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Moore History - The 5th U.S. President, James Monroe · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: All right, here we are. It's the third hour of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the Morning show with Preston Scott literally turning the page
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: on the rundown, and it is show fifty five twenty eight.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: He's osay, I'm Preston, and for the first time, I
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: think we were looking at it first time since August.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: August. Yes, yeah, my.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Bad doctor ed Moore with us with a little more history,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: and this year I'm just so busy. Oh well, yes,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: you decided it would be fun to tea up presidents
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: that we don't talk about, we don't know much about,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: that have been overlooked by history.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Most people they can probably name the first three
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: or four presidents, and then they skip a whole bunch
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  Speaker 2: and go to Lincoln, of course, and then skip a
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  Speaker 2: whole bunch and maybe pick up Teddy or if somewhere
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  Speaker 2: in there.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Or one of the Roosevelts.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one of them. It's just not that common. But yeah,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: a lot that occurred for Mason of our country that
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: we're seeing results for now. A lot of things. I
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: know in the prior hour, maybe earlier, you mentioned about
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: the Monroe doctor and how that plays into the Greenland concept.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Well, and I thought it would be good to tee
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: it up by just saying this, You consider this president
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  Speaker 1: among your top five presidents ever?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, James James Monroe. Yeah, my top five are
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: probably different than most, and I'll exclude Lincoln and Washington
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  Speaker 2: from them because they're sort of iconic difference. But of
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  Speaker 2: all the rest of them, Madison, Monroe, Polk, Teddy Roosevelt,
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  Speaker 2: and Ronald Reagan altered the world when they were in.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: They altered whoever country was going to be. They changed
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: the nature of what the United States was and how
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: we are viewed by the rest of the world and interacted.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: That's just me.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Tell us about James Monroe's origins. Where'd he come.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: He's a Virginian. He was the last of the Virginians.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: I know you were talking about where Virginia's gone now
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  Speaker 2: with Spamburger in trouble. Far cry from the founding Fathers,
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  Speaker 2: if you will, But he was sort of the last son.
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  Speaker 2: He was the last survivor of that group. And that
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: would be you know, Madison and Jefferson and Washington, they
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: were all They all grew up within, you know, probably
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: within one hundred miles of each other. If you go
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: travel in those areas. He was a farmer, came from
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: farmer stock. He tried to go to William and Mary
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: to go to college and parents died, had both had died,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: and he was the oldest sibling, had to go back.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Somehow he got to know Jefferson and Madison and these
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: folks and they sort of took them under their wing.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: When when the American Revolution happened in seventeen seventy six,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: he was only eighteen.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I was going to ask you, do you consider him.
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  Speaker 2: A founding father, founding step son.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Well, I was just going to say, a founding son.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of Yea. He was transitional in that sense,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: but in the in terms of legacy, yeah, he's one
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  Speaker 2: of the last founding fathers in that sense. But I
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: mean he did take part in the Virginia Constitutional Convention.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I mean he was young, but he still was involved
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  Speaker 2: in this. He studied for law under Jefferson, those kind
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: of things. But he was a part of the American
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Revolution that unless you read about him, you never hear
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: about the famous story of Washington and the Continental Army
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: retreating from New York, from Long Island and Manhattan to
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: retreating across the river to get into New Jersey and
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: then escaping going across the Delaware the wrong way. Back then,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: he was part of that. He was when we decide
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: when they decided to go back and attack. You hear
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: about the attack on the Hessians and yeah, and Trenton,
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  Speaker 2: he led that. He got serious wounded, took a bullet
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  Speaker 2: in the shoulder.
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  Speaker 1: How old is he at this time?
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  Speaker 2: Eighteen? He's eighteen and he was a lieutenant in the
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  Speaker 2: Continental Army at eighteen. Yes, kind of incressient, a different
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  Speaker 2: constitution than we might expect today. Yeah, and when we
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: come back, we'll talk about a little bit about how
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  Speaker 2: his resume is absolutely amazing for anybody at any time.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know that it's been replicated.
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  Speaker 1: But we're going to pick up after his service for
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  Speaker 1: the Continental Army, because that in and of itself is
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  Speaker 1: a heck of a starting point.
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  Speaker 2: At eighteen.
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  Speaker 1: And we are back, doctor Edmure with me a little
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  Speaker 1: more history, So we pick up with his service in
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  Speaker 1: the Continental Army and then what happens.
