Dolley Madison and Elizabeth Monroe

Dolley Madison

Born:  
Place: Guilford County, North Carolina
Date: 1768, May 20 

Education:
No record exists of any formal education; although Philadelphia's Pine Street Meeting, to which the Paynes belonged, did offer class instructions for girls as well as boys, Dolley Payne was 15 years old at the time she moved to Philadelphia and was past the usual age for school.

Marriage:
First:
21 years old, married 1790, January 7 at Pine Street Meeting House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to John Todd, lawyer (1763-1793); they lived in a modest three-story brick house at the corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets; Todd died in a yellow fever epidemic, 1793, October 14
 
Second:
26 years old, married 1794, September 15, "Harewood" estate, Charles Town, West Virginia to James Madison (1751-1836), planter, U.S. Congressman (Virginia); following their wedding, lived in Madison's elegant three-story Spruce Street brick house until his retirement in 1797, when they moved to the Madison family plantation, "Montpelier," in Orange, Virginia.  

Occupation after Marriage:
Although she assumed the traditional role of wife and housekeeper following her first marriage, Dolley Todd also had the assistance of her younger sister Anna, who lived with her and there is suggestion that she was of help to John Todd in his legal work. Following her second marriage and then her 1797 move to Madison's Virginia estate, Dolley Madison assumed not only household management of the plantation and slaves, but also cared for her elderly mother-in-law who lived there.
 
James Madison served as Secretary of State in the Administration of his friend, President Thomas Jefferson, from 1801 to 1809, and the Madisons moved to Washington, D.C.

At those receptions and dinners which the widowed President felt necessitated a female co-host, he asked Dolley Madison to aide him. While she was not a presidential wife or in any way given an official designation, her exposure to the political and diplomatic figures who were guests of the President, as well as to the general public who came to meet him, provided her with a lengthy experience as a White House hostess. Notably, she also took a large public role in the fundraising effort that supported the exploration of the Louisiana Territory by explorers Lewis and Clark. These eight years of fore-knowledge and opportunity to consciously create her own public persona were the crucial factor that enabled her to shape what was only a marital relationship to the President into a genuine public role that was soon called "Presidentress" by some chroniclers.
 
Presidential Campaign and Inauguration:
Dolley Madison's popularity as a hostess in Washington added greatly to the recognition of her husband by those members of congress whose electoral votes then chose the winner of presidential races. During the 1808 election, however, there was an attempt by Federalist newspapers in Baltimore and Boston that implied Mrs. Madison had been intimate with President Jefferson as a way of attacking her character. Her popularity prevailed during the 1812 election. In preparation for the inaugural ceremonies of James Madison on March 4, 1809, Captain Tom Tingey, commandant of the Washington Navy Yard, had requested Dolley Madison's permission and sponsorship of a dance and dinner, and she readily agreed; thus, the first presidential "inaugural ball" took place that evening. Held at Long's Hotel, on Capitol Hill, there were four hundred guests in attendance. The event began at 7 p.m., opening with the playing of "Jefferson's March," followed by the entrance of the former President. Next, "Madison's March," was played and the new president and his wife entered. Dressed in a buff-colored velvet gown, wearing pearls and large plumes in a turban, Mrs. Madison made a dramatic impression. Although she did not join in the dancing, her sister Anna Cutts "opened" that portion of the program. A formal dinner followed, and Dolley Madison took her place at the crescent-shaped table, seated between the French Minister, General Louis-Marie Turreau de Garambouville and the British Minister, David Montagu Erskine

First Lady:1809, March 4 - 1817, March 3
40 years old  

Dolley Madison was the first First Lady to formally associate herself with a specific public project; as a fundraiser, supporter and board member, she helped to found a Washington, D.C. home for young orphaned girls. She also befriended nuns from a local Catholic school and began a lifelong association with the organization.

Elizabeth Monroe

Birth:
1768, June 30
New York City, New York

Marriage:
17 years old, to James Monroe, (28, April 1758-4, July, 1831) Lieutenant Colonel during American Revolution, and U.S. Congressman from Virginia, on 16 February, 1786 at Trinity Episcopal Church in New York; the couple spent a honeymoon on Long Island and then lived in the first U.S. capital city of New York with her father. Upon his retirement from Congress in 1786, they returned to his native state of Virginia where James Monroe practiced law; they lived first in Fredericksburg, and then in Charlottesville to be near his close friend, Thomas Jefferson.

Presidential Campaign and Inauguration:
Elizabeth Monroe was not known to play any role during her husband's two campaigns for the presidency in 1816 and 1820; with the winner of a presidential election still being decided by members of Congress as electors, however, the activities of which are today considered strictly social entertaining carried some potential for improving or harming the reputation of one's spouse. In this context, it can thus be concluded that despite the backlash by other political spouses and diplomats to her protocol rules that dramatically limited White House entertaining that she recovered and sustained her status and that of the President in time for his re-election. She took a more personal if passive role during the 1817 Inauguration festivities. Since the renovations of the White House stemming from the damage the building sustained from the 1814 burning by British troops were not yet completed, the public reception following the new President's swearing-in ceremony were held in the Monroe's private home on I Street. However, Mrs. Monroe did not appear at either the swearing-in ceremony nor greet guests at the reception in her home. At the 1821 Inauguration, Elizabeth Monroe did attend the public ball, held at Brown's Hotel.

First Lady:
March 4, 1817 - March 4, 1825
48 years old

Despite the fact that she was First Lady for eight years, very little primary source material exists on Elizabeth Monroe. No correspondence between her and the President, her family and the general public has survived. The few documents in which her name appears relate almost exclusively to legal, financial and property matters.
 
It was not Elizabeth Monroe but James Monroe who took charge of the details for the furnishings that were purchased for the newly renovated White House; thus the regal look of the mansion's new state rooms were not a reflection of any monarchial notions of Mrs. Monroe, as has sometimes been suggested. Though speculative, it is likely, however, that the First Lady had some voice in the matter and that she too preferred the emphasis on French, rather than English or American furnishings.