Cultural English 455 - Presidents: James Monroe; Q&A

Complete Transcript

You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 455.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café episode 455. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

On this Café, we’re going to talk about the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe. Monroe had a long career in politics before becoming president, and is responsible for many important changes that were made in the United States in the early 1800s. And, as always, we’ll answer a few of your questions. Let’s get started.

We discuss on this Café the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe. Monroe was born in West Moreland County, Virginia, in 1758. He grew up on a farm owned by his family, and at the age of 16, in 1774, entered the College of William and Mary, which is located in Williamsburg, Virginia, 155 miles or so southeast of Washington, D.C. The College of William and Mary is the second-oldest university in the U.S. The oldest is Harvard.

Monroe left the university only two years later, however, to join the army and fight in the American Revolution, which started in 1776. Monroe had a very successful career in the army. He fought with George Washington, our first president, and was promoted quickly. “To be promoted” (promoted) means to be given a higher position and more power. You can be promoted in your company, for example, by being given a more important, more powerful job.

Monroe was promoted in the army during the Revolutionary War. He was injured – that is, hurt – in the Battle of Trenton in New Jersey in December of 1776 and almost died. He recovered – that is, got better – and was able to continue serving in the army. Monroe retired from the army in 1780 and went to study law with a man who was also to become a president – Thomas Jefferson, who was then governor of the state of Virginia.

Monroe and Jefferson became very good friends. They had similar beliefs about government and about how the United States should be run. Jefferson introduced Monroe to James Madison, who later became the fourth president of the United States. Monroe would serve in the governments – that is, he would have important positions in the governments – of both Jefferson and Madison while they were president.

In 1782, Monroe began his political career. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. A “delegate” (delegate) is a person who represents other people in a political office. Monroe then went on to serve as a representative in the first national government of the U.S. under what was called the Articles of Confederation. Monroe later served as a U.S. senator under the new Constitution of the United States a few years later.

In 1786, the 27-year-old Monroe married the 17-year-old Elizabeth Kortright, although such marriages were certainly not uncommon at that time. Together James and Elizabeth had three children: Eliza, born in 1786; James, born in 1799; and Maria, born in 1803. James died as a very young child, but the two daughters lived to become adults.

During the Revolutionary War, Monroe had served with the leader of the Revolutionary Army – the man who later became our first president – George Washington, but after Washington became president, Monroe opposed, or was against, many of Washington’s policies and ideas. Despite this, Washington appointed Monroe to be the U.S. representative, or minister, to France in 1794. “To be appointed” (appointed) means to be chosen to do a specific job or task. For most political positions in the U.S., you are either appointed or elected – that is, chosen through some sort of vote by the people.

Monroe had spent time in France and had a very good relationship with the French and their government. He was what we might call a “Francophile,” a lover of all things French. In fact, his two daughters, whom Monroe brought with him to Paris, often spoke French to each other growing up. But Washington didn’t send Monroe to France to fall in love with French culture, but rather to improve the relationship between the United States and France. The United States wanted to sign new agreements with France concerning trade, or the buying and selling of goods.

France, however, did not want to sign the new agreements. Washington hoped that Monroe would help get the agreements signed. Instead, Monroe apparently spoke badly of Washington to the French. After two years, Washington called Monroe back to the United States because the agreements had not been signed. He did not know that Monroe had been speaking badly of him to the French, but he wasn’t happy with Monroe’s performance as a minister.

Monroe went back to Virginia after leaving France and was elected governor there in 1799. A “governor” (governor) is the leader of a state the way the president is the leader of the country. Monroe was re-elected two times and served as governor until 1802. Thomas Jefferson, Monroe’s friend, had been elected president in 1801. In 1803, he appointed Monroe as a special envoy to France.

An “envoy” (envoy) is normally a person who brings messages from one country to another, although it is used more generally to mean a special representative of a country – someone who represents the country in addition to the regular ambassador or minister. Monroe was asked to go to France to help the regular minister to France, a man named Livingston, get the French to agree to sell some land to the United States.

Monroe and Livingston worked with Napoleon, who was leading France at the time. They found out that Napoleon was happy to sell the United States the land that the French owned, and more. This purchase from the French doubled the size of the United States, stretching the country across the Mississippi River into what are now the states of Montana, Wyoming, and Oklahoma. This was called the Louisiana Purchase, and was signed in May of 1803.

After his work in France, Monroe went to London to serve as Jefferson’s minister to Great Britain. Monroe was less successful in this position, in this role. He was unable to get the British to agree to anything that Jefferson wanted. So, he came home in December of 1807.

