Norwich bulletin., 1920-03-29

be desert without an oasis, over whose dreAry expanse the weary bio- grapher would wander athirst for human anecdote. Her bubbling spir- its relieved the ansterity of Jeffersun- ian simplicity and won her popu- larity that has been equaled, if at all, | among the mistresses of the White | House only by Mrs. Cleveland.
 The regal Dolly signslized inc l opening of her reign by holding the | first inaugural ball, where she radi- ated in gown of buff velvet, with a l Parisian fturban and bird of Paradise | plumes which had run the British blockade On it's journey to her rom Paris. Washington Irving who was whirled from New York to another of her functions in "only 52 hours" as he said in anazement. has left us picture of her as a fine, portly, buxom dame with smile and pleasant word for everybody" But
 as to Jemfny Madlsou-ah, poor Jemrny He is a withered little apple John.''
 Unless Grant must be excepted. 1 Madison is the only president who | found the presidency an anticlimax to his career. One of the really great law givers of the Nation, he was | without executive force, that is to say, without a knack for choosing other men and getting them to do his work,
 With a weak cabinet. this gentle. sweet tempered, peace loving scholar found himself adfift on the turbid
 sea of the of the great Napoleonic
 wars Perhaps it was no longer pos
 sible to keep LIS out Of war when at
 last the United States was the only
 neutral left in the civilized world.
 But certainly it was no time for a fair
 weather sailor.
 Alter 20 years of kicking and cuff
 ing from both sides in the European
 conflict. bullied by England and lied
 to by Napleon, the country was sore
 all over, when the warhawks" of
 Congress, under the youthful Henry
 Clay, seized the tfller of the ship of
 state from Madison's irresolute hand
 and recklessly pointed the vessel straight into the teeth Of the storm. The seaboard East was more for s peace and at that time the militant section was the new West, where the : Tennesseans and Kentuckians, h. s dianans and Ohioans we're lustily f shouting -,on to Canada" overbornt s by their rash counsels. Madison con r scented. as he said. to throw forward f the flag of the country, sure that th, r people would press onward and de. q fend it.'
 t Without competent civilian mili. t tary leaders, ,ewahout financial credit Q without war equipment, the peopl.
 could not press onward, as any his 0 tory of the dismal war of 1912 vii a tell you. Even the capital was lief e undefended. and Madison. fin a Htti g round hat wit ha big cockade' raI B. about in helpless bewilderment a fhA RrfffEh Uc .t. .ss.- It ton.
 With the invaders entering at on
 side of the defenseless town, tn
 president fled at the other. As b.
 turned and saw the flames shootinl =, up behind him, he flew the faster anl
 the farther. While the British com
 mAnder was blowing out candles o - his dinner table that he might feas
 in the light of the burning Whit .o House. it's fugitive master was hidin 1t in forest but 25 miles away. "a After an absence of three days II heavy-hearted, shattered, houseles j. president returned to view tn Id charred walls of his official residene It, and of the capital. At every tur " he was greeted by ugly mutterine
 of the general disposition to mak 1e him the scapegoat for all the Ma 10 tional shortcomings in war that ha d. been thrust upon him. But with vic or tory at New Orleans and the retur K to peace, the voice of the fault find,
 was drowned in the hum of sudde
 prosperity. And in the closing day .r of his administration Madison wa Ia cheered by many assurances that h Id countrymen were not forgetful of tf be 40 years that he had served them ns pure devotion.
 V Like John Adams, he emerged froi an his retirement to sit in the Conet in tutional Convention of his stat
 where the aged statesman closed h he active public life, as he had opene vo it, with sentiment of humanity f, the slaves. His long service still Vt r. to be crowned by him in his 841 sr year when South Carolina and h.
 policy of nullifeeation aroused tl , . venerable father of the Constitute ha and drew from him a ringing cha re lenge to the spirit of disunion Aft
 his death there was found among h
 papers a solemn warning for = country to look upon the seer
 enemy of the Union as ''the serpe
 creeping with his deadly wiles in
 paradise"
 s As with the other Virginia farm