Dead Presidents

In two places of the White House, you will find the only lingering effects of the most humiliating night of “Mr. Madison’s War” —- the War of 1812.  In the midst of the United States’ Second War of Independence with Great Britain, on August 24, 1814, the British invaded Washington, D.C. and destroyed many of the city’s public buildings; ransacking, looting and finally burning down the White House.

In the East Room of the White House hangs Gilbert Stuart’s iconic full-length portrait of George Washington, completed in 1796.  On the night of August 24, 1814, President Madison was with American troops who were routed by British invaders at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland, outside of Washington, D.C. (the first and only sitting President to experience battlefield combat as Commander-In-Chief).  First Lady Dolley Madison was at the White House and received a warning by a messenger dispatched from the nearby battlefield that the British forces were on their way into the capital city.  Without much time, the First Lady and the few remaining staff members and servants (even her bodyguard had already escaped) prepared to flee Washington by carriage across the Potomac River into Virginia.  As she left the Executive Mansion, she ordered that Stuart’s portait of Washington be removed from the wall and taken with them.  With little time to spare, it was found that the portait was securely fastened to the wall with screws, so Dolley Madison had the frame broken, rolled up the priceless canvas (even in 1812 it was a national treasure), and escaped the city ahead of the British Army’s arrival.  Eventually, Stuart’s portait of Washington found its way into “the hands of two gentlemen from New York, for safekeeping”.  Following the war and the rebuilding of the White House, the portrait was returned to the President and today hangs in the East Room.

The Truman Balcony is a relatively recent addition to the White House.  President Truman consulted with architects about adding a balcony off of the second floor Yellow Oval Room.  Despite loads of controversy and opposition which maintained that the addition of a balcony would ruin the south face of the Executive Mansion, President Truman and an appointed committee agreed that the addition would be an improvement, help balance the look of the south face of the building, and provide shade for the first floor South Portico without using awnings which often became dirty and were unseemly for such a stately Federal-style mansion.  The Balcony was completed in 1948 and, ironically, as it was being built, architects and structural engineers determined that the entire White House was dangerously unsound and in danger of imminent collapse  Almost immediately, the Truman Family moved out and across the street to Blair House (where President Truman was nearly assassinated by Puerto Rican nationalists in 1950), and the interior of the White House was completely rebuilt.

However, besides providing Presidents and their guests a place to relax and the White House’s best viewpoint of the Washington Monument and National Mall (and, indirectly, saving the building from collapsing within itself by being built in 1948), a remnant from the burning of the White House in 1814 is visible from the Truman Balcony —- part of the building’s exterior that remains unpainted and shows the burn marks from the blaze which left only the thick, heavy outer walls of the White House still standing after the fire was finally extinguished.  President Clinton often remarked that he regularly took guests to view the burn marks  to remind them the the White House “carries the whole story of America and we’re still creating that story.”  In a 1995 speech to the British Parliament, Clinton joked that “Indeed, the White House still bears the burn marks (of the War of 1812).  And now, whenever we have even the most minor disagreement, I walk out on the Truman Balcony and I look at those burn marks, just to remind myself that I dare not let this relationship get out of hand again.”  First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton noted in a 1999 tribute to Dolley Madison that burn marks were still visible on a portion of the building’s north facade, west of the North Portico, along with the better-known section on the Truman Balcony.  The First Lady suggested that Presidents have left those burn marks unpainted since 1814 “to remind us of the vigilance it takes to safeguard this house and all it represents, and also to remind us of what happened here before.”

So, what exactly did happen there before?

Well, the War of 1812 was declared by the United States against Great Britain in (unsurprisingly) 1812 for a collection of reasons including outrage against the continuing impressment of American sailors into the British Navy, anger at Britain’s Continental Blockade —- a byproduct of Britain’s long war with France and a massive restraint on American neutral trade with the French, as well as British military support for American Indian tribes fighting small wars of their own against the young, fledgling American government which was attempting to take over their tribal lands as the United States pushed the frontier westward at the end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th century. 