In 1811, a few years later, Monroe was again asked to be part of the national government, this time as President James Madison’s secretary of state. The secretary of state is the person in the government who is in charge of working with other countries for the United States. This was a very important position at this time because less than a year later, in June of 1812, another war would start between Great Britain and the U.S., what we call the War of 1812.

Monroe was later asked to serve as the secretary of war from 1814 until 1815, as well as secretary of state. The secretary of war was in charge of the United States military, although we now call that position the secretary of defense. In 1816 Monroe himself was elected president of the United States. He served two four-year terms, or periods of time as president, and so was president until 1825.

While he was president, the United States enjoyed a period of peace instead of war, as well as a period of prosperity. “Prosperity” (prosperity) means having more than enough money to live on and not being worried about running out of money. Because of this, Monroe’s presidency was called the “era,” or period, “of good feelings.”

Several important events took place during Monroe’s time as president. As president, Monroe paid a lot of attention to foreign affairs – the relationships with other countries. The United States took over land from the Spanish in what is now the state of Florida during these years. The U.S. also recognized the new countries in Central and South America as independent countries and as no longer belonging to European nations.

But the most important thing that Monroe did – what he is still remembered for in American history – is introduce four principles of American foreign policy, what later became known as the “Monroe Doctrine.” On December second, 1823, President Monroe gave a speech to Congress in Washington, D.C. In the speech, Monroe talked about four principals or ideas that the United States would follow in dealing with other countries.

The first was that the United States would not get involved in the relationships between the European countries. This was not really a new idea, as all of the previous presidents had basically said and believed the same thing. The second was that the United States would not get involved with the colonies of European countries that were in the Western Hemisphere. The Western Hemisphere (hemisphere) is essentially what we would call North and South America, but includes the islands around these two continents, especially the islands of the Caribbean.

The third principle of the Monroe Doctrine was that no European country could colonize new areas in the Western Hemisphere. “To colonize” (colonize) means to take over a land and its people and begin to rule it. Monroe was saying that the U.S. would recognize the colonies that already existed in the Western Hemisphere, but would not allow Europe to create new colonies from now on.

This was a new concept, one which some historians say was actually the idea of Monroe’s secretary of state, a man named John Quincy Adams, who himself would later become president. The vital principle was that if any European country tried to control any nation in the Western Hemisphere by influencing or controlling their government, the United States would treat that as an attack on the United States itself and would fight back.

Now, at the time, the United States did not have the military power to prevent Europeans from doing what they wanted to in most of the Western Hemisphere as Monroe had promised it would. It was only after the United States became a much more powerful nation – around the turn of the century, in 1900 – that the principles which became known as the Monroe Doctrine would have real meaning and power, especially as extended by President Theodore Roosevelt.

I should mention that a “doctrine” (doctrine) is a set of beliefs that is held by a political party, church, or group of people. Usually you hear it in a religious context, but here we are talking obviously about political groups. Even today, the Monroe Doctrine and the idea that the United States has what some have called a “sphere of influence” in the Western Hemisphere remains an important part of American foreign policy – a policy not always welcomed by other countries in this hemisphere.

Monroe left the office of the president in 1825 when his second term was finished. He went back to Virginia and served as regent, or head administrator, for the University of Virginia, which was the university that Thomas Jefferson founded, or had started – a university that is still around today.

Despite Monroe’s successful career, he was in debt for most of his life. “To be in debt” (debt) means that he owed a lot of money to different people and did not have any extra money to spend. This was in part because both he and his wife enjoyed expensive things, especially expensive things from France. They wore French clothing, had French furniture in their home, and used other things that were made in and shipped from France.

In 1826, Monroe asked Congress to reimburse, or pay him back, some of the money that he spent while working in Europe. Congress agreed and paid him $30,000. This did not clear him or get him out of debt, however, so he asked once again for money. In 1831, Congress gave him another $30,000.

Monroe died on July 4, 1831, at the age of 73, on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Two other presidents died on July Fourth a few years earlier: Monroe’s friend Thomas Jefferson, and our second president, James Adams. Monroe died in New York, where he was living with his daughter Maria after the death of his wife in 1830. After he died, Congress agreed to buy some of Monroe’s papers, some of Monroe’s documents, in order to give his family a little bit more money.

Monroe is still remembered today, and not just in the United States. While president, Monroe supported the establishment of a new country in Africa called Liberia. Liberia was established for freed African slaves, some of whom went to Africa after gaining their freedom in the United States. The capital of Liberia is still Monrovia, named after President Monroe.

