in the Presidential chair was James Monroe, whose Admin

istration has been called ".the Era of Good Feeling," from the temporary subsidence at that time of party strife. He was a son of Spence Monroe, a planter. He was born on his father's

plantation in Westmoreland County, Va., on the 28th of April, 1758. At the age of sixteen he entered William and Mary College; but when, two years later, the Declaration of Independence called the Colonies to arms, the young collegian, dropping his books, girded on his sword, and entered the service of his country. Commissioned a lieutenant, he took part in the battles of Harlem Heights and White Plains. In the attack on Trenton he was wounded in the shoulder, and for his bravery promoted to a captaincy. Subsequently he was attached to the staff of Lord Sterling with the rank of major, and fought by the side of Lafayette, when that officer was wounded at the battle of Brandywine, and also participated in the battles of Germantown and Monmouth. He was afterward given a colonel's commission, but, being unable to recruit a regiment, began the study of law in the office of Jefferson, then Governor of Virginia.

When only about twenty-three years old, he was elected to the Virginia Legislature. The next year he was sent to Congress. On the expiration of his term, having meanwhile married, in New York, Miss Kortright, a young lady of great intelligence and rare personal attractions, he returned to Fredericksburg, and commenced practice as a lawyer. He espoused the cause of the Anti-Federal or Republican party, being thoroughly democratic in his ideas, as was his eminent

preceptor, Jefferson. In 1789, he was elected to the United States Senate. In 1794, he was appointed minister-plenipotentiary to France, but recalled from his mission two years later because of his outspoken sympathies with the republicans of that country.

Shortly after his return, Monroe was elected Governor of Virginia, which post he held for three years (1799-1802). On the expiration of his official term, he was sent to co-operate with Edward Livingston, then resident Minister at Paris, in negotiating the treaty by which the Territory of Louisiana was secured to the United States. In 1811, he was again elected Governor of Virginia, but presently resigned to become Madison's Secretary of State,

During the period following the capture of Washington, September, 1814-March, 1815, he acted as Secretary of War, and did much to restore the nation's power and credit. He continued Secretary of State until March, 1817, when he became President. He was chosen by the Democratic party, till then known as the Republican. He received one hundred and eighty-three electoral votes, his opponent, Rufus King, receiving but thirty-four votes. The violence of party spirit greatly abated during his first term, and he was re-elected in 1821, with but one dissenting vote out of the two hundred and thirty-two cast by the electoral college. On the 4th of March, 1825, he

retired to the quiet and seclusion of his estate at Oak Hill, in Loudon County, Virginia.

During Monroe's Administration, the boundaries of the United States were considerably enlarged by the purchase of Florida from Spain. Five new States were also admitted into the Union: Mississippi, in 1817; Illinois, in 1818; Alabama, in 1819; Maine, in 1820; and Missouri, in 1821.

The discussion in Congress over the admission of Missouri showed the existence of a new disturbing element in our national politics. It was the question of the further extension of slavery; not so much in regard to its moral aspects as to its bearing on the question of the balance of political power. For a brief period two parties, one in favor of and the other against admitting any more Slave States, filled Congress and the country with angry discussion. This was quieted for the time by what is known as "the Missouri Compromise," which restricted slavery to the territory lying south of the southern boundary of Missouri.

The somewhat celebrated "Monroe Doctrine" is regarded as one of the most important results of Monroe's Administration. It was enunciated in his message to Congress on the 2d of December, 1823, and arose out of his sympathy for the new Republics then recently set up in South America. In substance it was, that the United States would never entangle themselves with the