Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1896-04-01
MRS. MoNRoE's DOCTRINE.

About the time that James Monroe
| as President of the United States pro-
claimed the great doctrine which bears
| his name in international affairs his
| wife, Eliza Kortright Monroe, took a
stand in social affairs which has stood
the test of time quite as well as that OF
her great husband. She absolutely
refused to return any social calls.
Great was the row it stirred up, and
the charges of affecting royal manners
and customs and of being rude and all
the rest rained about Mrs. Monroe's
head.
But it was of no avail. She stuck it
| out, and each "frst lady of the land''
has followed her example since. So
great, however, was the disturbance
over Mrs. Monroe's refusal to return
| calls that John Quincy Adams con-
| sidered it necessary to draw up and
formally promulgate formula of
etiquette which has since regulated
the life of the Executive Mansion.
After the Revolution James Monroe,
then only twenty-three years old, went
to New York as delegate in Congress
from Virginia, There he met the beau.
tiful daughter of Lawrence Kortright,
who, was an import ant figure in the
social life of New York of that day,
and, falling inlove, they were married.
1t was a great wedding, attended by
oil the gentry, and was the crowning
social event of the gay winter which
succeeded Washington's first inaugu-
ration. Subsequently, when Monroe
was in Europe on diplomatic business,
Mrs. Monroe was distinguished for her
beauty and her pstrician carriage sat
the courts of Spain and England and
in the French capital. Mrs. Monroe
spent nearly ten years of her life in
Europe and her daughters were -edu-
Gated in France. The elder, Eliza,
was classmate and friend of Hor-
tense de Beauharnais, afterward
Queen of Holland and mother of Ma.
poleon Ill.
Mrs. Monroe's sister married Nicho-
las Gouve1near, and their son, Samuel
Gouverneur, for nine, years Postmaster
of New York, married the Presidents
younger daughter, Maria. Maria was
o young and beautiful bride when she
went to New York as Mrs. Gouver-
neur, and was warmly received by so,
ciety. She went to housekeeping in a
large brick house at 63 Prince street,
and all the wealth and fashion of the
city hocked to her receptions. The
house is still standing. President
Monroe was much in New York in his
two terms of Office, and society was es.
peciallly stately and magnificent when
he was in town. In 1925 President
Monroe retired from the Presidency
and went to place which he had
bought in Loudoun County, Virginia
called Oak Hill.
Here he hoped to end his days as q
cou16ry gentleman, keeping up some
thing OF the state with which he had
been nearly all his life surrounded.
But now the evil days came upon him.
Ill health and pecunisry troubles
harassed him night and day. For five
years he fought against bodily iiafrm-
tiles and the harassment OF debts.
Then, IL 1880, Mrs. Monroe diedl, and
he gave up the unequal fight. Old,
lonely, sick and penniless, he came to
New York to pass the few remaining
months of his life, pensioner upon
his son-in-law. He died at his s,n-1n-
laws house in Prince street on July
&, 1881, and was buried in the Marble
Cemetery. -Philadelphia Press.