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  Speaker 2: Well, he started he went back home, obviously, but he
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  Speaker 2: got engaged in politics and governance. When we started drafting
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  Speaker 2: the constitution, he was part and parcel of that. He
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: had good relationships with Madison and Jefferson, even though he opposed.
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  Speaker 2: There was a lot of opposition going on then between
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: the Federalists and then new the Democrat Republicans parties, the
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: early party system. Interestingly, when he became president, the Federalist
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Party had sort of faded and it was just Democratic
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Republican one party system. And historians ended up calling it
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: because of an article in a Boston newspaper of all places,
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  Speaker 2: calling it the era of good feelings. Everybody was getting
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: along and trying to build the country, but behind the
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: scenes there was just all kinds of things going on.
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  Speaker 2: And what fascinates me about James Monroe, and I mentioned before,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: is his resume. If you look at the things this
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  Speaker 2: guy did when he went back, he ended up becoming
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  Speaker 2: governor of Virginia. Then he became a US endor from Virginia.
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  Speaker 2: Then he was ambassador to France and England at different times.
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  Speaker 2: He got recalled by Washington. Washington made him the ambassador
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  Speaker 2: to France, and he got recalled from there because he
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: was too rebellious and too the French Revolution happened after
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: our revolution, and he was kind of like you could
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  Speaker 2: see him up there in the tricolors, stolen the virtue
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  Speaker 2: of the French Revolution, and the.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Tough to be an ambassador to a nation's government when
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: you're extolling the virtues of a revolution of the revolution.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then Great Great Britain got mad at him
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: because they and France were going out each other. So
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: so Washington said, maybe you better come back.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: What was what qualities did he possess that made him
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  Speaker 1: an attractive candidate for those posts to begin with?
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  Speaker 2: I think he was probably just brilliant and outgoing and
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  Speaker 2: intently curious.
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  Speaker 1: Because the French, I mean that would make some sense,
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  Speaker 1: because the French and the English sort of looked at
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  Speaker 1: us as the country rubes and these, you know, these
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  Speaker 1: wilderness men. And so if he comes off as an intellectual,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: that would be me.
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  Speaker 2: It was intellectual, but also he had the rough side
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  Speaker 2: on him, and because after all, it was a war
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  Speaker 2: at eighteen and I mean, you know, he was physical
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  Speaker 2: and strong. I think one of the things that gets
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: overlooked in all of this he had been ambassador to France.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Washington brought him back when Jefferson became president. What's Jefferson
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: mainly known for is the Louisiana Purchase, well, who did
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: we buy Louisiana from the French? Okay, the Louisiana purchase,
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  Speaker 2: not just Louisiana, but.
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  Speaker 1: All the other territory.
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  Speaker 2: We doubled the size of our country by the Louisiana purchase.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Who negotiated that treaty and negotiated that deal James Monroe,
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  Speaker 2: because he had that foundation of having and when the
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: revolution succeeded. Now they were still cutting people's heads off
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  Speaker 2: and doing all that. Yeah, but he understood France. He
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: understood that France and needed money. They needed money, so
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: he used that leverage and went in and boom, we
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: ended up with that. Then later when he was president,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: the Adams Ownest Treaty brought Florida into the United States
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: from Spain. Monroe was integral in doing that as well.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: So that was the second year, eighteen eighteen where he
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: had just become President of the United States. But he
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: understood that expansion. So when you think about the growth
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: of our country and the changes in our country, James
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Monroe had a big hand in all of that.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Doctor edmore with its final segment Here a little more history,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Matt Staver. In just a little bit, we'll talk about
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: a ruling in the Fifth Circuit Court. That warn't your attention.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: We're talking about President James Monroe, the fifth President. He's
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: becoming a little trendy in the news today, a little
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  Speaker 1: bit of a doctrine. Yeah, if you ask anybody on
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  Speaker 1: the street, hey, tell me about James Monroe.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: First, you'd get a really blank stare. Then they might go,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: isn't that the Monroe doctrine? Guy? You know, I mean,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: that's probably about all anybody could tell you about him.
