James Monroe Law Office and other artifacts belonging to the Monroes, although most date to the 19th century. The outside includes a memorial garden to James Monroe, which features a bust of him sculpted by Margaret French Cresson, daughter of Daniel Chester French. This building housed the law office of the future United States President James Monroe from 1786 to 1789. Monroe had prior to this time served in the Virginia House of Delegates, and in the Congress of the Confederation, from which he resigned in 1786, dissatisfied with the politics of that body. In 1788 he was involved in the delegate to the
Era of Good Feelings good feelings" and a general mood of optimism emerged with hopes for political reconciliation. Monroe's landslide victory against Federalist Rufus King in the 1816 presidential election was so widely predicted that voter turnout was low. A spirit of reconciliation between Republicans and Federalists was well underway when Monroe assumed office in March 1817. As president, James Monroe was widely expected to facilitate a rapprochement of the political parties in order to harmonize the country in a common national outlook, rather than party interests. Both parties exhorted him to include a Federalist in his cabinet to symbolize the new era of