Impeach James Madison!

The Library of America continues its outstanding contribution to the preservation and dissemination of America’s literary heritage with this collection of letters, speeches, diary excerpts and newspaper articles from “America’s forgotten conflict.” You might not know it, unless you live in Maryland [home of the “star-spangled” license plate] or one of the states bordering the Great Lakes, but we are in the midst of “celebrating” the bicentennial of the War of 1812. This war suffers from obscurity in part due to the fact that for two of its principal players, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson (the latter acted as a perpetual font of advice to the former) the war was hardly a high point of their public service, and is therefore marginalized by those historians inclined to portray the two Virginians as valiant opponents of the evil Federalists. To the extent that the war is known at all, it is, as the editor of this collection, Donald R. Hickey, notes, for “‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ the burning of Washington, and the Battle of New Orleans.” Professor Hickey may be giving too much credit to the American public – a nationwide survey taken in 2010 found that 50% of Americans believed that the War of 1812 occurred before the American Revolution.