CSPAN/FIRST LADIES ELIZABETH MONROE AND LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS April 02, 2014 8:00 p.m. ET (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) Male: Elizabeth Monroe was a true partner in her husband's career and it was a good sounding board for many policies and decisions that he had to evolve. Male: They were a love story if one ever was and absolutely devoted to each other. Male: Elizabeth Monroe had a very well-developed sense of style and image. And her jewelry is a reflection of that. Male: This is a woman who knew how to carry herself with great elegance. She always warranted your respect. Male: It was one of the most splendid White Houses that ever existed. It was called the Era of Good Feeling. Male: This is a woman who spoke French and my goodness what she could talk about. Male: Elizabeth was a very great beauty, described in one letter is a rose petal beauty but Mrs. Monroe received very seldom anything at the White House. She was a recluse. Absolutely hated it. Male: Hospitality, decorum, dignity, civility those are the words that come to mind. (END VIDEO CLIP) SUSAN SWAIN: Elizabeth Monroe served as First Lady for her husband James Monroe from 1817 to 1825, during a time known as The Era of Good Feelings. Coming up, we'll explore her life and what were not always happy times inside the White House for this cosmopolitan woman born into a well-to-do New York family, who married James Monroe at the age of 17 and traveled to Europe extensively with him before her tenure as First Lady, bringing with her to the White House a certain French sensibility. Good evening and welcome to CSPAN and the White House Historical Association's First Lady's Influence and Image. We're going to be looking at the life of Elizabeth Monroe and to do that, two guest at our table. Let me introduce them to you. Daniel Preston is the Editor of the James Monroe Papers at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia and Richard, Presidential Historian and Consultant to CSPAN for this series. Gentlemen, welcome. Dan Preston, the last program was Dolley Madison who perfected or maybe introduced and then perfected the art of power politics, really using a social forum to advance her husband's political agenda. What was Elizabeth Monroe's approach to the White House? DANIEL PRESTON: Elizabeth Monroe and Dolley Madison were great friends. They had been for years and years but they have very, very different temperament. Dolley Madison was very social by nature. She loved large reception, she loved dinners, was perfectly happy to get in her carriage go visiting all day long. Elizabeth Monroe wants to stay home with her family. She was devoted to her daughters, to her grandchildren. And at the White House, that's what she really enjoy, that's what she wanted to do. She wanted to be with her family. She did not like large crowds. It was very uncomfortable at the large receptions that the president had but was very charming in smaller groups, at small dinners when there was a small circle of friends together, a small group of visitors. Everyone praised her charm, her affability, her conversation, said she sparkled. So just a very, very different type of person than Dolley Madison. SWAIN: But Richard Norton Smith, explain Washington in this time period and how important social was to political. RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, it's interesting and of course as you've said that the Monroe years are popularly known as The Era of Good Feelings. I think you could probably take issue with that particularly the second term. What had happened was by that point we were as close to being a one party state as at anytime in American history. The old Federalist Party had basically died off, the war of 1812 had been concluded and a standoff that most Americans were willing to consider a victory, we had established once and for all our independence. And so it was a period of actually great boom in the country, physical expansion, a number of states came into the union during Monroe's day, and yet Washington City remained this very raw incomplete place with dirt roads. In some ways, Elizabeth Monroe like Louisa Adams suffers for her straits. They were both seen as somehow alien. Elizabeth of course was born in this country but in many ways she had her blossoming oversees in France especially. And the Monroe's became famous for the French-ness I guess with the way they approached life in the White House. That you can see it in the furniture of that they bought. You can see it in the food that they served. And then as now there was also a nativist element that took exception to a first lady who somehow didn't seem quite American enough. SWAIN: Well, to that end, let's take a look at some statistics about America in 1820. It is a booming country. A population of 9.6 million and now 23 states has a 33 percent growth since the 1810 census, slaves in the population numbered about 16 percent about 1.5 million and the largest cities New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Looks like Boston has fallen off that list from earlier times. SMITH: Well, and within that, you have the transportation revolution going on as well as in the 1800 there were only three roads over the Appalachia Mountains. During the Monroe years, you have the Erie Canal that's being dug in New York that will transform the economy. You have the Cumberland Road under construction from the capital into what is now West Virginia. You have this whole debate going on about internal improvements and what the role of the federal government should be and all that. So this is a country poised for an economic take off and Monroe presides over it much as Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s presided over a period of peace and prosperity. SWAIN: Dan Preston, as you worked your way academically through the Monroe Papers, how much documentary evidence is there about Elizabeth Monroe? PRESTON: Unfortunately, there's not a lot of family lore based upon what Monroe's elder daughter reported was that at some point after he left the presidency, Monroe burned all personal correspondents. There is one letter that survives that is written by Elizabeth, there is one letter from James to her that survives. What baffles me and drives me nuts is there's only one letter that she wrote to somebody else. She had an extensive correspondence with her sisters, with her friends and these letters don't seem to be anywhere. And I don't understand why not. It seems like somebody would have kept some of these. So consequently, having firsthand evidence of what she actually thought about things we don't have. There's a lot filtered of what people wrote about her. There are letters that Monroe wrote to his daughters, a few of which survived to his two sons-in-laws who were political advisors that talk about family matters. There's something – a Congressman write letters home – wrote letters home talking about meeting Mrs. Monroe. Other women in Washington recorded in their diaries meeting her. So there's a fair amount about her but we don't have really anything from her point of view which is very maddening. SWAIN: And what do we know from what we have about her relationship with her husband? PRESTON: They were absolutely devoted. They were apart for a couple of months here and there throughout their 44-year marriage, but usually they were together. There's a wonderful letter speaking of Congressman Samuel Mitchell from New York wrote his wife that he had been at a dinner at the White House or at the President's house when Jefferson was president and it was right before Monroe left to go to France to negotiate what became the Louisiana purchase. And Mitchell wrote to his wife saying Monroe has a fine conjugal feeling, he can't stand to be separated from his wife so he's taking her with him to go to Europe. And that was pretty much their attitude. He was devoted to family as well and as I said before that's really what they wanted to do. They had their choice of how they would spend time. It would be with their family. SWAIN: This program is interactive. We invite your phone calls and you can reach us if you live in the Eastern half of the United States at 202-585-3880 If you live in the mountain or Pacific Time zones 202-585-3881. You can tweet us using the #firstladies or you can post on our Facebook page, lots of ways to be involved. And in fact, let me turn to a Facebook poster, R.J Wilson (ph) who asked, "We have heard Elizabeth Monroe didn't like being First Lady. How did the American people of today feel about her?" Now, first of all, did she not like first lady or did she just not like the public parts of it? PRESTON: She did not like the public parts. She married James Monroe when he was a member of the Continental Congress. So through their entire adult life, he was in one public office or another. So she was very much used to him being a public figure, being in the US Senate, being Governor of Virginia, being abroad as a Minister of the United States, serving as Secretary of State.