Volume 4 of The Papers of James Monroe collects Monroe's papers and correspondence from the period 1796–1802, covering his last years as U.S. minister to France and his term as governor of Virginia.
Despite his major role in early American history, President James Monroe has been the subject of limited scholarly work, due largely to the difficulty of locating his papers, especially in a published collection. Monroe scholarship is based on only 25 percent of his papers, and a great mass of material—over 25,000 items—has remained mostly unknown and unused until now. The Papers of James Monroe: Selected Correspondence and Papers, 1796–1802 is the fourth of eight volumes that will fill a major gap in American history and provide access to the massive and widely scattered Monroe Papers, enabling scholars to revisit Monroe's role in the birth and infancy of the United States.

This fourth volume of the acclaimed ongoing series The Papers of James Monroe continues this exhaustive project, presents correspondence and documents in chronological sequence for the period of April 1796 through December 1802. Subjects covered include Monroe's final months as U.S. Minister to France, the political battles of the 1790s, and Monroe's three-year term as governor of Virginia.