James Monroe (April 28, 1758 - July 4, 1831) was the 5th President of the United States (1817-25). He was the last president who was a Founding Father, and the third of them to die on Independence Day. In 1790 he was elected to the Senate of the first US Congress, where he joined the Jeffersonians. He gained experience as an executive as the Governor of Virginia and rose to national prominence as a diplomat in France, when he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. During the War of 1812, he held the critical roles of Secretary of State and the Secretary of War under President Madison. He was elected president in 1816, winning over 80 percent of the electoral vote. He supported the founding of colonies in Africa for free African-Americans that would eventually form the nation of Liberia. In 1823, he announced the US opposition to any European intervention in the recently independent countries of the Americas with the Monroe Doctrine, which became a landmark in American foreign policy. He died in 1831 at the age of 73.