It's Friday, May 20, 2022, the day of the week when I pass along a quotation intended to be uplifting or enlightening. Today's words of inspiration concern first lady Dolley Madison, born on this date in 1768. One of the lines is by her, the other is about her.
Dolley Madison is the pride of both Guilford County, N.C., where she hails from, and Philadelphia, Pa., city of the Quakers, where her father took the family when Dolley was a teenager. In the City of Brotherly Love, she married a lawyer named John Todd, who died three years later, leaving her a widow and a single mother in a city that had since become the capital of a new nation. Almost from the moment she met James Madison, however, it seems that Dolley was destined to play a prominent role in the fledgling country.
The go-between for that momentous pairing was an unlikely source, a future American traitor. "Thou must come to me," Dolley wrote her friend Eliza Collins, asking her to chaperone. "Aaron Burr says that the great little Madison has asked to be brought out to see me this evening."
The "great little Madison" would be president when the British returned to these shores, in their pique, to torch the new capital city of Washington. Clear-thinking Dolley Madison proved herself to be a kind of un-Aaron Burr. For one thing, she helped rescue the famous Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington that hung in the White House before it was burned, remaining in the residence until after others thought it was safe to do so.
Although the portrait was a copy (which Dolley did not know), and it was men on the White House staff who climbed a ladder, broke the frame, and rolled up the painting, Dolley Madison's grace under pressure established a reputation -- and shaped expectations for future first ladies -- that has lasted more than two centuries.
On August 27, 1814, James Madison returned to Washington only to find that his wife was already in the city. Yes, she had evacuated later than the president and returned earlier. As she walked the streets of the still-smoldering capital, residents cheered. "We shall rebuild Washington City," she proclaimed. "The enemy cannot frighten a free people."
When complimented about her heroics, Dolley demurred. "Anybody would have done what I did," she said.
Well, probably not. She was one of a kind. In her day, women couldn't pursue political careers of their own. Had she come along today, Dolley Madison would have been a natural candidate: She had that politicians' knack (a trait shared by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) of rarely forgetting a face -- or the name that went with it. It didn't matter who you were.
Massachusetts Senator Elijah H. Mills put it this way in describing the first lady: "She welcomed all classes of people, greasy boots and silk stockings."
And that's our quote of the week.
Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.