In President James Madison's 1814 State of the Union address, he described the British as an enemy who was "trampling on the usages of civilized warfare, and given earnests of it in the plunder and wanton destruction of private property". Madison was delivering this message just one month after the British had razed the capitol city of Washington D.C. Madison described the British war policy as "barbarous" destroying both history and culture of young nation.
In August of 1814, Washington D.C. was a dreadful scene. After looting the U.S. Capitol , the British piled furniture into a heap and ignited with rocket powder setting the whole building ablaze. The fire destroyed the entire 3,000 volume collection of the Library of Congress and several near by buildings. Then the troops turned up Pennsylvania Avenue and headed towards the White house. The soldiers burned the President's house, adding fuel to the fires at night to ensure that it would continue burning into the next day. In the following days, the soldiers then burned the Untied States Treasury, the United States Department of War building and many other public buildings. When the smoke cleared, there was only one public building left untouched in Washington D.C. William Thornton had persuaded the troops to preserve the First U.S. Paten Office Building.
"Our enemy is powerful in men and in money, on the land and on the water. Availing himself of fortuitous advantages, he is aiming with his undivided force a deadly blow at our growing prosperity, perhaps at our national existence. He has avowed his purpose of trampling on the usages of civilized warfare, and given earnests of it in the plunder and wanton destruction of private property. In his pride of maritime dominion and in his thirst of commercial monopoly he strikes with peculiar animosity at the progress of our navigation and of our manufactures. His barbarous policy has not even spared those monuments of the arts and models of taste with which our country had enriched and embellished its infant metropolis. From such an adversary hostility in its greatest force and in its worst forms may be looked for."Yet, Madison had faith in the American people, believing that the spirit of the revolution would be undaunted.
"The American people will face it with the undaunted spirit which in their revolutionary struggle defeated his unrighteous projects. His threats and his barbarities, instead of dismay, will kindle in every bosom an indignation not be extinguished but in the disaster and expulsion of such cruel invaders."Perhaps his faith in the American people was inspired by his own wife Dolley Madison. It was during this dreadful attack, that First Lady Dolley Madison made an effort to save a large portrait of George Washington. After the President and other US government officials fled the capitol city, a letter was sent to the First Lady to be prepared to leave Washington at a moment's notice. Rather than gather her personal belongings, Mrs. Madison turned her attention to a the portrait of our first president. With British cannons booming just a few miles away, Dolley Madison risked her life to gather valuable historical items from the house. Dolley wrote to her sister that on the night of August 23 a friend came to help her escape, but was exasperated at her insistence on saving the portrait. The portrait was screwed to the wall and could not be easily removed. So the first lady ordered that the frame be broken and the canvas removed. She had two unidentified "gentlemen from New York" take it away and store it for safe-keeping. As it turns out the, portrait was a copy, and not the original Gilbert Stuart's painting. In fact, a closer look would have shown that the worked "United States" was deliberately misspelled "United Sates" for this very purpose. Yet, to this day, Dolley Madison is an inspiration of the revolutionary spirit to all and remembered as a heroine of the War of 1812.
Shortly after Dolley left, the British soldiers arrived. They feasted that night using the President's silverware and china before setting the White House ablaze. The white house was destroyed and it would not be inhabitable again until it was restored in 1817 after James Monroe was inaugurated President.
Finally, James Madison closed out his 1814 State of the Union address with a statement of resolve. America had tried to remain on friendly terms with Great Britain but the aggressions were just too much. At every occasion, we had a sincere desire to avoid the "effusion of blood", and going forward while opposing every hostility with "all energies", America would continue to hold out a hand of peace and friendship.
"Having forborne to declare war until to other aggressions had been added the capture of near 1000 American vessels and the impressment of thousands of American sea faring citizens, and until a final declaration had been made by the Government of Great Britain that her hostile orders against our commerce would not be revoked but on conditions as impossible as unjust, whilst it was known that these orders would not otherwise cease but with a war which had lasted nearly twenty years, and which, according to appearances at that time, might last as many more; having manifested on every occasion and in every proper mode a sincere desire to arrest the effusion of blood and meet our enemy on the ground of justice and reconciliation, our beloved country, in still opposing to his persevering hostility all its energies, with an undiminished disposition toward peace and friendship on honorable terms, must carry with it the good wishes of the impartial world and the best hopes of support from an omnipotent and kind Providence."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29456
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dolley-madison-saves-portrait-from-british
http://www.taraross.com/2016/08/this-day-in-history-dolley-madison-saves-washingtons-portrait/
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/WLA_brooklynmuseum_Gilbert_Stuart_George_Washington_1796.jpg
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