Dolley Madison: a first lady who kept her wits in a time of crisis

On August 24, 1814, First Lady Dolley Madison and several slaves were alone in the White House.

President James Madison had gone to Bladensburg, Maryland, to be with the American army while it awaited an assault by advancing British troops. But the Americans suffered a crushing defeat there that day, and the British invaders were now marching on the capital, which was undefended.

Today is Dolley Madison’s birthday, and although she deserves to be remembered for several accomplishments, she is best known for what she did moments before British forces captured and burned Washington that fateful summer.

Notified of the American defeat by messengers, Madison did not run off in a panic as the British drew near. She oversaw the packing of valuables, including public documents, the presidential silver, red velvet curtains, and something still more precious: a large 1796 Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington.

As historian Richard Norton Smith explained in a PBS program on Dolley Madison that was part of the American Experience series: “She knew that the very first and indeed the ultimate war trophy that the British army would take away from the White House would be the portrait of Washington. They’d take it with them and they’d march it through the streets of London as the ultimate trophy of their victory. And so she was going to prevent that from happening at almost any cost.”

Rescuing that portrait “was an act of patriotism and defiance which if she had done nothing else would have immortalized Dolley Madison,” Smith said.

“Our kind friend, Mr. Carroll, has come to hasten my departure, and is in a very bad humor with me because I insist on waiting until the large picture of Gen. Washington is secured, and it requires to be unscrewed from the wall,” Madison wrote to her sister.

“This process was found too tedious for these perilous moments; I have ordered the frame to be broken, and the canvass taken out it is done, and the precious portrait placed in the hands of two gentlemen of New York, for safe keeping. 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. When I shall again write you, or where I shall be tomorrow, I cannot tell!!”

The Madisons were reunited. James Madison died in 1836, but “Queen Dolley” lived on until 1849, when she died at 81. It is said that her funeral was the largest Washington had ever seen up to that time.