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Rh Mrs. Elizabeth K. Monroe, nee Miss Elizabeth Kortright, was the daughter of Captain Lawrence Kortright, a former captain in the British army, who had remained in New York after the declaration of peace in 1783, rearing and educating his family of one son and four daughters. One of these daughters married Mr. Heyliger, late Grand Chamberlain to the King of Denmark. Of the other two, one married Mr. Knox, of New York, and the other was the wife of Nicholas Gouverneur, of New York.

James Monroe was a senator from Virginia when New York was the seat of government, and there met Miss Kortright, who is described as tall, graceful and beautiful, with highly polished manners. They were married in New York in 1786, during a session of Congress. Soon after their marriage Philadelphia was chosen as the Capital, Congress adjourning to that city. Senator Monroe and his gifted wife took up their residence in that city. In 1794 he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to France. With the prestige of his position as a senator and as a person of wealth and with Mrs. Monroe's accomplishments, they were destined to represent their country with great success.

It was while Mr. Monroe was American Minister to France that La Fayette, who had so gallantly fought under Washington for American independence, was taken prisoner by the Austrians and transferred successively from the dungeons of Wesel, Magdeburg, Glatz, Neisse and Olmutz, which differed only in forms of cruelty and horrors which they inflicted upon the defender of liberty in America. La Fayette, suffering in addition, unspeakable mental torture over the knowledge of the incarceration of Madame La Fayette and two of her innocent babes in the prison of La Force, naturally appealed to the American Minister.