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  Speaker 2: And if you think about it in a context of history,
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  Speaker 2: it was very bold. It was a throwaway line in
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  Speaker 2: an address to Congress that he did, basically telling European
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: powers at the time. And think about this in terms
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  Speaker 2: of the current world. She was talking to Spain and France,
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  Speaker 2: the world powers. Now, you know, nobody pays any attention
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  Speaker 2: to anything they say. The chron comes out with sunglasses
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  Speaker 2: on and people go, oh.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Look, yeah, punched by his wife again, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: He's got a black eye. Yeah. But back then, those England, France, Spain,
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: they were the dominant powers, and this little upstart country
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: with the fifth President would barely had come out of
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  Speaker 2: the War of eighteen twelve surviving. The country had fallen apart,
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  Speaker 2: and this guy stands up there and points at Europe
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  Speaker 2: and says, get the hell out of our hemisphere. Basically,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: go away. You cannot come here anymore. We're not going
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  Speaker 2: to allow you. We're the dominant party in the northern, North,
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  Speaker 2: and South America. This is ours. Go away. Very bold,
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  Speaker 2: I mean incredibly bold. Nobody paid any attention to it.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: When he said it, it was no big deal. But
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: then later other presidents kind of went, yeah, I like that.
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  Speaker 2: You know we're going to be that way. Go away.
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  Speaker 2: You can't be part of it. It created the world
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  Speaker 2: as we know it, because otherwise, what would South America
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: look like or the Caribbean look like if you had
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: all these European powers everywhere. Nobody really did much with
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: it until JFK did with the Soviet Union in Cuba, right,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: going no, get out of here, this is ours. Has
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: been making in roads trying to do the same thing.
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  Speaker 2: And now Trump has gone, no, you can't, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and he's doing and he.
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  Speaker 1: Seemingly has revived the mindset of you know, there's a
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  Speaker 1: point to be made here.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, for world security. Yeah, And that's where we're
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: headed with all of this is how safe is the
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: world going to be? And it's the world is safer
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  Speaker 2: with us being the dominant player on the chess board.
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  Speaker 1: And so far as we remain somewhat moral as a
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  Speaker 1: nation and have some degree of sanity, which I think
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  Speaker 1: we're losing.
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  Speaker 2: Well yeah, I don't disagree with you on that, but
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: it's helpful to have the United States be this strong player.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: So was the Monroe doctrine, just like you said, a
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: throwaway line of his presidency.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was sort of a line in the sand as.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Well, though, Okay, did it define the rest of his time?
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Well? Yeah, they were already on. I mean they were
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: having their own problem and Spain had financial problems. For
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Rance was in turmoil, so it's kind of like, oh, okay.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: They weren't financing any more expeditions to the to the West.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: I needed a few million dollars to go to Brazil,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: and now you don't. I mean, that's kind of where
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: the world was. So it was very timely. But unfortunately,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: what you get a guy like that who was in
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: public service for probably fifty five years of his life,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: starting at eighteen, he ended up dying. He tried to
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: get Congress to put some money forth. He was spending
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: his own money to do all these things, and.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: It's not uncommon of the early president.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and his farm went to ruin. Congress debated for
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: like thirty years trying to do we give him any money.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: They never did. He ended up living in a apartment
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: at his daughter's place in New York, and that's where
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: he died. He died penniless, sickly, and buried him. Initially
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: he got buried in New York, and later Virginians got
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: together and moved him and he's buried in Hollywood Cemetery
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: in Richmond, Virginia. He's buried there, but he doesn't have
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Monticello or these kinds. They lost their farm, you know,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: he went back to pay his debts, sold the farm,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: sold slaves. He too has that conflict of being a
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: slave owner. But talking about freedom, I mean, you know,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: in history you get those conflicts. He never freed any
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: of his slaves. He sold them when he died, one
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: go free and that was it. Or towards his death.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: He died penniless, and then history never really resurrected him.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: You have TV series about Adams and Jefferson and Washington,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: not about Monroe and I think Monroe, the things he
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: did in doubling and increasing the size and creating this
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: manifest destiny of what our country would be, never really
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: got a lot of credit for that, and he should have.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Would it be fair to say he gave his off
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: for this country?
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Yes? Absolutely, I think this is one of those people.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: And when you who now name a politician now that
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: has done the kinds of things, served in the roles,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: the number of roles that he's served in Rubio is
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: starting to build towards that. Being a speaker and then
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: being a senator and being a Secretary of State, Monroe
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: was all. He was a secretary of State. He was
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: a second by the way, a war hero. Secretary of war.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: He was a war hero, you know, was president that
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, he did all of these things. He was
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: a governor, he was a US senator. You don't see
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: that anymore, and died penniless and died completely broken, depending
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: on his daughter just to have a place to live.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Great stuff. Thanks is always good to see him. Good
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to be here, Doctor Ed Moore, A little more history.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: James Monroe, fifth US President. Here in the Morning Show
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: with Preston Scott