Show A FUGITIVE PRESIDENT 0 1809 james madison inaugurated president aged fifty seven 1812 june 19 war declared 1814 aug 2427 24 27 in flight from the british doc dec 28 treaty of peace 1817 madison retired from presidency 1826 rector in university of virginia 1829 in constitutional convention ven tion 1836 june 28 died aged eighty five 0 BUT for the smiles of ills his blo blooming om JI dolly matisons Madi sons admInIs tra would be a desert without an oasis over whose dreary iry expanse the weary biographer would wander athirst for human anecdotes her bubbling spirits rell relieved eved the austerity of Jeffers jeffersonian Jenerson onlan ian simplicity and won her a popularity that has been eq equaled if nt at nil all among the mi stresses of the white house only by sirs mrs cleveland unless grant must be excepted madison Is the only president who nho found the presidency an anticlimax to his career one of the really great lawgivers law givers of the nation he be was without executive force with a weak cabinet this gentle tempered pence peace loving scholar found himself adrift on the turbid sea of the great napoleonic wars perhaps pc chaps it was no longer possible to keep us out of the war when at last the united states was the only neutral left in the civilized world after 20 years of kicking and cuffing froni from both sides in the european conflict bullied by england and lied to by napoleon the country was sore all over when nhen the war hawks of congress under the youthful henry clay seized the tiller of fhe he ship of state from matisons Madi sons irresolute hand and recklessly pointed the vessel straight into the teeth of the storm the seaboard east was more for peace arid and at that time the mill military tary section was the new west where the Tenness eans and kentuckians Kentuck lans ians Indi anians and ohioans were lustily shouting on to canada I 1 overborne by their rash counsels madison consented ns its lie he said to throw forward the flag of the country sure that hat the people would press onward and defend it without competent civilian military lenders without financial credit without war equipment the people could not press onward as any history of the dismal wr of 1812 will tell you even the capital was left undefended and madison SIad lson in a little round hat fiat with a big cockade ran about in helpless bewilderment as the british marched upon washington with the invaders entering at one side of the defenseless town the president fled at the he other As he be turned he saw the ho flames shooting up I 1 T james jamea madison Ma dlton behind him lie he fled faster and further farther while the british commander was blowing out candles on his dinner table that dint he be might feast in the light of the burning white house its fugitive master was hiding in a forest after an absente of three days a heavyhearted heavy hearted shattered bo houseless useless president returned to view the charred walls of his official residence and of the capitol at every turn tum lie he was greeted by ugly mutterings rings of the general disposition to make him the scapegoat tor for all the national shortcomings colln gs in a war that mid had been thrust upon him but with victory at new orleans and the return of peace the voice voce of the alie faultfinder was drowned in the hum of sudden prosperity and in the closing days of his administration Ma madison dilson was cheered he ered by ninny many as assurances su rances that his countrymen were not forgetful of the 40 years that he had served them in pure devotion like john adams lie ho emerged from his retirement to sit alt in the constitutional convention of h his Is state where the aged statesman closed his hl active public life as ile he had opened it with a sentiment of humanity for tho the slaves Cos 1920 by jarnes jame marima |