Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/232

 188 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS in the affair of Tippecanoe and of the &quot;President&quot; and &quot;Little Belt.&quot; The growing desire for war was shown in the choice of Henry Clay for speaker of the house of representatives, and Mr. Madison was nominated for a second term, on condition of adopting the war policy. On June 18, 1812, war was declared, and before the autumn election a series of remarkable naval victories had made it popular. Mr. Madison was re-elected by 128 electoral votes against 89 for DeWitt Clinton, of New York. The one absorbing event, which filled the greater part of his second term, was the war with Great Britain, which was marked by some brilliant victories and some grave disasters, includ ing the capture of Washington by British troops, and the flight of the government from the national capital. Whatever opinion may be held as to the character of the war and its results, there is a gen eral agreement that its management, on the part of the United States, was feeble. Mr. Madison was essentially a man of peace, and as the manager of a great war he was conspicuously out of his ele ment. The history of that war plays a great part in the biographies of the military and naval heroes that figured in it ; it is a cardinal event in the career of Andrew Jackson or Isaac Hull. In the biog raphy of Madison it is an episode which may be passed over briefly. The greatest part of his career was finished before he held the highest offices; his