At the risk of seeming immodest, I pass along information about a lecture I've been asked to present at Mary Washington College, on a subject of possible interest to Va-Hist participants.


Fifteenth Annual James Monroe Lecture
October 29, 7:30 p.m.
Mary Washington College

“James Monroe and the Separatist Plot of 1786”

Historian Jon Kukla will present the Fifteenth Annual James Monroe Lecture on Tuesday, October 29, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of Woodard Campus Center, Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Sponsored by Mary Washington College and the James Monroe Memorial Foundation, Dr. Kukla’s lecture is entitled “James Monroe and the Separatist Plot of 1786: A Prelude to the Louisiana Purchase.” The lecture is based on previously unknown information from Spanish archives and Dr. Kukla’s forthcoming book, A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America, which will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in April 2003.
In a report to Governor Patrick Henry, Virginia Congressman James Monroe described an attempt by New England politicians to close the Mississippi River and force the Southern states out of the Union as “one of the most extraordinary transactions I have ever known.” Monroe played a central role in thwarting the Yankee separatists and protecting American interests in the Ohio River Valley. The event made him a hero to Westerners in the Kentucky and Tennessee territories and thereby contributed to his appointment in 1803 as special minister to France, where he and Robert Livingston negotiated the Louisiana Purchase.
The lecture is free and open to the public. For parking or other information call the James Monroe Museum at 540 654-1043 or visit the website at http://JamesMonroeMuseum.mwc.edu.

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I'm also presenting a somewhat different version of the talk, entitled “Mr. Henry’s Rat: The Jay-Gardoqui Negotiations and the Union of the States, 1785-1788,” at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday evening, November 12, in the Visitor Center at the Patrick Henry National Memorial, 1250 Red Hill Road, Brookneal, Virginia 24528.
   During the public debates over the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, someone asked Patrick Henry why he had declined to attend the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 (which drafted the plan of government that he opposed). Henry replied that “he smelt a rat.” I believe that the scheme that Monroe had reported to Governor Henry figured in Henry's change of heart about whether Virginia could trust the "Eastern states" in a stronger Union.

"Mr. Henry’s Rat” is also free and open to the public.






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Jon Kukla ....................... Executive Vice-President
1250 Red Hill Road ........ Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation
Brookneal, VA 24528 .... www.redhill.org .... 434 376-2044
Home 434 376-4172 ...... Office email: [log in to unmask]
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