Washington is Burning
Graeme Garrard describes the events that led to the torching of the new US capital by British troops in August 1814 and considers the impact of the ‘greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms’ on the US, Britain and Canada.
James Madison
The Saviour of Canada
Graeme Garrard recalls Isaac Brock, the Guernsey-born army officer still celebrated in Canada for his part in defending British North America from the United States in the War of 1812.
Political Animals
Mark Bryant looks at the lampooning of two hugely unpopular measures imposed during the administrations of two of the United States’ most distinguished presidents.
A Shadow of Secession? The Hartford Convention, 1814
A separatist assembly of Federalist New England at the height of war-weariness provided precedence and philosophy for future defiance of the Union.
The Political Education of James Madison
James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, is best remembered, according to Esmond Wright, for his personal integrity and the scholarly application which he brought to constitutional questions in which he collaborated with Thomas Jefferson.