Founding Fathers: Complete Biographies, Their Articles, Historical & Political Documents. Emory Speer
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before them. and insisted that they should adopt some plan of defense.
This they decided to do. but so little did they fear an attack from the British that they made no haste to carry out the plan.
Several thousand British soldiers were now assembled on the coast, and on the morning of August 19. 1814, a horseman rode rapidly through the valley between the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers, shouting wildly: "To arms! to arms! Cockburn is coming!" James Munroe, Secretary of State, had gone out to Watch the movements of the British and he now sent a message to the President. saying: "The enemy has advanced six miles along the road and our troops are retiring. You had better make preparations to leave."
The Secretary of War still insisted that there was no cause for alarm. The American soldiers could defeat and drive back the British before they could reach the city; but on August 22, President Madison decided to ride out and see for himself how matters stood.
Mrs. Madison had made arrangements for a state dinner party at the White House and she went bravely on with the preparations, refusing to be frightened while her husband remained in the city, but soon after he rode away a message came to her from James Monroe saying: "The enemy are in full march to Washington. Our troops are retiring. Have materials prepared to destroy the bridges. You had better remove the records."
Mrs. Madison at once gave orders to have all the public documents and records carried out of the city, and clerks and servants Worked all day and all night to place them beyond the reach of the British. Mrs. Madison herself waited anxiously for news of her husband. She knew there was danger for him not only from the British, but from his own people, who, having first blamed him for being too slow to declare war. now blamed him for all their misfortune, saying that he had caused the war and that it was he who had failed to defend the city.
Mrs. Madison was urged to leave the city at once since the British would undoubtedly destroy it, and she packed all her husband's valuable papers in trunks and placed them in her carriage ready for flight. Then all night long she waited for news of the President. About noon, on August 24, she heard the booming of cannon, and knew a battle was raging not many miles away.
Two hours later a messenger came riding into the town, his face grimed and bleeding, his horse panting and foam-covered. "Fly! Fly!" he shouted, "The enemy are upon us!" Close at his heels came men and soldiers running and shouting: "Fly! Fly! The British are here!" Then the people rushed from their houses and a terrible scene of confusion followed. A historian says:
"Screaming, shouting. jostling, trampling one another under foot in their headlong flight. the tumultuous concourse of men, women. children and horses rushed toward the river, and in a frenzied surging mass, fought their way across the Long Bridge, in frantic eagerness to escape from the doomed city, and find a refuge among the woods and hills of Virginia."
In great alarm, Mrs. Madison still awaited the return of her husband. Then she determined to save a life-size portrait of General Washington which hung in one of the rooms of the White House. Directing her servants to break the heavy frame with an axe she carefully rolled up the portrait. Some friends ran in crying "Fly, fly at once, Madam, the British are upon us." "Save this picture," she answered, "and if you cannot save it. destroy it. Do not let it fall into the hands of the British."
Then she ran out to her carriage, but stopped to think if she had saved everything valuable. The public documents and records were safe, but if the British burned the White House, was there anything belonging to the government that she had neglected to save? Instantly she turned and ran back into the house! The Declaration of Independence! She had forgotten that! The precious parchment was kept in a glass case on a table in one of the rooms. Back to that room sped Mistress Dorothy, and breaking the glass with her hands, seized the "priceless charter of American Freedom," and hastening to her carriage was driven away toward Georgetown. Once more she turned back, determined to find her husband, and met him just as he was leaving the town with some friends. Arranging to meet at a tavern about sixteen miles from the city both started on. Through the crowd Mrs. Madison's coachman made his way, and often she was obliged to get out and Walk where the road was rough, then the crowd jostled and jeered her. saying her husband was the cause of all this trouble. At last she took refuge in a farm-house, and the next day made her way to the tavern, where the President was waiting for her. Here an alarm was soon given that the British were coming in search of him, and the friends of the President hurried him away to a little cabin in the forest. Madison was the only President of the United States who was ever obliged to leave the Capitol or flee from an enemy.
During this time the British had been busy in the city. Admiral Cockburn had expected to take possession of the Navy Yard and Arsenal, and capture the military stores, but the Commandant of the Navy Yard obeyed the President's orders and set fire to them when he saw that they would fall into the hands of the British. Disappointed and angry, the Admiral commanded his soldiers to set tire to the Capitol. When this was done the lawless soldiers broke into the White House, ate up the State dinner prepared for Dolly Madison's guests, and then set tire to the house. Other public buildings were tired, and soon the whole city seemed in flames.
A terrible storm arose, the wind blew a hurricane, and the people, watching from their refuge in the Virginia hills, saw their beautiful city wrapped in sheets of flame. which spread farther and farther, higher and higher, until the heavens seemed one vivid glowing vault of fire. Shells stored in the arsenal were bursting, powder magazines exploding; great walls came crashing down, and then the awful storm of thunder, lightning, wind and rain burst over the doomed city.
Satisfied at the result of their work and the destruction caused by the storm, the British soldiers stole away in the night to their ships, carrying many dead and wounded comrades, killed and injured by the falling walls and the fury of the storm.
On the night of August 26, Mrs. Madison returned to Washington, stopping at the home of her sister, whose house had escaped the flames. The next day the President joined her but not many days afterward they went to Montpellier, where they remained a few weeks, until the city buildings were repaired.
But the loss of the city had one good result. The American people ceased to blame the President for the war, and eager to avenge the defeat and humiliation, won splendid victories at Baltimore and New Orleans, until the British, wearied by constant defeat, and greatly harassed by the French (with whom they were also at war) sought peace. The next December the treaty of Ghent was signed and peace was once more restored to the American nation. American ships could now come and go in safety, the nation had proved its ability to defend itself, and a common cause had bound the states in a closer union. President Madison was now as highly praised as he had been severely censured a short time before; but he deserved neither praise nor blame. The causes of war were beyond his control, and though a bolder, stronger man might have made a better fighter, Madison's wisdom and statesmanship may have saved the nation even greater loss than resulted from the War of 1812.
In 1816, James Monroe was chosen President, and after his inauguration. March 4, 1817, Mr. and Mrs. Madison retired to their home at Montpellier. Mr. Madison was now sixty-six years of age. while Mrs. Madison was but forty-five. The estate of Montpellier consisted of about twenty-five hundred acres of land and one hundred slaves. Mrs. Madison was also very wealthy, and they had built for themselves a beautiful new home close beside the old one. In the old house, where the President was born, his aged mother still lived, faithfully tended by the old servants, who had been young when she came as a bride to Montpellier. Mr. Madison was a devoted son and Mrs. Madison proved a model daughter-in-law. The old lady once said of her: "Dolly is my mother now. and cares most tenderly for all my wants." She died when ninety-eight years old.
Ex-President Madison was growing old now, though time had dealt kindly by him, and in his beautiful home, which looked out across a pleasant valley to the Blue Ridge mountains beyond, he lived twenty years. It was only thirty miles to Monticello, where Thomas Jefferson lived, and the two old friends and ex-presidents often visited each other.
Pretty Mistress Dolly was as charming a hostess in her country home as she had been in the White House, and many distinguished guests were entertained at Montpellier. Lafayette visited them when he came to America in 1825, and the house was often filled with kind friends who came to pay their respects to the old statesman.