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Editor says, what if the British had executed Madison in additon to burning down the White House? We're grateful as always to Mr Eric Lipps for his input on this post. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1814, at Bladensburg, Maryland the fourth President of the United States James Madison (pictured) was captured and executed by the invading British troops who that very day had burnt the White House to the ground. Meanwhile First Lady Dolley Madison was in in hiding at Dumbarton House, the guest of Charles Carroll.
Mr. Madison's War, Part 1The Madison's last sight of the American capital would be a huge column of smoke because Navy Secretary William Jones had set fire to the Navy Yard, lest its stores fall into the hands of the enemy. He later wrote: "I left the Navy yard at about half past three o'clock accompanied by Mr. Duval and not long after learned that our army was rapidly retreating and that of the enemy advancing rapidly. We proceeded to Georgetown where I met my family and that of the Presidents at the house of Charles Carrol [sic] Esq of Belle Vue and received a message from the President requesting that I would join him at Foxalls works. "The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world".At about 5 oclock I set out in company with the family of the President, of Mr. Carrols [sic] and my own, with Mr. Duval and proceeded through Georgetown to join the President but found he had crossed at Masons ferry where he had been arrested by the British".
The cold-blooded murder of the the "Father of the Constitution" enraged Americans who - with their allies the French - rose up and expelled the British from Canada. In fact, much of Canada had been destroyed by the War of 1812, and a resurgent Napoleon Bonarparte had drawn British resources away from the country's defence at a critical time. At the Treaty of Ghent, Upper Canada would be reconstituted as New New France.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Mr Madisons War Source: Wikipedia Labels: James Madison, Great Britain, Canada, North America, Dolley Madison.
~ Why would the British excute a Head of State & Government like that? Plus the French-Canadians distrusted the Amercians more than the British, so I can't see why they'd rebel under the circumstances.
~ Both good points on the plausibilty score, although who'd have believed the Brits would have burnt the White House, the Americans torched the Parliament Buildings in Toronto either. So I'm assuming an act of wanton violence rather than a military order for the POD. We do have a resurgent Napoleon in this post (unlikely of course) so I'm assuming it was simply an opportunistic move by the French Canadians but you're point is interesting and I'm sure you right. Perhaps they just want to see the Brits take it in the shorts or rather the longjohns. :-)
~ This sort of thing would embitter US-UK relations for decades at the very least. I rather think that any officer who had signed off on such a thing would be hung out to dry by the War Office, if not turned over to the Americans as a war criminal (yes, they had laws of war back in Them There Days.)
~ At least some in the British government hoped the war would end with the recolonization of the U.S., whose independence they had accepted only reluctantly and whose commerce Britain had done all it could to sabotage. If they had succeeded in this, the killing of Madison might have ben recast not as the murder of a ahead of state but as the execution of a traitor to the Crown.
Expelling the British from Canada would have taken more than mere rage, of course. One envisions the Americans, under President Elbridge Gerry (who'd have become acting President upon confirmation of Madison's death) appealing for additional aid to several nations, including not inly france but Spain and the Netherlands, by playing up Madison's slaying.
Of course, Gerry himself would have served as President only briefly. In our history, he died November 23, 1814, provoking a fresh crisis in the embattled U.S. government.
~ USG was essentially bankrupt by 1814 and in no position to invade Canada. France was similarly in no position to help. Indeed a prolonged war probably means the Hartford Convention produces secession and a link with the crown via alliance.
~ Madison's execution without, apprently, even a sham trial would have repulsed many even in England and would surely have provoked outrage in America, where even if Britain succeeded in recolonizing the U.S. Madison would become a martyr and a patron saint to some North American version of the Fenians or the IRA.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
