Washington: Portrait of a City

National Portrait Gallery

---

Resuming her letter to Lucy on that afternoon of the 24th, Dolley wrote: We have had a battle or skirmish Still she refused, determined to wait for her husband. She ordered the dinner to be served. She told the servants that if she were a man, she would post a cannon in every window of the White House and fight to the bitter end.

The arrival of Maj. When he told her it was time to go, she glumly acquiesced. She could not abandon it to the enemy, she told Carroll, to be mocked and desecrated. As he looked anxiously on, Dolley ordered servants to take down the painting, which was screwed to the wall. Informed they lacked the proper tools, Dolley told the servants to break the frame. About this time, two more friends—Jacob Barker, a wealthy ship owner, and Robert G. De Peyster—arrived at the White House to offer whatever help might be needed.

Dolley would entrust the painting to the two men, saying they must conceal it from the British at all costs; they would transport the portrait to safety in a wagon. Meanwhile, with remarkable self-possession, she completed her letter to Lucy: As Dolley headed for the door, according to an account she gave to her grandniece, Lucia B. Cutts, she spotted a copy of the Declaration of Independence in a display case; she put it into one of her suitcases. The British were only a few miles away. Dolley and Carroll climbed into her carriage and were driven away to take refuge at his comfortable family mansion, Belle Vue, in nearby Georgetown.

Soldiers roamed the house, grabbing souvenirs. Outside, 50 of the marauders carrying poles with oil-soaked rags on the ends surrounded the house. At a signal from the admiral, men with torches ignited the rags, and the flaming poles were flung through the smashed windows like fiery spears. Within minutes, a huge conflagration soared into the night sky. For a time, it looked as if all Washington were ablaze.

The next day, the British continued their depredations, burning the Treasury, the State and War departments and other public buildings. Thirty men were killed and 45 were injured. Then a freak storm suddenly erupted, with high winds and violent thunder and lightning. The shaken British commanders soon retreated to their ships; the raid on the capital had ended.

Lansdowne portrait

Meanwhile, Dolley had received a note from Madison urging her to join him in Virginia. By the time they were finally reunited there on the night of August 25, the year-old president had barely slept in several days. But he was determined to return to Washington as soon as possible. He insisted that Dolley remain in Virginia until the city was safe. By August 27, the president had re-entered Washington. In a note written hastily the next day, he told his wife: On August 28, Dolley joined her husband in Washington. They stayed at the home of her sister Anna Payne Cutts, who had taken over the same house on F Street that the Madisons had occupied before moving to the White House.

The sight of the ruined Capitol—and the charred, blackened shell of the White House—must have been almost unbearable for Dolley. For several days, according to friends, she was morose and tearful. In short, he looks heartbroken. Madison also felt betrayed by General Winder—as well as by his Secretary of War, John Armstrong, who would resign within weeks—and by the ragtag army that had been routed.

The Common Council of Philadelphia declared its readiness to provide housing and office space for both the president and Congress. Dolley fervently maintained that she and her husband—and Congress—should stay in Washington. He called for an emergency session of Congress to take place on September Meanwhile, Dolley had persuaded the Federalist owner of a handsome brick dwelling on New York Avenue and 18th Street, known as the Octagon House, to let the Madisons use it as an official residence. She opened the social season there with a crowded reception on September Dolley soon found unexpected support elsewhere in the country.

The White House had become a popular national symbol. People reacted with outrage when they heard that the British had burned the mansion.

Would the Americans fight back? The British fleet sailed into the port of Baltimore three days later, on September 13, determined to batter Fort McHenry into submission—which would allow the British to seize harbor ships and to loot waterfront warehouses—and force the city to pay a ransom. Francis Scott Key, an American lawyer who had gone aboard a British flagship at the request of President Madison to negotiate the release of a doctor seized by a British landing party, was all but certain that the fort would surrender to a nightlong bombardment by the British.

Good news from more distant fronts also soon reached Washington. An American fleet on Lake Champlain won a surprise victory over a British armada on September 11, The discouraged British had fought a halfhearted battle there and retreated to Canada.

Navigation menu

Andrew Jackson seized Pensacola under Spanish control since the late s in November Thus, the British were deprived of a place to disembark. President Madison cited these victories in a message to Congress. But the House of Representatives remained unmoved; it voted to consider abandoning Washington. Dolley summoned all her social resources to persuade the congressmen to change their minds.

At Octagon House, she presided over several scaled-down versions of her White House galas. For the next four months, Dolley and her allies lobbied the legislators as they continued to debate the proposal. Finally, both houses of Congress voted not only to stay in Washington but also to rebuild the Capitol and White House.

