Madison was also fortunate in his wife, the beautiful and brilliant Dolly Payne Todd, who played so prominent a part in the social life of the time, and who, when the British were marching into Washington to sack that city, managed to save some of the treasures of the White House from the invaders.  It is difficult for us to realize, at this distant day, that our beautiful capital was once in the enemy’s hands, given over to the flames; that was one of the great disgraces of the War of 1812; for the only force which rallied to the defense of the city was a few regiments of untrained militia, which could not stand for a minute before the British regulars, but ran away at the first fire.

Madison and his wife, however, soon came back to the White House from which they had been driven, and remained there four years longer, until the close of his second term, in 1817.  For nearly a score of years thereafter, they lived a happy and tranquil life on their estate, Montpelier.

It is somewhat difficult to estimate Madison.  He stood on a sort of middle ground between Jefferson and Hamilton.  Earlier in his career, Hamilton influenced him deeply in regard to the adoption of the Constitution, of which he has been called the father.  But, at a later date, Jefferson’s influence became uppermost, and Madison swung over to the extreme of the state rights view, and drew the resolutions of the Virginia legislature declaring the Alien and Sedition laws “utterly null and void and of no effect,” so that he has also been called the “Father of Nullification.”  However unstable his opinions may have been, there is no questioning his patriotism or the purity of his motives.

Again the presidential tradition was to remain unbroken, for Madison’s successor was James Monroe, his secretary of state, a Virginian and a Democrat.  The preponderance of the Democratic party was never more in evidence, for while he received 183 electoral votes, Rufus King, the Federalist candidate, received only 34.  This, however, was as nothing to the great personal triumph he achieved four years later, when, as a candidate for re-election, only one vote was cast against him, and that by a man who voted as he did because he did not wish to see a second President chosen with the unanimity which had honored Washington.

Monroe is principally remembered to-day from a “doctrine” enunciated by him and known by his name, which remains a vital portion of American policy.  It was in 1823 that he declared that the United States would consider any attempt of a European power to establish itself in this hemisphere as dangerous to her peace and safety, and as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition.  The language is cautious and diplomatic, but what it means in plain English is that the United States will resist by force any attempt of a European power to conquer and colonize any portion of the three Americas—­in other words, that this country will safeguard the independence of all her neighbors.  This principle has come to be regarded as a basic one in the foreign relations of the United States, and while no European power has formally acknowledged it, more than one have had to bow before it.  It is interesting to know that the enunciation of such a “doctrine” was recommended by Thomas Jefferson, and that Jefferson was Monroe’s constant adviser throughout his career.