James Monroe comes to New Bern in 1819
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| Portrait of James Monroe, by Gilbert Stuart, 1817. National Gallery of Art. |
by John B. Green III
New Bern has experienced four presidential visits in its long history. The visits of George Washington in 1791 and Harry S. Truman in 1948 have long been celebrated and have entered the folklore of the town. For some reason, though, the visit of President James Monroe in 1819 is little remembered or celebrated. Yet President Monroe, like Washington twenty-eight years earlier, included New Bern in his southern tour of the United States, and his visit was as elaborate and festive as Washington's.
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| Carolina Centinel (New Bern), 17 April 1819. |
New Bernians followed the progress of President Monroe's journey through Virginia and then into North Carolina through newspaper accounts. As his party neared New Bern, the local preparations began to be made. Monroe was a Freemason like Washington, and so New Bern's St. John's Lodge No. 3 prepared a welcoming address to deliver to Monroe just as they had for Washington. The leaders of the town likewise prepared addresses and special events for the President's visit.
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| Carolina Centinel (New Bern), 3 April 1819. |
Monroe and his party, which included Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, arrived at the outskirts of town on Saturday, April 10, 1819. They were met by a welcoming committee and escorted to their lodgings through streets thronged with citizens. The Coor-Bishop Home, at that time the town-house of planter George Pollock, was placed at Monroe's disposal for the length of his stay. Once the president was settled in the waterfront home, the local U.S. Revenue Service cutter fired a national salute from just off-shore.
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| Coor-Bishop House, 500 block East Front Street. New Bern-Craven County Public Library. |
Later that evening Lucas J. Benners, Master of St. John's Masonic Lodge, visited the president and delivered the Lodge's welcoming address.
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| James Monroe's reply to the Lodge, Minute Book 3, St. John's Lodge No. 3, New Bern, NC. |
The following day, Sunday, was spent quietly with Monroe and his aides, and Calhoun and his wife attending Christ Episcopal Church.
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| Christ Church, from the Price-Fitch Map, c. 1822-1824. N.C. Division of Archives and History. |
Monday, April 12th, was the president's last full day in New Bern. The main event was a dinner at St. John's Lodge in the afternoon. On the way to the Lodge, the president and his party stopped at the nearby New Bern Academy where they were welcomed by the 225-member student body, all dressed in their finest.
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| New Bern Academy, from the Price-Fitch Map, c. 1822-1824. N.C. Division of Archives and History. |
The dinner at the Lodge was a grand and lengthy affair with twenty-two toasts offered on patriotic themes. After Monroe and his party retired for the evening, a further five toasts were offered honoring Monroe, Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, "The Star-Spangled Banner," and John Louis Taylor, Chief Justice of North Carolina and Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina.
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| St. John's Lodge No. 3, photo c. 1862. U.S. Military History Institute. |
President James Monroe left New Bern on the morning of April 13th, 1819, bound for points south. A small group of town officials and citizens accompanied the President for a short distance before bidding him farewell. Thus ended the presidential visit that few New Bernians today remember.
