August 20th, 2012
06:02 PM ET
If These Walls Could Talk: The night Dolley saved George“If These Walls Could Talk” is a weekly look back at the storied history of the White House – from Washington to Obama, from the absurd to the historic. Washington (CNN) – When Dolley Madison was fleeing the White House with George Washington's portrait among her few precious keepsakes, she couldn't have known that her place as a legendary White House figure was being cemented in that moment. But that event, which happened this week in 1814, has done exactly that. To this day, presidents and politicos alike retell the story of Dolley Madison and the Washington portrait. With the British marching into Washington during the War of 1812, Dolley, wife of the then-fourth president of the United States, James Madison, decided that instead of retaining the first couple's personal belongings, she wanted to save the iconic full-length portrait of George Washington. While being pressured to leave, Dolley insisted the portrait be saved, frame broken and canvas rolled up before everyone abandoned the White House. Little did Dolley Madison know the portrait she had saved was actually a copy of the Gilbert Stuart original. Much of the history from that interesting decision was recorded by Dolley Madison in a letter to her sister, Lucy Washington. Lucy had married the nephew of former President Washington. "My husband left me yesterday morng. to join Gen. Winder," wrote Dolley about her husbands decision to join his generals on the battlefield. "He enquired anxiously whether I had courage, or firmness to remain in the President's house until his return." The letter continues, with the notoriously social Dolley telling her sister that all her "friends and acquaintances are all gone." According to the White House Historical Association, "Dolley Madison continued entertaining at the White House until war virtually reached her doorstep." After a disastrous defeat in Bladensburg, Maryland, the battle that James Madison witnessed, the fate of Washington, D.C. seemed inevitable. "Will you believe it, my Sister? We have had a battle or skirmish near Bladensburg, and I am still here within sound of the cannon," Dolley wrote. "Mr. Madison comes not; may God protect him!" With Dolley and White House staff closely watching as British soldiers gathered in the distance, their fate was also apparent - they had to flee. With her servants in tow, Madison fled the White House with the expectation that the British soldiers were about to denigrate the capital of the United States. After writing to her sister that "Mr. Carroll," the man sent to hasten her departure, was in a bad mood because she insisted on keeping the Washington portrait, she describes the "perilous" moments it took to break the frame and remove the canvas. "And now, dear sister, I must leave this house, or the retreating army will make me a prisoner in it, by filling up the road I am directed to take," concluded Dolley. "When I shall again write you, or where I shall be tomorrow, I cannot tell!!" The Madisons would later be reunited, the White House would be rebuilt and the United States, after both naval and land victories, would go on to win the War of 1812. After the presidency, the Madisons retired to their estate - Montpelier - in Orange County, Virginia. James would die in 1836, leaving Dolley to live out life on her own. She would later move back to Washington, surrounded by the friends that she had entertained for years at the White House. In 1849, Dolley Madison died "honored and loved by all," according to her White House biography. Nearly 198 years after the portrait of George Washington was saved, the story of Dolley Madison's curious decision remains so engrained in White House lore that the future occupants of the house even joke about it. "When the British burned the White House in 1814. Dolley Madison famously saved this portrait of the first George W.," former President George W. Bush said at the unveiling of his presidential portrait. "Now Michelle, if anything happens, there is your man," Bush said to First Lady Michelle Obama while pointing to his new portrait. |
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dollie madison was a great lady out spoken and fair she would have been a democrat today.
the republican party was founded in 1854, usually called the party of Lincoln, to oppose slavery....also a reference to the early Jefferson republican party...dolly would not have been a modern day democrat...she would have thrown up in her mouth, in fact.
The Founding Fathers must be rolling over in their graves, in response to how Obama studied constitutional law, only to use his knowledge as a tool, to work around, disrespect, and rewrite the very constitution he, and all the previous Presidents, have sworn to uphold and protect.
@howard...obama was not constitutional law prof...he was a lecturer. He is not a constitutional law scholar...he IS a second rate lecturer/prof of sorts. Big difference. He has excelled only in salesmanship...never delivered the goods in any pursuit he has undertaken except to promote his rise to power. A very very poor resume' for any real management or leadership job.
Sure, Dolly would have been for abortion, gay rights, big centralized government, free health care and spending money without a budget. You're obviously on another planet and can't understand how stupid you sound.
This two bit community organizer is NOT the second coming, as you obama stooges seem to think. This fool is systematically destroying our economy, while pitting one half of America against the other half. You Obama stooges have lost sight of the fact that America is much, much, much more important than obama. He is expendable, and replaceable ... America is not !!!
Save America ... Replace Obama with Romney & Ryan in November.
yes if those walls could talk...JFK's hookerparties and there is slick willie clinton....boy!
those walls would have a lot to say bout the JFK hookerparties and the clinton revolving door....hahha sure going to be nice to get these children out of the White House and restore some integrity.
The U.S. did not win the War of 1812. By any objective assessment, it was a draw.
We don't know what Dolley was thinking about her legacy in August of 1812, but we do know that by the 1830s she fully understood that her saving the portrait of George Washington was, indeed, the key to her historical reputation, and took a number of concrete steps to ensure it. For more see the introduction to David B. Mattern and Holly C. Shulman, The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison, published by the University of Virginia Press. The real story is far more interesting and human. (credential: I am the editor of the Dolley Madison Digital Edition, University of Virginia Press)
We don't know what Dolley was thinking about her legacy in August of 1814, but we do know that by the 1830s she fully understood that her saving the portrait of George Washington was, indeed, the key to her historical reputation, and took a number of concrete steps to ensure it. For more see the introduction to David B. Mattern and Holly C. Shulman, The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison, published by the University of Virginia Press. The real story is far more interesting and human. (credential: I am the editor of the Dolley Madison Digital Edition, University of Virginia Press)
Michelle would flip off Bush as she ran.., its a progressively popular thing to do..
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