OUR MOST UNDERRATED PRESIDENT?:

McGrath writes of the "calling of honorable public service that echoes throughout Monroe's life". He ran against his friend Madison for Congress to reaffirm a principle, "a heartfelt belief that a new American government was not American without safeguarding the rights of its citizens. Politicians rarely think this way now or in 1788, but Monroe did." [...]

Monroe's deliberative decision-making led to many wise actions, particularly in foreign policy. In partnership with his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, he was able to forge a pact with Britain against the slave trade, resolve a boundary issue with Russia, negotiate a treaty with Spain that put the United States on the Pacific coast, and begin recognizing the Latin American republics that had revolted from Spanish rule.

Monroe's famous doctrine, designed to forestall any attempt by European powers to re-establish colonies in South America, declared the era of colonization in the western hemisphere over and declared that an attack on the new republics would be considered "as an attack on ourselves".

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It was armed neutrality and protection rather than collective defence, but it has endured for two centuries as a bedrock principle of US foreign policy. The doctrine was fiercely opposed by, among others, Metternich, who called it "no less dangerous" than the American Revolution. It was - to monarchies, exactly as Monroe intended.

Like Harry Truman, another quintessentially American president beset by money and farming troubles throughout his life, Monroe was not immune from the temptations of partisanship but sought to rise above it and to serve honorably, doing the right thing for the country by his lights. As with Truman, a surprising amount of his work endures.

Before Monroe left for France to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson and Madison gave him a dinner. After a hearty meal and "some tolerable Singing", Monroe made a toast to "the union of the United States - may political discussion only tend to cement it".

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