James Monroe accomplished a lot as a member of the army, a politician, and president of the United States. Despite this, he is often not spoken of as an important figure in American history. This is likely because he lived at the time of three very famous presidents: George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson – our first three presidents. His influence continues today, however, in the way that the United States deals with other countries in its foreign policy.

Now let’s answer a few of your questions.

Our first question comes from Min Joong (Min Joong) in South Korea. The question has to do with three somewhat similar words: “oppress,” “repress,” and “suppress.” Let’s start with “oppress” (oppress). “To oppress” means to keep people under control by using a lot of force, a lot of violence.

We usually use this verb in a political sense, to refer to a group of people or a government that is preventing other people from having certain rights of living the way they want to live. The noun form is “oppression,” and when you hear the word “oppression,” like the verb “to oppress,” usually you think of political activity that prevents certain groups from being free or from exercising their rights. It is often used when this situation goes on for a very long time.

“To suppress” (suppress) means to put an end to something by force – to use, often, physical violence to stop something. It’s little different than “oppress,” which can go on for many years and often is related to some political situation. “To suppress” means to stop some group. It can also be related to their political views, of course, but it is much more an act of doing something in order to stop it, in order to end it.

The third word is “repress” (repress). “To repress” also means to control people by force or violence, and so it has some similarity with “suppress.” However, like “oppress,” “repress” usually involves a long-term action by a group or a government to stop something from ever happening again.

So, for example, if there is a group in your country that the government doesn’t like, it might stop the group from organizing. It might “suppress” any demonstrations out in the street. It then might try to “repress” that group by arresting its leaders and doing everything it can so that the group is never powerful again.

The differences here are sometimes subtle and often relate to the context of something. “Oppression” is usually something that has been going on for a long time, perhaps hundreds of years. “Suppression” is usually an action that the government takes to stop some political group, but it’s a short-term type of action. “Repress” is a longer-term action where a government tries to stop a group from being powerful by doing everything it can to prevent the group from ever having demonstrations or even having leaders.

There are other uses of all three of these verbs, but those are some of the most common ones, especially when we’re talking about a political situation.

Our next question comes from Valerie (Valerie) in Singapore. Valerie wants to know whether we use the expression “fruit and vegetables” or “fruits” – plural – “and vegetables.” Do you put an “s” after the word “fruit” if you are referring to lots of different kinds of fruit?

Well, this is an interesting question because I think you will hear in American English both expressions. You may hear some people say “fruit and vegetables” when they mean more than one kind of fruit – bananas and apples and pears and plums and so forth – but you will also hear people use “fruit” with an “s” at the end: “fruits and vegetables.” There is no difference in meaning. The two things mean the same thing. Sometimes people will put an “s” after “fruit” and sometimes people will not, even though they mean the same thing: more than one kind of fruit.

Now, having said all that, if you look this up in a grammar book, you’ll find a long discussion about what’s called a “count noun” and a “non-count noun.” I don’t want to go into that here. It is possible and is quite common to use “fruit” as what we would call a “non-count noun” to refer to the general category of fruit. “You need to eat more fruit in your diet,” or “You should try to eat fresh fruit.” Both of those are possible. However, for vegetables, it is always a count noun. You can’t say, “You need to eat more fresh vegetable.” You would have to say, “You need to eat more fresh vegetables.”

The confusion comes from the fact that “fruit” can be both what we call a “count noun” and a “non-count noun,” and when used as a “count noun,” it can have an “s” at the end for the plural, and when used as a “non-count noun,” it doesn’t. It all depends on what the person who is speaking has in mind, what their meaning is, although I would guess that for most people, they really are talking about the same thing – a variety of plants under the category of fruit. “Vegetable,” however, is always a count noun, and when used in the plural must have an “s” at the end.

Our final question comes from the Farhod (Farhod) in Uzbekistan. The question has to do with two expressions that would relate perhaps to your computer or email. The first one is “File not sent.” The second one is “File not supported.”

A “file,” when talking about computers and the Internet, usually refers to some form of digital information. “File” can also refer to a collection of papers related to the same topic that you might keep in your office, for example. However, when we’re talking about computers and the Internet, we’re talking usually about digital format, such as MP3 or PDF or Word documents.

If you are sending an email and you attach (notice we use the verb “to attach”) a certain file to that email so that in addition to the message you are sending, the person also receives that file – if you are doing all of this and the computer, after you hit “send,” says, “File not sent,” that means that whatever file you attached – whatever Word document or PDF document or MP3 file or whatever it was – did not, in fact, get sent to the person you were sending it to. There was some mistake – perhaps the file was too big and your email service doesn’t support big files. There may be a lot of reasons why that happens. Don’t ask me; talk to the information technology experts at your company!

