ELECTION #7, 1812. The NASTY-METER stays at 2.

QUOTE from Dolley Payne Todd when she was being pursued by James Madison in 1794. She called James the "great little Madison." Madison was introduced to Dolley by Aaron Burr in May, 1794. She must have liked the "great little Madison" because she married him in September, 1794. Dolley was a Quaker and James was an Episcopalian. Dolley was "read-out" of the Quaker meeting (expelled) from the Quaker church for marrying outside her faith.

ELECTION #7, 1812. One thing James Madison did in his first term was to give present day American high school students something to giggle about. What I'm talking about is he got Congress to pass the Non-Intercourse Act. This act took the place of the hated Embargo Act. It was much more sensible because it allowed Americans to trade with the whole world (except England and France); thus American merchants found other markets, such as Netherlands, and they prospered.

The CANDIDATES in 1812.

In May, 1812, the Republicans nominated James Madison for a second term. A couple weeks previous to this VP George Clinton had died. So the Republicans turned to Elbridge Gerry, Republican governor of Massachusetts to be Madison's vice-presidential running mate. Gerry had gained fame by his energetic and slick redistricting of Federalist voting areas in Massachusetts so the Republicans could get more seats in Congress and the state legislature. In fact, his name is part of our vocabulary in 2012 - when congressional and state districts are slickly maneuvered today to favor one party over another we call it GERRYMANDERING.

The Federalists were nearing the end as a political party. In fact, they didn't even nominate a Federalist for president. In August, 1812, they met in great secrecy and decided to throw their support to DeWitt Clinton, a Republican, and the mayor of New York City. They liked Clinton because he was a relentless enemy of James Madison. With a possible war looming with England (war against England was declared om June 18, 1812) they felt he would appeal as an anti-war candidate and that, as a New Yorker, he would appeal to New England Republicans who were sick of all these Virginians being president (Washington, Jefferson, and Madison).

The CAMPAIGN IN 1812.

The campaign was not an exciting one. Clinton tried to sound like the anti-war candidate. His Federalist supporters called Madison "a base wretch,,,who is for war with England." But since many people supported the war with England it did not work.

The WINNER was James Madison.

There were now 18 states - the electoral vote was 128 for Madison and 89 for Clinton. We were at war with England when the electoral votes were counted - throughout our history a "war president" has never been voted out of office.