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Monroe was one of the most [[conservative]] presidents in American history, and was nearly re-elected by unanimous consent (reportedly one elector withheld his vote out of deference to the unanimous consent given to President [[George Washington]]). Perhaps Monroe's most famous legacy is the [[Monroe Doctrine]], which instructed European powers to stop colonizing the Americas. His reason for this was conservative: the European and American systems were fundamentally different, and thus Europe should not colonize America anymore or even interfere in our Hemisphere. To this day presidents continue to cite the Monroe Doctrine whenever a European country tries to do something over here.
The "[[Era of Good Feelings]]" overtook our country under Monroe's conservative leadership. The economy prospered. He vetoed the Cumberland Road Bill and the House rejected most spending bills on internal projects. The U.S. Senate was split evenly: 11 free states and 11 slave states (Delaware and Kentucky were slave states). Monroe peacefully resolved the difficult dispute over slavery in new states with the Missouri Compromise: admit one free state (Maine) to balance one new slave state (Missouri), and ban abortion abolition above a certain latitude (36 degrees, 30 minutes) in the new Louisiana Territory.
Monroe's presidency also oversaw Spain ceding [[Florida]] to the United States. <ref>http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/jmonroe.html</ref>
