In 1813, Czar Alexander I of Russia offered to mediate peace between Great Britain and Russia. President Madison had accepted the offer and proceeded to work with Chancellor Romanzoff to work out a deal. But as the negotiations continued, it became clear that Great Britain was not going to attend. By 1814, it had become clear that Great Britain had no intentions to repeal their orders in Council and to negotiate any terms of peace with America. Instead, the aggressive offense of Great Britain against America had intensified. As Madison put it, Great Britain was displaying "spirit of hostility [more] violent than ever against the rights and prosperity of [America]".
Madison attributed this hostility directly to a new and emboldened Great Britain. For years, Great Britain had been embroiled in war on the high seas with Napoleon and the French, but in 1814 Napoleon suffered a devastating defeat against a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German states. After a disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, these continental powers joined Russia in what became known as the War of the Sixth Coalition. The war ended with a final defeat of France, sending Napoleon into exile on Elba. With the defeat of Napoleon, Britain now had dominion on the seas and a large number of spare troops to more aggressively focus on launching hostile invasions of the United States. As President Madison explained, the balance or equilibrium in Europe had been destroyed, giving Great Britain an over-bearing power without any checks on the ocean. And now, wishing to increase their already impressive wealth and power, Great Britain was looking to America as their next victim. "Yielding to the intoxication of success", and ignoring the difficulties of waging a remote-war, the British were willing to go after a free people. Yet Great Britain was in for a surprise. America would not give in. for it is easier to maintain our freedoms than it is to try and win them back. And now, after experiencing the blessings of freedom, we could never deliberate on anything but the most effective way of defeating such arrogant and violent attacks on us.
One of the most egregious acts by the British was the burning of Washington on August 24, 1814 just three weeks before Madison called Congress back to session that year. After defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg, Major General Robert Ross and a British force set fire to many public buildings including the White house and the Capitol. The burning of Washington was one of the most egregious and aggressive attacks of the British, and one that Madison described as having only "transient success which interrupted for a moment only the ordinary business at the seat of Government". President Madison expressed his belief that the destruction of Washington would provide the British with no advantage except the "loss of character". For to destroy private property and public buildings which deserve to be protected as monuments of the arts, is to go against all laws of civilized warfare and would bring nothing but dishonor to Great Britain.
Here is the except from James Madison's 1814 State of the Union address where he delivered this message to Congress and the American people.
"Notwithstanding the early day which had been fixed for your session of the present year, I was induced to call you together still sooner, as well that any inadequacy in the existing provisions for the wants of the Treasury might be supplied as that no delay might happen in providing for the result of the negotiations on foot with Great Britain, whether it should require arrangements adapted to a return of peace or further and more effective provisions for prosecuting the war.
That result is not yet known. If, on the one hand, the repeal of the orders in council and the general pacification in Europe, which withdrew the occasion on which impressments from American vessels were practiced, suggest expectations that peace and amity may be reestablished, we are compelled, on the other hand, by the refusal of the British Government to accept the offered mediation of the Emperor of Russia, by the delays in giving effect to its own proposal of a direct negotiation, and, above all, by the principles and manner in which the war is now avowedly carried on to infer that a spirit of hostility is indulged more violent than ever against the rights and prosperity of this country.
This increased violence is best explained by the two important circumstances that the great contest in Europe for an equilibrium guaranteeing all its States against the ambition of any has been closed without any check on the over-bearing power of Great Britain on the ocean, and it has left in her hands disposable armaments, with which, forgetting the difficulties of a remote war with a free people, and yielding to the intoxication of success, with the example of a great victim to it before her eyes, she cherishes hopes of still further aggrandizing a power already formidable in its abuses to the tranquillity of the civilized and commercial world.
But whatever may have inspired the enemy with these more violent purposes, the public councils of a nation more able to maintain than it was to require its independence, and with a devotion to it rendered more ardently by the experience of its blessings, can never deliberate but on the means most effectual for defeating the extravagant views or unwarrantable passions with which alone the war can now be pursued against us.
In the events of the present campaign the enemy, with all his augmented means and wanton use of them, has little ground for exultation, unless he can feel it in the success of his recent enterprises against this metropolis and the neighboring town of Alexandria, from both of which his retreats were as precipitate as his attempts were bold and fortunate. In his other incursions on our Atlantic frontier his progress, often checked and chastised by the martial spirit of the neighboring citizens, has had more effect in distressing individuals and in dishonoring his arms than in promoting any object of legitimate warfare; and in the two instances mentioned, however deeply to be regretted on our part, he will find in his transient success, which interrupted for a moment only the ordinary business at the seat of Government, no compensation for the loss of character with the world by his violations of private property and by his destruction of public edifices protected as monuments of the arts by the laws of civilized warfare."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29456
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Sixth_Coalition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington
http://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2015/04/hith-british-burn-washington-dc-200-years-ago-E.jpeg
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