Luis de Madrazo

Spanish, 1825-1897

James Monroe was of the belief that women should have the equal access to education as men were in this time period [x]. Part of this may be because he was educated by his mother who was very well education until he was eleven; when his mother died he helped his elder sister raise his three younger brothers and quit school; he had an exceptionally gifted wife, Elizabeth Monroe, who was educated as a son; and he had two daughters who he raised in the best education they could receive. His more equal view of women was another reason why he had such a strong bond with his two daughters.

From what I’ve seen in his letters about his children, he never seemed to show any period typical dismay and not having a son–he just seemed glad they were alive, worried a lot when they were sick and said Eliza was a loud baby and seemed rather giddy when he wrote of them. When Monroe was Governor of Virginia for two terms, one thing he worked towards was establishing more schools that were mixed between both sexes [x]. 

James Monroe used to get teased by women because of his reserved and quiet nature [x], this only enhanced him to try and get women to like him more as he traveled with a few of them in 1784. During the American Revolution while serving as an aide-de-camp to Lord Stirling, Monroe would find himself frequently around the company of Theodosia Prevost (later  Burr) who Monroe sought advice from–mainly when it came to women. Due to Monroe’s shy nature he reverted into silence every time he was in the company of one women, Nannie Brown whom he found himself attracted to. Monroe wrote to her for advice to which Theodosia replied:

 “A young Lady who either is or pretends to be in love is… the most unreasonable creature in existence. If she looks a smile or a frown which does not immediately give… you happiness… your company soon becomes very insipid… if you are so stupidly insensible of her charms as to deprive your tongue and eyes of every expression of admiration and not only be silent respecting her but devote them to an absent object… she cannot receive a higher insult.”

During his trip around America after his inauguration, Monroe stopped in Nashville in 1819 where he requested to visit the Nashville Female Academy, a school dedicated to women’s education and quickly growing to be the most renowned in the country. When he got there, the school officials marveled at how the president had no guards with him. Funny thing is that everyone was telling Monroe it was a waste of time to visit, but he insisted he had to visit. He didn’t just visit, he stayed from eleven in the morning until well into the late night, giving no less than eighteen toasts and visited two more times during his nine days in the city. At the dinner table, he sat with the students. At the beginning of his visit, he gave a speech to the two hundred students [x]. In the speech he said:

“I cannot express in terms too strong, the satisfaction which I derive from a views of this Seminary. The female presents capacities for improvement, and has equal claims to it, with the other sex. Without intermitting our attention to the improvement of one, let us extend it alike to the other.”

In summary, he was very impressed with the school and both sexes are entitled to equal improvement. He asked, that instead of focusing their attention on one sex, why cannot they be alike or equal?

While still Secretary of State in 1816, the Russian consulgen Nicholas Kosloff was charged with raping a teenage servant who lived with him. Monroe wrote of it to Thomas Jefferson:

“mr daschkoff has pushed his demand of reparation, for what he calls an insult to the Emperor, by the arrest & confin’ment of his consul genl at Phila, on the charge of committing a rape there, with the utmost degree of violence, of which the case was susceptible. By the stile of his last notes, we have reason to expect, that he will announce the termination of his mission, in obedience to o[r]ders given him by his govt, while acting under an excitment produc’d by his misrepresentations, and before a correct statment reached our chargé des affrs, at St Petersburg.”

He was arrested and Russian government asked for compensation, of which the Secretary of State refused to give. It was Monroe who believed the best course would be to recall him for his actions:

“There is nothing that I abhor more in any one, than to see him, make a personal difference with another, the ground or motive of annoying his connections. The opposite course is more gratifying to the feelings of a generous mind, and more likely to elevate the character of him who pursues it.”

Kosloff was never able to be charged for his actions, as the case was given to the Federal courts but the Federal courts deemed it a local case and handed it back. “Of which description of offences the courts of the United States do not cognizance.” Monroe wrote to Levett Harris. 

Cognizance: knowledge, awareness, or notice

Monroe problem with the United States and the case was that they were not taking notice of what had happened and neither were they attempted to be aware. 

 In 1819, Emma Hart Willard took the move of expressing her wish of expanding women’s education “A Plan for Improving Women’s Education” it was called. Her ideas caught the attention of James Monroe who lean’t support for her actions [x]. She sent her writing at a request to Monroe as well as a few other founders. 

In a speech to the Virginia General Assembly, Monroe argued that:

“in such a government education should be diffused throughout the whole society, and for that purpose the means of acquiring it made not only practicable but easy to every citizen…” [x]

James Monroe did not believe in the exclusion of women in education and thought a good education for women which was usually restricted to the wealthy should be made better accessible to every being. He once remarked:

 “I take a deep interest…in the success of female education; and have been delighted, wherever I have been, to witness the attention paid to it.” [x]

A still from Looking for Langston, 1989.

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