2. Was James Monroe a bad guy? Was he my ancestor? From my findings, I believe he was the great, great grandson of Major Andrew Monroe (Snr) born in Katewell, Evanton, ross and Cromerty, 1632
According to Wiki, His paternal great-great-grandfather Patrick Andrew Monroe emigrated to America from Scotland in the mid-17th century as a Royalist after the defeat of Charles I in the English Civil War,[1] and was part of an ancient Scottish clan known as Clan Munro. In 1650, he patented a large tract of land in Washington Parish, Westmoreland County, Virginia. Also among James Monroe's ancestors were French Huguenot immigrants, who came to Virginia in 1700.[2] (Ironic that the g-g-grandson of a Royalist at the time of the English Civil War came to be a Founding Father of a revolutionary US)
I can only trace my ancestry back to a Donald Monro born 1799, his father was also a Donald Monro, but no DoB or other info, other than he married an Elspeth McIntosh. So, no known family connection other than tnhe clan name. The fact the spelling is different too can be noted, but it is also the case that the same family line might variously change the spelling at times - Munro, Monro, Monroe.which makes genealogical research more difficult.
Secondly why a bad guy? He is most famous for the Monroe doctrine, which everyone knows has given the US subsequently the excuse to meddle in the affairs of every country in the whole American continent. But here is part of the speech in which he announced this principle 2/12/1823 - interesting that the bicentenary of this event passed basically un-noted.
This is part of the speech which everyone knows
We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers, to declare, that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere, as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration, and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling, in any other manner, their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States.
But here's the equally important part of the speech which no-one seems to know.
Our policy, in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the government de facto as the legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy; meeting, in all instances, the just claims of every power; submitting to injuries from none.
No-one now seems to recall this quid pro quo of the Monroe doctrine. WE should now immediately request that the USA honours its oblisgations to the sovereign states of Europe according to the Monroe doctrine, and withdraw its troops and armaments from European soil and quit or disband NATO. I would suggest we could call this the "New Monro Doctrine" - and get the spelling right after 200 years?
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