My name is James Monroe and I was the 5th President of the United States, born on April 28, 1758 in Virginia. I served two terms of office from 1817 to 1825 and was also one of the Founding Fathers who helped unite the 13 colonies together. My road to becoming the president of the nation started when I was a young boy. 
I did not get much education during my childhood as my labor was needed on the farms. While I was in school, I formed a lifelong friendship with John Marshall who would eventually become the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835. When my parents had passed away, I inherited their property and slaves but was still forced to withdraw from my school to take care of my younger siblings. My maternal uncle, Joseph Jones, became a surrogate father for me and my brothers. He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and took me to the capital of Virginia where I was enrolled into the College of William and Mary. There, I was introduced to important political Virginians such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, who were all going to be part of the Founding Fathers in 1787.
	Near 1774, there was a rising tension between the Thirteen Colonies and the British government. I became more involved in the opposition to Lord Dunmore, a colonial governor of Virginia, and took part in the storming of the Governor’s Palace. About a year into my enrollment, I dropped out of college and joined the 3rd Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army. I quickly rose through the ranks during my time serving the country and was granted the role of lieutenant. After a few months of training, myself and 700 Virginian soldiers were called to the north to serve in the New York and New Jersey Campaign. This campaign was a series of battles in 1776 and 1777 for control of the Port of New York and the state of New Jersey during the American Revolutionary War. I fought alongside George Washington and his men during this time and was promoted to captain by Washington himself for my courage and bravery that I showed in the battles.
	After the war, I was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1782, and just one year after, in 1783, I was elected to the Congress of the Confederation, otherwise known as the Continental Congress. As the modern-day Congress known today had not yet been created, this was a different form of government which was a unicameral body with a legislative and executive function, composed of elected delegates from the states who each had one vote. I served three years in the Continental Congress until I retired due to the rule of rotation. During my time serving in Congress, I became an advocate for western expansion and played a key role in the writing of the Northwest Ordinance, which created a method of admitting new states to the Union and listed a bill of rights guaranteed in the territory. After I had left the Congress in 1786, I focused on my legal career, becoming an attorney for the state. However, the next year, I won an election for another term in the Virginia House of Delegates. In 1788, I was selected as a delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention. During this convention, I was worried about surrendering taxation powers to the central government and did not like how there was no bill of rights involved. Although I promised to pass a bill of rights and voted against the constitution, the Virginia Convention ratified the constitution by a narrow vote and it was approved. Eventually, all thirteen states voted for the constitution and it was made official. In the following year, George Washington became the first president of the United States.
Patrick Henry, an anti-federalist, recruited me to run against James Madison in the First Congress. This would be the first ever Congress Committee and it could change the ways of the government drastically. In the final elections, Madison took the lead and won the election with 1300 votes. However, in 1790, Senator William Grayson passed away and I took his place in the First Congress. During this time, the government was getting increasingly worried about the tension between us and France. The French Revolution had just occurred and it was dominating the U.S. foreign policy with both Britain and France threatening trade with Europe. To try and prevent a war from taking place between the two nations, Washington made me his ambassador to France.
After a few years, in 1816, I decided to run for the office of President. My leadership and bravery during the war had won me support and people trusted me as Madison’s successor. I became the 5th President of the United States.