Madison or Monroe?
Confession: These guys seem interchangeable to me. It doesn’t help at all that they are both named James. And their last names start with M. Or that they were both Virginian. How can I possibly be expected to tell them apart?
In an effort to burn them into my memory once and for all, I pulled together some facts and doodles of varying importance.
Great tip from LearningPlunge: they are conveniently alphabetical! James Madison was president right before James Monroe. At least I’ll never mix up the order again. You can probably stop reading right now because that’s obviously the Best Fact Here.
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Here’s an actual photo of me getting bombarded with brainstorms about this post while out on a frigid walk:
It’s amazing the detail that can be picked up on camera these days!
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Stature
Madison was the tiniest president
If you had to pick one president to give a piggyback ride or to catch in a trust fall, Madison’s your guy. He stood at 5’4” and weighed just 100 pounds. If you’re looking for a President James M. to give YOU a piggyback ride, I recommend the larger, 6’ tall, less sickly Monroe.
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First ladies
Yeah, yeah… Dolley Madison. Introduced to James by Aaron Burr. Saved the (reproduction?) portrait of George Washington from the burning CapitoI. Very influential, setting the tone for the role of First Lady. Social butterfly. Yada yada.
Monroe met Elizabeth while best man at Elbridge Gerry’s wedding. (Monroe might have been Gerry’s best man…. but Gerry was Madison’s #2. Vice president, that is.)
Elizabeth Monroe, despite suffering from chronic pain, braved French mobs to visit Madame Lafayette (wife of Marquis de Lafayette) in prison… saving her from la guillotine. (She didn’t break her out of jail or anything, but her visit saved Lafayette.)
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Style
James Madison served on the Committee of Style, along with Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Rufus King, and William Samuel Johnson.
James Monroe served on the Committee of No Style.
Kidding.
The Committee of Style was about the wording in the Constitution. But if it was about fashion, Monroe wouldn’t have been invited to join. While his wife Elizabeth was chic, Monroe rocked knee breaches and silk hose long after that was no longer cool.
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Burr
I already mentioned that the Madisons met through Aaron Burr. Burr comes up a lot in my notes about the Jameses.
At one point, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison checked out the “flora and fauna” in New York. And by “checking out the flora and fauna”, I mean met with Aaron Burr and other enemies of Hamilton.
Did you know that Burr saved Monroe from a duel with Hamilton?
Seven years later, Burr killed Alexander Hamilton himself in a duel.
Monroe’s son-in-law prosecuted Burr.
I just happen to be reading about this now, so I need to add that Henry Clay defended Burr. He believed the accusations against Burr were ridiculous, buuuuuuut eventually realized they were not. Oopsie. You win some, you lose some. Some you win when you should have lost.
Seriously, how is Aaron Burr getting so much play in this post? This is about Madison and Monroe! Let’s get back to them.
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Party
Both Madison and Monroe were Democratic-Republicans. When the Federalist party went kaput, Monroe was elected almost unanimously.
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Pseudonyms
Both used secret pseudonyms to get their work published. But Madison leveled up, engaging in full-blown conversations with himself, under various incognito aliases. According to the editors of his papers “Madison was in a dialogue with himself.”
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Presidency
Both served two terms.
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Vice Presidents
Madison had twice the Vice Presidents.
Both died in office — George Clinton (the sweetest eyebrows ever) and Elbridge Gerry.
Monroe’s VP was Daniel D. Tompkins, who I know nothing about. A quick search lead me to discover that his father-in-law’s name was Mangle Minthorne (best name ever?) and Kris Kringle erroneously says he was John Quincy Adams’ VP in Miracle on 34th Street. (He’s pretty smug about it, too. Watch it here. Feel free to skip ahead to 1:29).
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War / Military Service
Madison suffered from a lot of health issues and didn’t fight in any wars.
Monroe was Revolutionary War hero and also fought in the War of 1812.
It boggles my mind that some of these guys were like “you know what? Let’s just take Canada.”
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Slavery
Both were slaveholders. Monroe supported the idea of relocating some enslaved people. Monrovia, Liberia is named after him — the only foreign capital named for a U.S. president.
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Random stuff (in no particular order)
Monroe unleashed Andrew Jackson...
…and pretended he didn’t know what was going on with plans to take Florida. “Huh? Florida? Whatever do you mean?”
Monroe helped out with the Louisiana Purchase
Madison loved him some ice cream
Dolley was particularly into oyster ice cream.
The British burned Washington during Madison’s watch…
The year before, U.S. troops burned the upper Canada capital so maybe we had it coming?
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Want to know more?
Listen to Presiquential’s The Realist: James Madison and The Unopposed: James Monroe episodes. To learn more about the Monroe Doctrine, check out this About This Day In History episode.
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Madison or Monroe: which is the best?
Let me know in the comments below. Or maybe I’ll just start a long thread with myself using various pseudonyms, à la James Madison.
The doodles and cures in this post were inspired by the following books:
James Madison, by Garry Wills
The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness, by Harlow Giles Unger
Bob's Folly: Fulton, Livingston and the Steamboat by Travis M. Bowman
The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, by Lindsay M. Chervinsky
Heirs of the Founders: Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants, by H. W. Brands
Full disclosure: I am a Bookshop.org affiliate and included affiliate links. If I’ve inspired you to read any of these books, I earn a small commission on any purchases from these links. Thanks for supporting my project!
