James Monroe: Address to the National Convention of France

James Monroe devoted his life to finding practical solutions to political and social problems. His writing reflects this: It is much more focused on solving and anticipating problems than it is on political theory. During the Revolutionary War, both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson valued Monroe for his levelheadedness and his ability to keep his composure under stress. At the same time, he was an idealist. He believed that the American experiment in democracy would succeed where other such efforts had failed and that one of America’s great gifts to the world would be its example of rule deriving from the public rather than from overlords. Thus he was a statesman who combined idealism about human liberty with a devotion to making his ideals succeed in the real world. For him, his writings served this practical purpose. In 1794, as America’s minister plenipotentiary to France, he gave his Address to the National Convention of France, summarizing his views on the...