The other expression, “File not supported,” is a little different. When we say a file “is supported,” we mean that the particular computer or piece of software on the computer is able to do something with that file – we would say “read” that file. So, for example, someone sends you a PDF document, and you try to look at or open that file in your Microsoft Word program. You might get an error message, a message that says you did something wrong. I’m not sure exactly what the message is, but it could be “File not supported.”

The idea here is that this file is not one that you can open or use with this particular program or piece of software. Both expressions, “File not sent” and “File not supported,” aren’t complete sentences. They’re usually warnings or indications that a computer program might give you to tell you that the file was not sent or that the file is not supported.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Come back and listen to us again right here on the English Café.

Glossary

delegate – a person who represents other people while working in a job in the government; a person who has the responsibility of representing a person’s or a group’s ideas or views at an important meeting or other gathering

* The delegate from New York voted in favor of the new law because he thought it would help New Yorkers.

to appoint – to assign a job or role to someone; to give someone a job or position

* Bektas was appointed chef for the evening’s dinner since he was the best cook in the group.

governor – a person elected to be in charge of a state; the highest-level elected government official in a state

* The governor approved the new law requiring everyone riding in a car to wear a seatbelt.

envoy – a person sent from one country to deliver an official message to another country usually for the purposes of creating or managing a relationship between the two countries

* At the end of the war, the losing country sent an envoy to tell the other countries that it surrendered.

Secretary of State – the highest-level government official in charge of building and maintaining a relationship with other countries and who is also the head of the U.S. State Department and in charge of all the employees an officials who represent the United States in other countries

* The new Secretary of State traveled to several countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa to visit governments and to negotiate agreements.

prosperity – having wealth and valuable things; having a lot of money and being able to afford to buy things beyond what one needs to live

* After she won the lottery, Yvette enjoyed her prosperity, pay off all of her debt and buying a new house.

foreign affairs – the relationship one country has with another country and how they manage that relationship

* We need someone who is an expert in foreign affairs for our new office in South Africa.

Western Hemisphere – the half of the Earth that contains the continents of North and South America, as well as the islands and the waters surrounding those continents

* How many time zones are in the Western Hemisphere?

to colonize – to take control of a land and its people and begin to rule it

* Great Britain colonized much of the world, including India and parts of Africa.

doctrine – a set of beliefs held by a church, political organization, or large group of people

* Many of the doctrines of Christianity come from stories in the Bible.

to be in debt – to owe money to other people or organizations; having borrowed money and needing to pay it back

* After completing her university and graduate school studies, Kirin was in debt for over $200,000.

to reimburse – to pay someone back the money that he or she spent while doing a job or task; to pay an employee back money that he or she spent while on business for his or her company

* Aisha paid for her hotel room and rental car on her business trip, and her company reimbursed her the full amount when she returned to the office.

to oppress – to keep down by force, using very harsh and unfair actions

* In some countries, women feel oppressed because they cannot vote or serve in important government positions.

to suppress – to put an end to with force; to keep from being revealed; to prevent an action

* It was hard to suppress their laughter when the boss slipped and fell in the mud.

to repress – to put down by force, usually before total control has been lost

* The doctor believed that Don’s headaches were due to his repressed feelings of anger over his sister’s death.

What Insiders Know

The College of William and Mary

The College of William and Mary is one of the oldest universities in the United States. It was “founded” (created) on February 8, 1693 before the American “colonies” (land ruled by a country far away) became the United States.

The College of William & Mary was named “in honor of” (to show respect for) King William III and Queen Mary II, the “reigning” (ruling) king and queen of England at the time the university was founded.

Located in the colony of Virginia before Virginia became a state, it was founded to teach both the sons of the “colonists” (settlers; the people who traveled from elsewhere to settle and live there) and “Native American” (American Indian; the people who originally lived in what is now the United States) young men in that area.

The original plan for the college “dates back to” (began; was from the time of) 1618, many years before the oldest college in the United States – Harvard University – was built. “Construction” (building), however, began in 1695, starting with the Christopher Wren Building, which is now the oldest university building in the United States.

In addition to being one of the country’s oldest universities, The College of William and Mary is also known for educating many of the “founding fathers,” the very important men who helped to establish the United States as a country. In addition to President James Monroe, presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Tyler also studied there. It is also the place where “key figures” (important people) in American history “graduated” (completed their studies), including Peyton Randolph, Henry Clay, and John Marshall.