r/EarlyAmericanHistory

1st Painting (1st and 2nd Image): Washington Crossing the Delaware (James Monroe is the one holding the flag)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware_(1851_paintings)

2nd Painting (3rd and 4th Image): The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 26, 1776 (James Monroe is the one wounded on his shoulder)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Capture_of_the_Hessians_at_Trenton,_December_26,_1776

3rd Painting (5th and 6th Image): General George Washington Resigning His Commission (James Monroe is the one seated next to Thomas Jefferson)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_George_Washington_Resigning_His_Commission

4th Painting (7th, 8th, and 9th Image): The Coronation of Napoleon (Replica from 1808-1822) (James Monroe is at the crowd on the top right)

https://collections.chateauversailles.fr/?permid=permobj_efb1c634-b95f-402f-8c6f-12848982844c#/query/eda9a168-4f06-48e1-804b-5f8e60e1f54d

Watch full video in Youtube

Most accounts of the Battle of Long Island focus on the tactical mistakes or the daring night crossing itself, but looking at the actual logs and diaries from August 27–30, 1776, the physical mechanics of the escape come down to three specific weather events:

- A two-day Nor'easter that physically trapped British square-rigged warships in the lower bay from sailing up the East River.

- An 11:00 PM wind shift to the southwest, which let John Glover’s Marblehead fishermen raise sails on their flatboats instead of rowing against heavy current all night.

- A heavy, localized dawn fog that sat right over the East River and ferry landing while the British encampment just a few hundred yards away was under clear skies.

On This Day, August 18, 1590, English governor John White returned to Roanoke Island, North Carolina, after being away for nearly three years due to war with Spain.

He expected to find his daughter, granddaughter Virginia Dare, and the other colonists waiting for him.

Instead…

Everyone was gone.

There were no bodies.

No signs of a battle.

No explanation.

The settlement had been abandoned.

But then White discovered something that made the mystery even more fascinating.

The word “CRO” had been carved into a tree.

And at the abandoned settlement, the word “CROATOAN” had been carved into a post.

Croatoan referred to the Native American people and the area now known as Hatteras Island.

White believed the colonists may have relocated there, but before he could properly search the area, a storm forced him to abandon the attempt.

More than 430 years later, historians still cannot definitively say what happened to the Lost Colony.

And there's one eerie coincidence…

August 18, 1590, was Virginia Dare's third birthday.

The grandfather who had left to find supplies returned on her birthday…

…and she was gone.

What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke?

No one knows for certain.

Here’s a fascinating little piece of Paine history.

In 1798, the Irish revolutionary Arthur O’Connor was arrested by the British while attempting to reach France and was later imprisoned at Fort George in Scotland. He distributed these verses on his way to confinement.

One stanza invokes both Rights of Man and Common Sense before calling Paine:

“That foe to Princes, Thomas Paine!”

It’s a striking example of how far Paine’s reputation had traveled by the late 1790s. He wasn’t simply remembered as an American revolutionary writer—his name had become part of a much wider radical and anti-monarchical political culture. Paine had been directly involved in planning the Irish Revolution of 1798 , knew many of the main revolutionaries, and attempted to organize French support.

What do you make of the reference to Paine here?

Pieces from a porcelain dessert service from the James Monroe Museum collection used by the Monroes for private family meals. The pieces are French, c. 1797; the maker is unknown.

Source: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/monroe-dessert-service-pieces

August 10, 1821

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the 2d day of March last, entitled "Resolution providing for the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition," did determine and declare "that Missouri should be admitted into this Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution submitted on the part of said State to Congress shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States of this Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That the legislature of said State, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said State to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of the United States on or before the first Monday in November next an authentic copy of said act, upon the receipt whereof the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact, whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of the said State into this Union shall be considered as complete;" and

Whereas by a solemn public act of the assembly of said State of Missouri, passed on the 26th of June, in the present year, entitled "A solemn public act declaring the assent of this State to the fundamental condition contained in a resolution passed by the Congress of the United States providing for the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition," an authentic copy whereof has been communicated to me, it is solemnly and publicly enacted and declared that that State has assented, and does assent, that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution of said State "shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the United States shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizens are entitled under the Constitution of the United States:"

Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States, in pursuance of the resolution of Congress aforesaid, have issued this my proclamation, announcing the fact that the said State of Missouri has assented to the fundamental condition required by the resolution of Congress aforesaid, whereupon the admission of the said State of Missouri into this Union is declared to be complete.

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.

Done at the city of Washington, the 10th day of August, A.D. 1821, and of the Independence of the said United States of America the forty-sixth.

JAMES MONROE.

By the President:

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,

Secretary of State.

Sources and more information about Missouri admitted to the Union.

https://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=174522: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-28-admitting-missouri-the-union

https://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=174522

Aaron Burr (1756-1836) is a fascinating figure in early American history who is often overlooked. Beyond being vice president and shooting Alexander Hamilton, he was the subject of a famous trial, was friends with Jeremy Bentham, and had a plethora of legitimate and illegitimate children. His daughter Theodosia was lost at sea at 29, while his son John Pierre was an abolitionist and active member of the Underground Railroad.

The 76-year old Burr had been a widower for nearly forty years when he remarried to a wealthy widow in 1833, the 58-year old Eliza Bowen Jumel (1775-1865). His continued financial mismanagement led to a divorce, which was finalized on the day of his death. She went on to live for another thirty years.

Eliza Burr, born a British colonial subject, died during the presidency of Andrew Johnson. No photographs of her are known to exist.

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