However, the War of 1812 also became the War of 1813, the War of 1814, and finally ended with the Treaty of Ghent at the beginning of 1815.  Wildly unpopular at the outset, the war was branded “Mr. Madison’s War” by anti-war opponents of President James Madison.  Despite no territorial changes, the war was eventually accepted as almost a Second War of Independence and gave the United States a boost psychologically, as well as on the world’s stage.  With the Treaty of Ghent, the War of 1812, which was technically neither a victory or defeat, gave the U.S. a solid standing among the community of nations, made it clear the the U.S. was here to stay as an independent power, and pretty much ended the Indian threat as the United States expanded across the continent.  In the end, the status quo result of the War of 1812 is considered an American victory, if not a decisive one, and following the war, relations between the U.S. and Great Britain steadily improved to the point of being the closest of allies since World War II.  Following ratification of the Treaty of Ghent, Great Britain never again challenged the validity of American independence from its former colonial masters.

(For more on the War of 1812, pick up Walter R. Borneman’s terrific history of the conflict “1812: The War That Forged A Nation”.)

In late-April, 1813, American troops were engaged in heavy fighting along the Canadian border.  On April 27, 1813, the Americans attacked York, Ontario —- later known better as Toronto —- the capital of Upper Canada.  After a heated battle and despite orders to the contrary, American troops began looting homes and public buildings in York and burned the Parliament buildings.  The next day, American General Henry “Granny” Dearborn ordered the city’s military buildings and Government House burned to the ground.  Humiliated and angry, the British Army would not soon forget the deliberate burning of public buildings and Parliament in the capital of Upper Canada.

A dinner party for cabinet members and military officers was planned at the White House, more commonly known then as the President’s House, on August 24, 1814.  Despite the nearby battles in Maryland and  signs that the British Army was steadily encroaching from Chespeake Bay towards the capital city, Secretary of War John Armstrong was convinced that the British would attack Baltimore instead of Washington, D.C.  Because of Armstrong’s strong assurances, many of the 8,000 Washingtonians remained in the city, including the President and Mrs. Madison.  White House servants set the table and prepared dinner for 40 guests that evening, as President Madison rode out to Bladensburg to witness inexperienced American militia, dispatched to protect the capital from British forces, get routed by the Brits, who were obviously not on their way to Baltimore.

As it became clear that Bladensburg was a jump-off point for a British attack on Washington, the President sent a messenger riding into the capital to warn of the impending invasion, allowing the First Lady to grab the Washington portrait and spirit to safety across the Potomac into Virginia where the President joined her later.  Other Washington residents fled, if possible, although some stayed in the city to defend their homes.  Fortunately for them, the only private residence that the British were interested in was the President’s…until they marched into Washington, that is.

With General Robert Ross and Admiral George Cockburn leading the way, British troops marched directly down Maryland Avenue into the nation’s capital.  The sun was setting on a sweltering Washington summer day, and General Ross sent a flag of truce ahead with a set of terms for surrender.  Ross had made it clear that private residences were not to be looted or destroyed by British troops, but shortly after entering the city, a sniper opened fire on the British from the house of Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin.  One British soldiers was killed, three were wounded, and General Ross had his horse shot out from underneath him.  Ross promptly ordered troops into Gallatin’s home (the Treasury Secretary was not there) and the British soldiers killed the sniper before destroying the home.  Still, Gallatin’s home was one of the few private residences that the British laid to waste.  Moments later, the United States Capitol building was set ablaze.

