LEESBURG This month Virginians are celebrating with solemn ceremony the 250th birthday of James Monroe, this nation's fifth president. At Monroe's birthplace in Westmoreland County, Monroe Hall, county residents will join representatives of the James Monroe Memorial Foundation on April 26 at 10 a.m. to dedicate the first building in a com plex that ultimately will include the rebuilding of Monroe Hall on its original foundations and the outbuildings that were associated with Monroe's farm.

At 11 a.m. on Monday, April 28, -- Monroe's actual birthday -- a wreath with military honors will be laid at Monroe's elaborate tomb in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery. Finally, at 4 p.m. at Fort Monroe in Hampton, the secretary of the Army will preside over the ancient military ceremony of Retreat, practiced since the days of the Revolutionary Army, when, at the lowering of the flag, the U.S. Drum and Bugle Corps will sound the distinctive call for the end of the day.

It's good to see Monroe getting the attention that he has long deserved. He was a giant indeed. There was a time when he was the most popular of presidents, with thousands of places across the country -- cities, towns, villages, counties, schools, and streets -- named in his honor. His courage and his character were remembered for creating the "era of good feeling."

Monroe's principles of foreign policy were enshrined in the Monroe Doctrine, which is considered to be the last of our founding documents. He spent most of his life in public service, shaping his singular vision of a great nation, wholly independent, and extending from sea to shining sea.

When Monroe was born in 1758, he was already a sixth-generation American. But Monroe Hall was nothing so grand as its name. It was a small frame house. His father, Spence Monroe, was a hardworking Scots farmer; his mother Elizabeth Jones was of Welsh stock.

Yet Monroe was born into a charmed circle. Within a 10-mile radius may be found the birthplaces of George Washington, James Madison, and the Lees of Stratford Hall. He was the boyhood chum of John Marshall, and his uncle was Judge Joseph Jones, a barrister who had trained at the Temple Bar in London, and was one of the luminaries of the House of Burgesses (renamed the General Assembly in 1776).

When Monroe was orphaned at the age of 15, Jones sent him to William and Mary, where his keen intellect and brilliant preparation won him advanced placement. But not much learning was going on. Monroe tells us that he spent his time at the debates in the Capitol, and when the Governor's Palace was stormed and the militia's weapons taken back by a group of 24 patriots, Monroe was the youngest among them.

Monroe is the only president -- other than Washington -- who fought in the War for Independence, and the only one who received a near-mortal wound. He was struck in the neck by a bullet in the Battle of Trenton; he was in a brave advance party that crossed the Delaware the night before Washington and the main forces. He spent the bitter winter at Valley Forge, signing the oath of allegiance to the United States -- high treason in British eyes. He was elected repeatedly to the General Assembly, five times named governor of Virginia, and was sent as a delegate to Congress meeting in Annapolis for the ratification of the Treaty of Paris. He played a remarkable role in the Virginia Convention of 1787, which was critical to the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.

One of the first senators from Virginia to the U.S. Senate, he was then sent twice as minister (we would say ambassador) to France, twice to England, and once to Spain. Dispatched to France by his mentor Thomas Jefferson to secure free passage of trade through the port of New Orleans, Monroe exceeded his instructions and purchased the whole of the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon for $15 million, thereby doubling the size of the United States. Jefferson was delighted.

As Britain threatened war in the months leading up to 1812, President Madison ditched his incompetent secretary of state, and pleaded with his old friend Monroe to take the job. But the State Department was not the only problem. The foolish invasion of Canada was a disaster, Detroit was given up without a shot, the British invaded and marched on Washington. The secretary of war fled.

The day after the burning of the capital, Madison and Monroe entered a chaotic city. Madison made Monroe both secretary of war and secretary of state on the spot. Monroe took charge, and slowly the war turned around. With the Treasury bankrupt, Monroe took out personal loans and sent the funds to Andrew Jackson who was marching to New Orleans and ultimate victory. It was the second war for independence.

Monroe was the natural choice for president. His aim was to bring the country together again after the internal dissension of war. In his first inaugural address he laid out his intention of wiping out a national debt -- brought about by the war -- that had ballooned to $105 million. His debt reduction plan, continued by his successors, worked, actually arriving at zero debt in 1835.

Vowing never to allow the United States to be invaded again, he called for a major program of homeland security, building forts in strategic places on the coastline, including the one later named Fort Monroe.

Monroe completed his vision for a continent-wide United States through the acquisition of East Florida, and negotiations with Spain to define the western border of the Louisiana Purchase. There were only a few minor details such as Texas and California to be filled in later.

In the same way that the freedom of the United States finally had been secured, he recognized the independence of the republics in South America and declared in 1823 that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open to colonization by the authoritarian powers of Europe -- the principles we now call the Monroe Doctrine.

Monroe died in 1831. The date was July 4 of that year -- a circumstance in which his contemporaries saw the hand of providence.
James P. Lucier is the editor of 'The Diplomatic Writings of James Monroe,' and a trustee of the James Monroe Memorial Foundation. Contact him at jplsr@msn.com.