Restoring Madison's Home, And His Legacy

Historians Recreate The Virginia Estate Of Our Fourth President

(CBS)  James and Dolley Madison were recalled to Washington when President Jefferson named him Secretary of State.

In 1808 Madison was elected president, and Dolley lit up the White House.

"In some ways I think she really defined what the new American woman of the new American nation was all about," Quinn said. "She really introduced new clothing styles," such as the empire waist dress and turbans for which she was so famous."

But Dolley truly entered this history books during the War of 1812, when the British attacked Washington. She didn’t just flee; she took everything she could out of the White House.

"She commandeered wagons, she saved state papers," Quinn said. "What she's most famous for is she finally realized she could not let the British capture the official portrait of George Washington. She saved the portrait from the flames."

Was she maybe more beloved in the country than he was perhaps?

"I think Madison was enormously respected," Quinn said. "I think Dolley was beloved."

After two terms in office, the Madisons returned to Montpelier. Mark Wegner says they added two separate wings to the house, for a good reason: James Madison's mother came to stay.

"Momma was at this end of the house," he said. "Montpelier was kind of a duplex at this time and that was her end of the house, and this was James and Dolley's end of the house."

In the duPonts' era, a photograph showed a hall and a staircase. Yet originally it was a bedroom, where an aging James Madison spent much of his time in later years, and where he died. It has now been restored.

He passed away in 1836. He was 85. Dolley died 13 years later. Both are buried here on the family property. And it's said that at Mrs. Madison's funeral, President Zachary Taylor eulogized her as the country's "first lady" - the first time that title was ever used.

The renovation of this home will remind Americans of how this dynamic couple lived, but not everything is celebratory

Also on the property is a slave cemetery. It raises a troubling aspect of Madison's life: This founding father who loved liberty so much was also a slave holder.

Although he recognized in his writings that slavery had no place in the country he created, Madison could not solve it. He himself was economically dependent on the slaves.

Quinn said that Madison must be looked at in the context of his time, and revered for a legacy that goes far beyond this house sitting on 2,600 acres:

"The greatest gift Madison left this country was the Constitution," he said.

And, as James Madison wrote at Montpelier in 1829, "Tthe happy union of these states is a wonder; their constitution, a miracle; their example, the hope of liberty throughout the world."

[asksue]

Is it possible for someone to contact me with the name of the musical composition that was played during the Madison/Montpilliar restoration piece on Sunday Morning, March 16, 2008? It was a classical piano solo.

Many thanks.

[davidweitz]

In the months preceding the Contitutional convention Jefferson in Paris and Madison struggled with each other by mail over the issues that would soon be set in the Contitution. In the end Madison conceded many points. I don''t know about Jefferson, but without either our Constitution would have fallen terribly from what would become its actual manifestation. More so without Madison, because without him we would have missed out on the influence of both.