A Dollop of Madison

A slice of a day in the life of….

I no longer research, I rummage about. Something catches my notice when I am reading, and off I go—much more easily now than during the day of library cards, mercifully—following links and notes that lead me about by the who-knows-where. To wit (a first use for me, I am pretty sure), Dolley Madison’s spouse James (1751-1836) proclaiming that “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy”. Interesting.

Or, at least, interesting enough to send me rattling about Madison’s written opinions. His work is easily cherry-picked (I’ll save Washington for another time), and this nugget could find its way into many a current pundit’s verbal grind: “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm”. Do tell.

Of course, that may depend on what the definition of enlightened is. Uh-oh.

Says Madison, “Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant”, and let’s just go ahead and exhume him and hope for some voodoo that anchors him in a chatterbox media chair.

This proposition is rich: “Every generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations”. President Eisenhower, care to weigh in? President Eisenhower? President Eisenhower? Anyone? Anyone?

Moving on, so President Madison remains resting in peace: “Let me recommend the best medicine in the entire world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages”. Well, I’m up for a mild season in a pleasant country. In fact, I am in a mild season in a pleasant country.

But to return back around at last to the other Madison, Dolley (1768-1849), who revealed, “It is one of my sources of happiness never to desire a knowledge of other people’s business”. Amen, Sister.