Take a walk in the Revolutionary City and you just might meet a future president. Specifically, the fifth president, James Monroe.Monroe may be best known for the foreign policy doctrine that bears his name, but he actually cut his teeth in Williamsburg, where he came as a 16-year old to attend the College of William & Mary.
Monroe had recently lost his father when he arrived in the capital from the family homestead in Virginia’s Northern Neck.
At the college, he ran afoul of authority for signing a petition complaining about “coarse and intolerable” food, but he claimed he never actually read the petition. The reader may judge how well the episode prepared him for elective office.
But much greater events were around the corner.
The tumultuous year of 1774 saw the American colonies drifting toward war with Britain. Young James was in the thick of it.
In June of 1775, after Lord Dunmore seized the town’s powder from the Magazine and retreated to a British ship on the York River, Monroe is said to have joined a band of young men who broke into the Governor’s Palace and made off with an assortment of more than 200 pistols, muskets and swords.
Who could concentrate on schoolwork with a revolution happening in your own neighborhood?
Months later, though still technically enrolled at William & Mary, Monroe followed his duty and signed up for military service. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 3rd Virginia regiment.
He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Trenton, but he recovered and returned to Williamsburg, where he studied law under Thomas Jefferson. He passed the bar in Fredericksburg.
Despite Monroe’s lengthy public service and significant accomplishments, he was, alas, a college dropout.
It’s time for this to be rectified. Surely James Monroe’s military service, legal education, diplomatic posts and presidency count for something.
William & Mary should grant James Monroe a degree, don’t you think?
And if you see this future president walking down Duke of Gloucester Street, offer your support.
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