Despite his major role in early American history, President James Monroe has been the subject of limited scholarly work, due largely to the difficulty of locating his papers, especially in a published collection. Monroe scholarship is based on only 25 percent of his papers, and a great mass of material--over 25,000 items--has remained mostly unknown and unused until now. The eight-volume "Papers of James Monroe" project will fill a major gap in American history and provide access to the massive and widely scattered Monroe Papers, enabling scholars to revisit Monroe's role in the birth and...

This volume covers the start of James Monroe's tenure as U.S. minister to France, commencing with his appointment in May 1794 and running through March 1796, a year before his return home. Consisting mainly of Monroe's correspondence with the U.S. and French governments, and with fellow American diplomats, the documents in this volume shed much light on the controversy surrounding the Jay Treaty and on Monroe's efforts to secure the release of two famous prisoners--Thomas Paine, author of "Common Sense," and Madame Lafayette, wife of the American Revolutionary War hero. Monroe's...