Ross and Cockburn led an advance guard down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the President’s Mansion.  Upon entering the White House, the soldiers found the building deserted, but the table set for a banquet with food ready to be served.  The hungry soldiers sat at the President’s table and happily feasted on his dinner and drank his wine.  Inside the White House, foreign soldiers toasted their King and insulted the President of the United States, raising their glasses and drinking “to peace with America and down with Madison”.  As they finished eating, soldiers trampled through the Executive Mansion, looting, destroying art, emptying drawers, stealing souvenirs, and even taking the clothing of the President and his wife.  One soldier pierced one of Madison’s famed tri-cornered hats with his bayonet and paraded around the mansion.

Once the White House was basically emptied of its valuables and thoroughly trashed, the British began lighting small fires throughout the building.  Soon, the White House joined most of Washington’s other public buildings in a magnificent blaze.  Besides the White House and the U.S. Capitol, the British had burned the Library of Congress (Thomas Jefferson later sold his personal library to the government to restart the collection), U.S. Treasury building, along with many other public buildings.  American troops set fire to the Washington Navy Yard in order to prevent the British from capturing ammunition and supplies.  The fires in Washington were so intense that flames were reportedly visible in Baltimore.

There were some other heroic efforts by Washingtontians fleeing the capital, as well as some mercy shown by the British invaders.  While the British were still engaged in Bladensburg, Stephen Pleasonton, a State Department clerk, received a note from Secretary of State James Monroe, who was with the President on the battlefield.  Monroe reported that the British were likely headed to Washington, and that State Department staff should secure as many treasured national documents and papers as possible before fleeing.  Pleasonton and other clerks were able to stuff priceless documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and George Washington’s correspondence into thick canvas bags before dashing across the Potomac River into Virginia and hiding them in an abandoned home.

The British were not expecting the capital of the world’s youngest republic to have such “monarchical splendor”.  For that reason, some British officers and soldiers actually argued against burning Washington’s grand public buildings — an argument which they ultimately lost.  The British did spare most private residences and General Ross reputedly assigned a company of soldiers to protect private property along Pennsylvania Avenue.  Two public buildings also escaped the British wrath.  The Superintendent of Patents, William Thornton, convinced the foreigners to spare the important U.S. Patent Office for the good of all the people of the world.  The Brits themselves chose to spare the Marine Barracks as a gesture of respect to the Marines that gallantly battled them earlier that very day in Bladensburg.

•••

The British occupied Washington, D.C. for only 26 hours.  Invaded on a blistering hot August day, the nation’s capital had not seen rain for at least three weeks.  As the exhausted foreigners looted and then burned the government’s buildings, they were astonished by something that Washingtonians saw as the hand of Providence attempting to scatter the invaders.  On that very evening, August 24th, as Washington’s buildings burned, a hurricane swept through the city, causing more damage, but also drenching the capital with torrential rains which extinguished the fires.  The hurricane was followed by numerous tornadoes which caused destruction among the British occupiers and drove them back to their ships, which had also been damaged by the storm.

Gilbert Stuart’s painting of George Washington was returned to its savior, Dolley Madison, by the New Yorkers who protected it.  To this day, it hangs in the East Room of the rebuilt (but eternally scarred) White House.  In 1939, a Canadian man named Archibald Kains sent a letter and a small jewelry box to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  The letter stated that the jewelry box had been “looted or pillaged from the White House by my grandfather” 125 years earlier.  Besides the Stuart painting, the jewelry box is the only item returned to the White House from that hot August night.

There are legends regarding the rest of the White House’s treasures that were taken by the British, but no one is positive about what happened to them.  In Montreal, it is alleged that the original doors of the White House are now located in the Blackwatch Building on Bleury Street.  Some historians believe that the majority of the souvenirs and treasures that the British took from the White House sank with the HMS Fantome near Halifax, Nova Scotia exactly three months later. 

Thanks to Dolley Madison, the iconic portrait of George Washington stands guard today in the Whiet House.  Thanks to the British, areas of the Virginia sandstone exterior of the White House remain charred as a reminder of the night when a foreign flag flew over our nation’s capital and invading soldiers burned the President’s home.