THE PORT FOLIO,

FOR

APRIL, 1818.

Embellished with a Portrait of JAMES MONROE, Esq.

CONTENTS.

PHILADELPHIA:

PUBLISHED BY HARRISON HALL, 133, CHESNUT-STREET, AND IN LONDON,

BY JOHN SOUTER, NO. 73, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, Agent for the sale of American Publications in England, Ireland, and Scotland.

J. Maxwell, Printer.

TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

Tat last number of this Miscellany was delayed partly by our desire, to make those corrections of the Plan of the Battle of Bunker Hill, which Gen. Dearborn was so obliging as to indicate, as necessary to the fidelity of the view. We were also retarded by the pressure of work in the printing office: we beg it, however, to be understood, that we do not consider ourselves bound to any particular day of publication. Though we may appear to be tardy, we are not idle.

The gentleman who transmitted a pamphlet of miscellaneous poetry, is entitled to our thanks for his civility.

Vinder ought to have been informed before this time, that his review of professor — -'s book has been deposited at the place indicated by him.

We should be glad to enlist him in our literary band.

Mr. Da Ponte, an Italian gentleman, who has resided some years in this commonwealth, and whose name we had occasion to introduce to our readers some time ago, has favoured us with a version of Beattie's Hermit, which should have found a place in this number, had it not previously been inserted in a cotemporary magazine at New York.

Our zealous friend, has transmitted a poetical translation of the Hermit into the Italian, which shall appear in due course. This will probably be found to be superior to that of Mariano, which we have published, or to that of Da Ponte.

Those subscribers who have not corresponded with the publisher during the present year, or the two which preceded it, are referred to a comical advertisement, which they will find in this number, page 325.

As the time has passed away

When icicles hang by the wall,

And Dick, the shepherd, blows his nail,

And Tom bears logs into the hall,

the notes of the chirping minstrels will soon

bring

In triumph to the world the youthful spring;

and we trust that Fancy will diffuse her opulence with a liberal hand among our poetical correspondents:

VOL. V.

THE PORT FOLIO.

FOURTH SERIES.

CONDUCTED BY OLIVER OLDSCHOOL, ESQ.

Various; that the mind

Of desultory man, studious of change

And pleased with novelty, may be indulged.-Cowper.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF JAMES MONROE, LL.D.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

JAMES MONROE was born in the year 1759, in Westmoreland county, Virginia. The place of his birth, a farm on the banks of the Potomac, has been held in his family upwards of one hundred and fifty years. Mr. Monroe was educated at William and Mary, the alma mater of many of our most distinguished statesmen. In the memorable year, 1776, when his country summoned all her courage to the tents, and all her wisdom to the cabinet, young Monroe's name was enrolled as that of a cadet, in the third Virginia regiment; a gallant band, commanded by general Mercer, who fell at the battle of Princeton. He soon received the commission of a lieutenant in Thornton's company, and marched, under the command of colonel Weedon, to New York, where his regiment joined the army of general Washington. Lieutenant Monroe was in the actions of Harlaem Heights, and White Plains; in the retreat through Jersey, and in the attack on Trenton, he bore a share. In the last affair he received a wound, and his good conduct during the action, was rewarded by the usual promotion, in a new regiment raised by colonel Thurston. Captain Monroe was next invited into the family of lord Sterling, under whom he serv

ed as an aid-de-camp in the campaigns of 1777 and 1778. He was engaged in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth; and his conduct was marked by the distinguished approbation of the commander in chief,

Captain Monroe being anxious to regain the rank in the line, which he lost when he became a member of the family of lord Sterling, he proposed, in 1778, to raise a corps in his native state. General Washington warmly recommended this measure, and the legislature authorized the captain to enlist a regiment, of which they promised him the command. In this laudable attempt he did not succeed; and, in the latter part of the year, he commenced the study of the law, in the office of Mr. Jefferson, who was then governor of the state. In 1780, after the capture of Charleston, he visited the southern army, then under the baron de Kalb, at the request of governor Jefferson, in the character of a military commissioner. In 1782 he was elected by the voters of King George county, a member of assembly; from which, he was immediately elevated, by that body, to a seat in the executive council. In the following year, we find him placed in congress, where he continued during the legal term of three years. From the journals of congress it would appear that he was an active member. The county of Spottsylvania made him a member of the legislature in 1787; and in 1788 he was one of the convention for devising a constitution for the United States. From 1790 to 1794 he was a member of the senate of the United States; and in the latter year he was appointed a minister plenipotentiary to the court of France, by general Washington. In this mission he was employed three years, when he was recalled, in consequence of his conduct having displeased the president. He published a book in defence of himself; which, like all other publications respecting the matters on which the ins and the outs are to decide, had the effect of a sufficjent vindication with his own party, while it furnished the other with the most satisfactory evidence of the propriety of general Washington's decision. In 1799 he was elected governor of Virginia; in which station he remained three years. On the expiration of this time, he was appointed, by president Jefferson, in conjunction with Mr. Livingston, then resident minister in France, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to that country; and he was empowered to act, in concert with Mr. Charles Pinck