Madison: Unfit for Command | Politics of the Presidency: Washington to Lincoln

DJ Taylor

My goal for this video assignment was to effectively convey many of the most damning anti-Madison sentiments of the 1812 election. In order to do just that, I scoured Gordon Wood’s Empire of Liberty for some background on the ‘spirit of the age’ and on the propaganda and political gamesmanship that was used prior to the election. In both format and content, I meant for the video to be as simple and concise as possible—thus (theoretically) allowing me to reach my viewers easily with a dynamic message that would stick.

After introducing the video with the “James Madison: Unfit for Command” slide, I cut directly to the chase, hammering the Virginia Dynasty that Madison was seen as a member of. Especially in the decades after the revolution, the idea of a dynasty or monarchy prevailing in the United States was very appalling to most. By implying that Madison was a member of such a dynasty, I hoped to undermine his claim as a freedom loving Democratic-Republican. The picture that follows this quote contains portraits of all the members of the Virginia Dynasty (Washington, Jefferson, and Madison), pictorially emphasizing the point made in the previous slide.

During the next three slides, I shifted course, this time taking issue with Madison’s leadership (in)ability and his poor decisions in selecting a cabinet during his first term. The first of these three slides is a pointed slight at the failures of Secretary of War William Eustis and Secretary of State Albert Gallatin, and at Madison’s judgment in selecting the men for those posts. Eustis’ absolute inability to raise and prepare an American army for the War of 1812 resulted in many embarrassing defeats and in the undue loss of many American lives. Likewise, William Eustis proved impotent in managing the young government’s finances and in preventing a crippling war against the so-called ‘largest navy ever seen’ up to that point (ie. Britain’s). The next slide strikes at a point about Madison’s leadership inability that is frequently highlighted in Wood’s book: “He was by far the most uncharismatic president the country had yet experienced… He was not made for command…. With his retiring personality and his constrained conception of the presidency, Madison was never able to control the Republican party” (662-663). It also did not help his stateliness that Madison was the shortest US President in history, standing at a mere 5 feet 4 inches. The final slide from the section was a great (and hilarious) image of a mad Madison dancing with the caption “Mad-Ass-Son” beneath. This was not meant to be a factually accurate criticism of the President as much as it was intended to be funny and to convey the spirit of the age.

I dedicated the final section of my campaign ad towards the central issue of the 1812 election, the War of 1812. In allowing our relationship with Britain to deteriorate through aggressive and sometimes antagonistic foreign policy (though not nearly as antagonistic as Britain’s), Madison allowed the United States to plunge into war with a world superpower and opened himself up to vast criticism. The first slide in this section paints Madison’s war as an ‘offensive’ one, pointing to the corrupt and pro-French handling of Macon’s Bill No. 2. Indeed, Chief Justice John Marshall declared the scandal to be “one of the most astonishing instances of national credulity… that is to be found in political history” (666). Accompanying the following image of the original capitol building that was burned to the ground as a consequence of the war is a statement illustrating the supposed absurdity and naïveté of Madison’s decision to antagonize “the most formidable navy the world has ever seen” into war. The slide likewise touches on the high taxes, exploding debt, and internal dissolution that were all consequences of war with Britain. This point is put as concisely as possible in the next slide, “War-Taxes-Misery”, a prime example of the kind of simple and direct message I wanted to convey. The campaign ad finishes with a rather pompous looking portrait of Madison and a quote predicting “impending evil” if Madison was re-elected. Though some of these quotes were quite sensationalist—Madison was reelected and the world did not end—I felt they very accurately represented the spirit of the age and many of the criticisms directed towards Madison at the end of his first term in office.

Constant throughout all of this attacking is the raucous and chaotic Fourth Movement (Sturm) of Beethoven’s 6^th Symphony, composed in 1808. In it’s F minor key, the movement depicts a violent thunderstorm with incredible realism. The terrifying and frenzied nature of the excerpt was intended to imbue a sense of impending doom and calamity to the prospect of a second Madison term and the ongoing War of 1812. This, to me, truly captured the spirit of the age.

Quotes: (In order)

Virginia Dynasty:

http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/10ECB1F1085E5198/0F4223B7E8433C2F

Madison’s Cabinet:

http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/10C87E58B3CCA2A8/0F4223B7E8433C2F

Not Fit for Command: http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/10AE2F6453440D78/0F4223B7E8433C2F

War Cannot be Just:

http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/10E6925BCB031780/0F4223B7E8433C2F

The Consequences of War:

http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/1046F81CEF55333F/0F4223B7E8433C2F

War-Taxes-Misery:

http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/10AE2EAEE3366F50/0F4223B7E8433C2F