Thomas Bell Monroe, the son of Andrew J. and Ann Monroe, was born October 7, 1791 in Albemarie County, Virginia. He was a distant cousin of President James Monroe. The family emigrated to Scott County, Kentucky, as early as 1793. According to historian Samuel M. Wilson, Monroe "had few educational opportunities but of such as were within his reach he took full advantage."1
In 1816, Monroe was elected to represent Barren County in the Kentucky State Legislature. In 1819, he began the study law and subsequently moved to Frankfort, attending law school at Transylvania University, from which he graduated in 1822. In September, 1823, he became Secretary of State under Governor John Adair, a position he held for only one year. By appointment of Governor Desha, he became the reporter of the decisions of the court of appeals, and published Monroe's Kentucky Reports in seven volumes.2 On September 29, 1830, Monroe became the United States Attorney for Kentucky.
On the death of Judge John Boyle, President Andrew Jackson appointed him to the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky on March 8, 1834. Judge Monroe was known for his sense of justice and fairness, and his decisions were seldom reversed.3 Throughout his years on the District Court bench, Judge Monroe devoted time to deliver law lectures to students in his home4 and filled the chair of civil, international and criminal law at Transylvania University in Lexington. He was also professor of rhetoric, logic and history of law at Western Military Academy at Drennon Springs. He delivered law lectures at the University of Louisiana, while sitting on the bench.5 He received honorary LL.D.'s from the University of Louisiana, Centre College and Harvard University.
In September, 1861, Judge Monroe learned that an order for his arrest had been issued by Federal military authorities upon the grounds that he was a Southern sympathizer. He fled his home at Frankfort, taking refuge within the Confederate lines at Nashville,6 where at the age of seventy, he became the first person to formally take the oath of allegiance to the government of the Confederate States of America.7 An entry in the court records made by the clerk of the District Court of Kentucky in 1861 said: "Exact date unknown. Went south to join Confederate forces. This court has no Judge." President Abraham Lincoln immediately appointed Bland Ballard to replace Monroe on October 16, 1861.8
On November 20, 1861, a convention was held in Russellville, Kentucky, by the Southern sympathizers, whereby they set up a provisional government at Bowling Green and applied for admission to the Confederate States. Judge Monroe resigned his commission as U.S. District Judge and was elected as one of the deputies to the Provisional Congress. He was the first Kentucky representative to take his seat at Richmond on December 16, 1861.9 After the expiration of the Provincial Congress, and the end of the Civil War, he retired to private life and never returned to Kentucky, dying at his new home in Pass Christian, Mississippi, on December 24, 1865.10
In 1813, Monroe married Eliza Palmer Adair, daughter of former Governor John Adair. They were the parents of ten children: Victor Monroe, Anna Bell Monroe (Pindell), Catherine A. Monroe, Mary Hardin Monroe, John Adair Monroe, Margaret Monroe, Andrew Monroe, Elizabeth Monroe (Leovy), Thomas B. Monroe, Jr., and Benjamin James Monroe.11 |
