Monroe, James; et al. 18th Congress, 2d Session, No. 79 : Report of the Select Committee to which was referred, on the 6th of January last, the message of the President of the United States, on the subject of his Public Accounts. Washington: US Congress, 1825. First Edition. [11685]
Removed from a larger volume. 8 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches, light stain to the first several leaves, old bump to the top corner of some pages. 286 pages of text plus many folding charts. Good. Removed.
President James Monroe was in the same predicament - possibly worse - as that of all of the early United States Presidents, that of having incurred great expenses due to his position without Congress allotting money to cover the costs. This began for Monroe when he was the US minister to France and to England under Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and while he served as the US Secretary of State and then US Secretary of War under James Madison. The burden of expenses expanded when he became US President in 1817, serving until 1825. A man so busy in the service of his country could not manage his own plantations well enough to earn a profit, while at the same time he was expected to entertain at the highest levels of diplomatic and patriotic expectations. The first 60 pages consist of Monroe's arguments, followed by 226 pages of records as proofs of his arguments.
President Monroe's term as US President was near the end when this petition/investigation began, and he feared that once out of office all attempts to recoup what he deemed was owed him for his public service would come to naught. "As the term of my service in this high trust will expire at the end of the present session of Congress, I think it proper to invite your attention to an object very interesting to me, and which, in the movement of our Government, is deemed, on principle, equally interesting to the public." - p. 1. He then goes on to invite a precise examination of his accounts, his records, and the payments made to him. He compares payments to him with payments made of higher amounts to other men in his same positions. He believes that he has been treated unjustly and sets out to prove this by these 286 pages of documents from his public career, with many charts and folding pages showing expenses and payments.
This is a unique, fascinating, essential and informative account of the expenses of one of our most influential Founding Fathers, who served under George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and was himself the 5th President of the United States.
