ca; but in
the end, it enabled us to regain possession of the posts which
England had persisted in occupying along the western boundary, and
banished forever any fear that she might, at any time in the future,
attempt to reassert her sovereignty over the United States.

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