These are just some of the questions we tackled in this episode. How did the country and the world respond to the outcome of the crisis and the war?Īnd finally, what was First Lady Dolley Madison's role in the crisis? How did President Madison, the third president and the first to lead the country during a full-fledged war, respond to this crisis?
So, how did the United States get into another war with Britain so soon after establishing its independence?
It was only saved by the fateful intervention of a hurricane level storm that doused the flames.īy any definition, having your capital burned by foreign troops ranks as a crisis.
Before long, most of the city was ablaze. They then turned their attention to the Capitol building, the Library of Congress, and every other public building in the city. Washington DC was left to the whims of British soldiers who were eager to inflict vengeance in retaliation for the American burning of York, which was the capital of Ontario, the year before.Īrriving at the White House, which Dolley Madison had decked out for a dinner party, the British troops thoroughly enjoyed the feast and fine wine before systematically setting fire to the building. To avoid capture, president James Madison and First Lady Dolley Madison, along with most other public officials, fled the city. This week on The Past, The Promise, The Presidency: Presidential Crises we examine how James and Dolley Madison responded to The War of 1812, often referred to by both contemporaries and historians as the "Second War of Independence."Īs one of our guests said, this war was really a nothing war, except for a couple of days in August of 1814, when British forces routed the American defenses and marched on the nation's capital. A full transcript of this episode is available here.
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