James Monroe followed James Madison as the successor to the

Presidency in 1817. He had been in service to his country

beginning at the age of 19 when he commanded a company of

Virginia volunteers during the Revolution. He had since

served in the United States Senate, Governor of Virginia

and Minister to England, France and Spain.

Elizabeth Kortright Monroe was only 17 when she married

James Monroe in New York City. Their oldest daughter, Eliza,

attended a girls' school near Paris along with her closest

friend Hortense Beauharnais, daughter of Josephine, wife of

Napolean Bonaparte. A picture of Hortense hangs in James

Monroe's Ash Lawn-Highland in Virginia and Eliza named her daughter

Hortensia Monroe Hay in honor of her best friend.

After taking over the duties of President and First Lady,

it soon became evident that, with the increase of

congressional representation and the numbers of visitors

from home and abroad, the social duties of the White House

were growing unmanageable.

Mrs. Seaton soon bagan reporting: "It is said that Mrs.

Monroe will be very select, she will see her friends

morning or evening, but her health is totally inadequate

to visiting at present."

It became very clear that Mrs.

Monroe was not to be tempted to follow in Dolley Madison's

footsteps. To make her position even clearer, the Secretary

of State, John Quincy Adams, drew up a code of social

etiquette for the First Lady and the White House-- a code

which , with a few modifications, has governed the social

life of the nation's capital from that day.

One account of dinner at the White House during the Monroe

administration states: " We had a most stylish dinner, the

dishes were silver and so heavy that I could hardly lift

them to my mouth and the spoons were very heavy.

You would call them clumsy things. Mrs. Monroe is a very

elegant woman."

Perhaps the gayest event of the administration was the

younger daughter Maria's marriage at the age of 17 to

her cousin, Samuel L. Gouverneur of New York. The wedding

was conducted in what the local residents called "New

York Style" which apparently referred primarily to the

exclusive guest list limited to relatives, the attendant

bridesmaids and groomsmen and a few old friends.

A few days after a ball given by the Decaturs to honor the

bride and groom, Commodore Stephen Decatur was killed in a

duel. This ended the round of parties and wedding festivities.

The Monroe's retired to their beautiful home at Oak Hill

in Virginia. The house was erected while the President was

in office and was designed for him by President Thomas Jefferson.

James Monroe was the third president to die on July 4th.

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I found it interesting that James Monroe died on July 4th.

The HEAVY silver also got my attention.