pplpod Episode 46 follows James Monroe from teenage Continental Army officer to the last Founding Father to serve as president. We trace his early wounds at Trenton, Virginia governance, and diplomatic missions in Paris and London—including the Louisiana Purchase negotiations—before landing in the Madison cabinet as both Secretary of State and, during crisis, acting War Secretary. In the presidency, we map the “Era of Good Feelings,” the Panic of 1819 stress test, the Adams–Onís Treaty that delivered Florida, and the foreign-policy north star that bears his name: the Monroe Doctrine. We also sit with the center’s cracks—sectional fights over the Missouri Compromise, party realignment, and the contradiction of a union expanding liberty while preserving slavery. Legacy, limits, and a statesman who tried to make consensus a governing strategy.

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