‘Lady Presidentess’ Dolley Madison: Gregarious, Influential, and Cool-Headed

A drawing by George Munger, 1814, depicts the ruins of the U.S. Capitol following British attempts to burn the building and the President’s House on August 24, 1814. (Public domain)

Dolley Madison, wife of the fourth president, James Madison, had more than a few things in common with the “first” first lady, Martha Washington. Dolley, like Martha, was a young, widowed mother when she married the man who was to become president of the United States. She was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, to Quaker parents, and in 1790 married Quaker lawyer John Todd. But just three years later, yellow fever took the life of Dolley’s husband and youngest son, as well as her father- and mother-in-law.

It was Aaron Burr (primarily famous for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel), a friend of James Madison, who introduced the 43-year-old bachelor to the 26-year-old widow at a soiree in 1794. They were married by the end of the year, but by their uniting, Dolley was banished from her foundational Quaker religion due to James’s Episcopalian faith.

Like the Washingtons, who had no children of their own, the Madisons did not conceive. James became stepfather to Dolley’s son, William Temple.

Three Terms as ‘First Lady’

After becoming a rising star in the Jeffersonian Republican Party, James hoped to enjoy a quiet life on his family’s plantation, Montpelier, in Orange County, Virginia. But when Thomas Jefferson was elected president in 1801, he asked James to serve as his secretary of state. Thus, the Madisons moved to Washington, D.C., and Dolley took on the role of hostess not only for her husband’s functions, but for the president as well; Jefferson’s wife, Martha, had died 19 years earlier. Thus, she served as first lady before officially becoming one.

Dolley transitioned into first lady—or “Lady Presidentess” as some called her—when her husband stepped into Jefferson’s shoes as president in 1809. She wore those shoes for a second term in 1812. The relatively new Executive Mansion, built in 1792, benefited from her attentions. (The Mansion was not often referred to as the White House until President Teddy Roosevelt touted it as such at the start of the next century.) Considered a fashionable lady of her time, Dolley desired that the house occupied by the most important couple in the land should suitably reflect taste and prestige.

“Dolley Madison” by Gilbert Stuart, 1804. White House, Washington, D.C. (Public domain)

Yet it was perhaps when, like Martha, Dolley found herself embroiled in a war that her true patriotic spirit and her bold determination came forth. Dolley is remembered primarily for quick action during the War of 1812. While mostly a naval war between the United States and Britain, in 1814 the battle grew dangerously close to Washington, D.C. On August 24, invading British troops pushed into the city and set fire to the Capitol, the Mansion, and other local landmarks. Before she fled, Dolley made sure to pack up as many important documents and other items as possible, most especially the full-length, 8-by-5-foot, 1796 Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington. To save it, the frame had to be smashed and the painting removed.

One account, shared by the American Battlefield Trust, portrays Dolley as calm under pressure. As bedlam and panic ensued, she was observed to pointedly instruct her helpers: “Save that picture! Save that picture if possible. If not possible, destroy it. Under no circumstances allow it to fall into the hands of the British!”

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In a letter afterward to one of her two sisters, (which one is unknown, as the letter is simply addressed “Dear Sister”), Dolley recalled the harried moment:

I insist[ed] on waiting until the large picture of Gen. Washington [was] secured, and it require[d being] unscrewed from the wall. This process was found too tedious for these perilous moments; I … ordered the frame to be broken, and the canvass taken out, … and the precious portrait placed in the hands of two gentlemen of New York, for safe keeping.

In a letter to a sister dated August 23, the day before the British attacked the Executive Mansion, Dolley conveyed her husband’s faith in her resolve and—again like Martha Washington had—expressed concern as much for the country’s victory as for the safety of her husband: “My husband left me yesterday morning to join Gen. Winder. He enquired anxiously whether I had courage, or firmness to remain in the President’s house until his return, on the morrow, or succeeding day, and on my assurance that I had no fear but for him and the success of our army, he left me.”

As America was once again victorious over the British army, life resumed for the Madisons with the couple remaining in Washington and Dolley overseeing memorable dinners and events until James’s second term ended in 1817. The couple then returned to their Montpelier estate, which is currently a historic site open to the public. It was there that James died in 1836.

The portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, 1797, that Dolley Madison saved when the British set fire to the President’s House in 1814. White House, Washington, D.C. (Public domain)

Beyond the Third Term

Dolley continued to return to Washington and frequently entertained friends and government officials. But that’s not all. She was such a recurrent visitor to the capital to listen to congressional debates that on January 8, 1844, the House of Representatives extended a rare honor to the former first lady: By unanimous consent, the House granted her—for anytime she chose to visit the chamber—a seat on the House Floor.

Dolley Madison immediately responded to the House in a letter:

Permit me to thank you, gentlemen, as the committee on the part of the House of Representatives, for the great gratification you have this day conferred upon me by the delivery of the favor from that honorable body, allowing me a seat within its hall. I shall be ever proud to recollect it, as a token of their remembrance, collectively and individually, of one who has gone before us.

By the time Dolley passed away in 1849 at age 81, she would forever have her place solidified in American history. She had endured two wars, experienced the beginnings of the new United States, donated goods to aid explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s famous expedition, entertained the Marquis de Lafayette during his triumphal American tour in 1824, and seen the passage of the first 11 presidents—these contributions and so much more.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.