Even in his lifetime, Monroe’s eight-year tenure was labeled the Era of Good Feeling. The Federalist Party (the party of Hamilton and John Adams) had simply disappeared. A single electoral vote was cast for John Quincy Adams, merely to prevent Monroe from compromising George Washington’s status as the only unanimously elected president. Standing for re-election in 1820, he was essentially unopposed. Monroe won in a landslide: 183-34 in the Electoral College. ![]() Monroe’s opponent was Massachusetts’ high Federalist Rufus King, whose running mate John E. Monroe’s vice presidential running mate in 1816 was a man named Daniel Tompkins, the governor of New York, now entirely swallowed up by historical oblivion. Monroe was one of the eight presidents from Virginia: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson. The three came to be known as “ the Virginia Dynasty.” They presided over the United States for a quarter century. Then Jefferson and Madison hand-picked Monroe, who served from 1817 until 1825. Then he hand-picked his successor James Madison, his closest friend and his secretary of state. And he was the fifth president of the United States. ![]() He was the American minister to England and the American minister to France. He was the 12th and the 16th governor of Virginia. He was a member of the Confederation Congress (before the Constitution of 1787). Monroe’s political career was illustrious. We now know that Monroe was actually in another, earlier boat, that nobody was standing, and the flag depicted in the famous painting was not fashioned until 1777. There he is in Emanuel Leutze’s heroic 1851 painting, standing next to Washington in the crowded boat and holding up the American flag. This article will discuss Emanuel Leutze’s painting about this event, titled Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851). ![]() During the American War of Independence, Christmas night of 1776 was a monumental undertaking for George Washington and his troops who crossed the Delaware River to siege the Hessians.
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