James Monroe while expanding the United States at the expense of the Spanish Empire, from which he obtained Florida and the recognition of a border across the continent. Faced with the breakdown of the expansionist consensus over the question of slavery, the president tried to provide both North and South with guarantees that future expansion would not tip the balance of power between slave and free states, a system that, Weeks remarks, did indeed allow the continuation of American expansion for the best of four decades. Monroe pursued warmer relations with Britain in the aftermath of the War of 1812. In 1817
Alexander W. Monroe 1905, at his home near Romney. Monroe was survived by his second wife Margaret and their four children. Monroe is interred with his wife Margaret at Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney. In 1852, Monroe married his first wife, Sarah A. French, daughter of John and Eleanor French. Monroe and his wife Sarah had one son, James W. Monroe. Following Sarah's death, Monroe married his second wife, Margaret Ellen Pugh, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Pugh, on November 21, 1866. Monroe and Margaret had at least four children: Alexander W. Monroe Alexander W. Monroe (December 29, 1817 – March 16, 1905)