Midterm elections are here, and much of the attention in Washington and elsewhere has focused on two names you won’t find on any ballot: William Jefferson Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguably modern American politics’ premier power couple.

With many Democratic candidates – incumbents and challengers alike – leery of sharing a stage with Barack Obama, they turned to the former president, the party’s titular head and youngish (age 68) elder statesman, to draw enthusiastic crowds and media attention.

As for the former first lady, U.S. senator from New York and the nation’s 67th secretary of state, she appeared eager to continue as a political lightning rod, teasing friends and foes about a 2016 run for the White House.  

James and Dolley Madison

 
Courtesy Bruce Chadwick

But two centuries before the Clintons came to Washington – in truth, only shortly after Washington came into being – another power couple grabbed the attention of the young nation: James and Dolley Madison. According to Bruce Chadwick, author of James & Dolley Madison America’s First Power Couple (Prometheus Books) and a part-time lecturer in American studies at Rutgers, James Madison was a brilliant Founding Father, the architect of the Constitution, a bold secretary of state and an effective president. But with two major flaws, his slight physical stature and his social awkwardness, he owed much of his success to the political savvy of his charismatic, much younger wife whose legendary social skills, parties and backdoor politicking earned her husband well-deserved respect. Rutgers Today asked Chadwick about America’s first power couple.

Rutgers Today: People are familiar with James Madison as the author of the Constitution but less so about his successes as secretary of state or fourth president. Why?

Bruce Chadwick: People are too focused on Madison as the man who drafted the Constitution. We tend to forget about his later work in Thomas Jefferson’s cabinet and in the White House. With Jefferson, he engineered the purchase of the entire Louisiana territory in 1803. As president, the misconstrued “loss” of the War of 1812 with Great Britain diminished his standing. Added to that, Madison followed Jefferson as president. Jefferson was a blazing comet as president and nobody could really thrive as his successor.

Rutgers Today: Even today, a president’s legacy often is determined by foreign policy. Was Madison a failure because he did not win the War of 1812 and “settled” for a peace plan that offered America little?

Chadwick: Madison did not “lose” the War of 1812. He won. Historians seem to overlook the last days of the war. America had agreed to a peace treaty with England but was unhappy with its restrictive language when it arrived in Washington. Just days later, came word that Andrew Jackson had defeated the British at New Orleans in one of the English army’s greatest losses in history. Neither Jackson nor the British knew the treaty had been signed and assumed they were still at war. When news of the great American victory at New Orleans reached the Eastern Seaboard, there was jubilation. It was the last battle and a huge victory for the Americans and Madison. Hence, the country won the war. Madison’s popularity skyrocketed. For icing on his cake, he sent the Navy to defeat the Barbary Pirates off the coast of Africa. Historians seem to have missed this.

Rutgers Today: Dolley Madison was a lovely first lady and a social superstar in the first days of the 19th century. How would she have fared today in a world of 24-hour news cycles and social media?

Bruce Chadwick
Bruce Chadwick
Photo: Bill Wittkop

Chadwick: Today’s Dolley would be a combination of Jackie Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Eleanor Roosevelt and Oprah Winfrey, with a splash of Charlize Theron thrown in. Dolley had one great quality that first ladies all miss. She had the uncanny ability to let the spotlight always shine on her husband at the same time it shone on her. All her parties were engineered to make certain that her husband glowed. Everybody, regardless of social rank, had to meet her husband. She spared no expense in her appearance, wore daring, low cut gowns and stylish turbans, and threw the most lavish parties in the world. Today, she would not only do the same, but make the rounds on TV shows, host specials at the White House, lend her name to important charities and grace the cover of magazines. And, despite the glamour and glitz, there would be no scandals for her – none.

Rutgers Today: While many viewed the Madisons’ lifestyle with envy, their lives were far from perfect. Wasn’t Dolley’s son from her first marriage, Payne, a source of great difficulty?  

Chadwick: The story of handsome, but troubled, Payne Todd is sad. Today we would call him a text book sociopath. He had little emotional feelings for anyone, had no friends, spoke without thinking, gossiped and brought enormous shame on his family. He had several learning disabilities, was headstrong, impulsive, aloof and self-centered. He could not maintain relationships with women and never married, spent his nights losing large sums in gambling halls and ignored all who tried to help him. Payne ran up bills of over $1 million (in today’s money) that his father paid off, had to be bailed out of jail by the president several times, disappeared for weeks on end and consorted with unsavory characters. James Madison was on to him since Payne was 6 or 7, but Dolley never understood his woes and wrongly coddled him all his life. Her friends shook their heads in sympathy. They understood a mother’s love.