After the Massachusetts legislature called for a conference of the five New England states to meet in Hartford, Connecticut, in December , rumors swept the nation that the Yankees were going to secede or, at the very least, demand a semi-independence that could spell the end of the Union. President Madison would resign. If they captured the city, they would control the Mississippi River Valley.

In Hartford, the disunion convention dispatched delegates to Washington to confront the president. On the other side of the Atlantic, the British were making outrageous demands of American envoys, headed by Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin, aimed at reducing the United States to subservience. On January 14, , a profoundly worried Dolley wrote again to Hannah: The rest of January trickled away with no news from New Orleans. Meanwhile, the delegates from the Hartford Convention reached Washington. There was little doubt that this second session would recommend secession.

On Saturday, February 4, a messenger reached Washington with a letter from General Jackson reporting that he and his men had routed the British veterans, killing and wounding about 2, of them with a loss of only 7. New Orleans—and the Mississippi River—would remain in American hands! Dolley placed candles in every window of Octagon House. In the tumult, the Hartford Convention delegates stole out of town, never to be heard from again. Ten days later, on February 14, came even more astonishing news: Henry Carroll, secretary to the American peace delegation, had returned from Ghent, Belgium.

A buoyant Dolley urged her friends to attend a reception that evening. When they arrived, they were told that Carroll had brought a draft of a peace treaty; the president was upstairs in his study, discussing it with his cabinet. The house was jammed with representatives and senators from both parties.

But he decided that accepting it on the heels of the news from New Orleans would make Americans feel they had won a second war of independence.

In , he suffered a stroke which left him partially paralyzed, but he still continued to paint for two years until his death in Boston on July 9, at Stuart left his family deeply in debt, and his wife and daughters were unable to purchase a grave site. He was, therefore, buried in an unmarked grave which was purchased cheaply from Benjamin Howland, a local carpenter. However, they could not remember the exact location of his body, and it was never moved.

More than portraits were lent for this critically acclaimed and well-subscribed exhibition. By the end of his career, Gilbert Stuart had painted the likenesses of more than 1, American political and social figures. Speaking generally, no penance is like having one's picture done. You must sit in a constrained and unnatural position, which is a trial to the temper. But I should like to sit to Stuart from the first of January to the last of December, for he lets me do just what I please, and keeps me constantly amused by his conversation. Stuart was known for working without the aid of sketches, beginning directly upon the canvas, which was very unusual for the time period.

His approach is suggested by the advice which he gave to his pupil Matthew Harris Jouett: John Henri Isaac Browere created a life mask of Stuart around Post Office issued a series of postage stamps called the " Famous Americans Series " commemorating famous artists, authors, inventors, scientists, poets, educators, and musicians. The museum consists of the original house where he was born, with copies of his paintings hanging throughout the house.

The museum opened in Gilbert Stuart's paintings of Washington, Jefferson, and others have served as models for dozens of U. Washington's image from the famous portrait The Athenaeum is probably the most noted example of Stuart's work on postage. This is a partial list of portraits painted by Stuart.

Accessibility Navigation

American artist John Singleton Copley , c. Horatio Gates , , Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lansdowne portrait of George Washington , George Washington , c. George Washington , , Walters Art Museum. Livingston , diplomat and Founding Father , — George Calvert , politician and planter, Henry Rice , Boston merchant and Massachusetts state legislator, c.

John Carroll , first Catholic bishop of the United States, c. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Gilbert Stuart disambiguation. Portrait of Gilbert Stuart by Sarah Goodridge , Gilbert Charles Stewart [1]. Boston , Massachusetts , U. American artist Benjamin West , — English artist Joshua Reynolds , American artist John Trumbull , c. Peter Gansevoort , Retrieved February 4, Accessed July 24, Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved August 26, Archived from the original on November 16, Retrieved October 10, Retrieved on July 25, Paintings in Museums and Public Art Galleries.

Retrieved July 14, The Gilbert Stuart Museum. Archived from the original on October 6, Retrieved October 11, Retrieved July 25, National Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on September 3, Retrieved July 12,

• The History of English Poetry
• Amritsar Massacre, The: The Untold Story of One Fateful Day
• Rückenschmerz und Lendenwirbelsäule: Interdisziplinäres Praxisbuch - entsprechend den Nationalen Versorgungsleitlinien (German Edition)
• Histologie illustrée du poisson (French Edition)
• Fantasies of the Waking Dreamer: A small collection of poetry
• Fire Dragon
• Alices Sexual Discovery in a Wonderful Land (Fairy Tale Erotica) (Alices Erotic Adventures Book 1)