was on its way into washington. he stopped and pauses for a glass of wine and collects his thoughts and then gets on horseback to ride down here to georgeto georgetown where the sun is setting at this point. and there's a ferry known as mason's ferry that could carry people as well as horses across the river over here to mason's %% next to the virginia shore. today known as theodore roosevelt island. from there, madison, who's accompanied by paul jennings, the house, the madison house slave and several aides rides by causeway into virginia, and would spend the next three days as a refugee. there is no air force one or marine one helicopter to take them away. madison is on his own. georgetown are so clogged that she cannot reunite with the president. she ends up going further up river, chain bridge and crossing into virginia, and it would be better part of the day before ñ reunited. after burning theÑfz÷ capital, and coburn move with the troops down pennsylvania avenue to the white house. dolly and james madison had both left a number of hours earlier. and the british along the w

government ratified the treaty of ghent on the 28th before it was sent off to washington. the bat-of new orleans was fought on the 8th of january 1815. the news of the battle and the treaty don't get to washington until the war comes to an end. but the british, by ratifying the treaty, have said to the americans we want this war to be over. so under international law for thewgñ to have continued after the british ratification the americans would have had to -- that would have had to have been an american decision. and nobody in washington in february said we should throw out this treaty in order to carry on the war. no, that was a great myth that andrew jackson -- this is not to say that jackson's victory did not have consequences for american politics, you know, would jackson have become president without that battle? but no, the british had signaled quietly that the war was over. the americansed a ha a choice, we agree with them, we don't agree with them, they chose to agree. yes. >> in more recent years the war has been referred to as america's second war for independence. could

the perilous fight" uses the boat to take us on a river tour of the burning of washington. this program is about 90 minutes. >> i've had a boat on the potamic, oh, about 30 years. it's a great way to see the city. it looks really like a different city as seen from the water. lots of people think of the potamic as an obstacle to cross on the way to d.c., like a commuter obstacle, but it's the reason that the city is where it is, and it's one of the most remarkable urban rivers in the country, i think. >>> well, we're in the middle'=f the river off port washington, maryland, about eight or nine miles south of washington. more than anything, this -- the waterways really define the attack on washington and the ultimate attack on baltimore. this british were really making good use of the waterways, chez peak bay, the rivers, and by 1813, the bay had pretty much turned into a british lake, royal navy squadron under the " georn showed up and quickly established domain over the water here. george, a very effective officer, served under nelson in the war, sent here to set things up, had

reconstructed 1719 building where general george washington bid farewell to his officers following the revolutionary war. >> fraunces tavern is at 54 pearl street, which is the corner of pearl and broad street in lower manhattan. it was built in 1719 with the delancey family. it was never lived in, it was built at a home, but it was a very mercantile area, lots of sailors coming in and out, lots of ships. so the delanceys never wanted to raise their family here, so it was rented out by different tenants. one of the tenants was mr. holt and he rented a dance hall. in 1762, samuel fraunces purchased 54 pearl street and he opened up the queen's head tavern. and being down here in lower manhattan, you were at the center of commerce. so it was location, location, location. it was a very popular tavern. soon, the politics of the times started really kicking up and samuel fraunces was a patriot, so having a tavern named after your king and queen was not a good idea, so people referred to it as sam fraunces tavern, which is what it's known as today. the tavern was very popular. he had two kitc

campaign 2014, more than 100 debates for the control of congress. bowling, george washington university history professor and author of "the "reation of washington, d.c. he spoke about the debate and compromise of the location of the capital at a symposium marking the 200th anniversary of the burning of the capital in the war of 1812. this is about 30 minutes. >> the first speaker this afternoon is kenneth r. bowling. kenneth received his phd from the university of wisconsin. -- specialty is the creation is all about the creation of the federal government during the revolution. he has been active and interested in researching the location of the seat of government. he has been the author of many books and articles. throughout most of his professional life, he has been the co-editor of the documentary of the history of the first congress. classicis books is a now, published back 1991. ow, that's the creation of washington, d.c., which is published back in 1991. if anybody wants to know about behind the scenes and proceedings and meetings and all the things that went on in term

washington, d.c., area. and this guy would not get out of the way when i was trying to take these pictures. but if you look very carefully, this is the entrance to the kitchen down in the basement area and you can clearly see the scorch marks. but i'd particularly like you to look at the left-hand side where the scorch marks suddenly disappear. and what that shows us is that obviously those stones, for whatever reason, were replaced over time. exactly when that took place, i do not know. but not all of the original stones that make up the white house nor the capitol were there. many of them were damaged. and then this is just a detail of the same thing where my hand is pointing, that's what you would look if you could get a close-up of it and then just below it, right after all of that scorch you can see good, clean stone. and then this is just another example. and you can see this in many places. now, this is a quote that i took right out of don hickey's book about the myths. there's many other examples but i like this one in particular because this is a british quote, and i'll read it to

general george washington bid farewell to his officers following the revolutionary war. >> fraun says tavern is at 54 lower manhattan. it was built in 1719 with the delancey family. it was built as a home. a mercantile area. sailors coming in and out, lots of ships. so they never wanted to raise here.family it was rented out by different tenants. mr. hole. tenants was he rented a dancehall. fraunces samuel purchased 54 pearl street and queens head tavern. being down here in lower anhattan, you were the center of commerce. so it was location, location, location. it was a popular tavern. politics of the time really kicking up and samuel fraunces was a patriot. tavern named after your king and queen was not a good idea. referred to it as sam fraunces' tavern which is know the building as today. kitchen which was very uncommon at the time. and the late 1760s when the politics were happening, very different types of people would meet here the sons of liberty. so the upstair, the second floor fraunces tavern was a private room, the long room for private rentals. traditionally allowed i

begin shortly. we're going to circle back to the city of washington, white house and capital building and then finish with a paper by andrew bernstein and nancy eisenberg, which is a retrospective view of madison and the constitution that will reflect adaptability and great persuasion mad sentence had. an interesting capstone to two days of i think what we all can agree has been just a tremendous group of presentations. so the first speaker that will be coming up this afternoon is kenneth r. bowling. kenneth received his phd from the university of wisconsin. his specialty is the creation of the -- is all about the creation of the federal government during the revolution. he's been very active and interested in particularly researching the seat of government. he's been the author of many book and articles. throughout most of his professional life, he's been the co-editor of documentary history of first federal congress. i do want to say one thing about one of his books, which i think is a real classic now, that's the creation of washington, d.c., which is published back in 199

home, and maryland and washington were being2 so he had actually volunteered for the militia, and he had served in the georgetown artillery during some of coburn's raids, and then at bladensburg, he is actually out there as a civilian volunteer to district militia. it does things particularly, but after the fight he comes back to the home, and from his home here in georgetown, he witnesses, the burning of washington, and he is in something of a state of shock. he had sent his family which included six children by then and his wife away up to the family home in maryland, but he's been quite fearful that georgetown will be attacked. a a few days later, it is from this home that he would launch the mission to try to gain 8p maryland who had been taken prisoner by the british, a and this would ultimately lead to his eyewitnessing of the bombardment of ft. mchenry and ultimately to thev f writing e national antent them. a big rainstorm hit the city that night after the% n÷ britisd gone back to their camp, and extinguishes some of the flames including at the treasury. and coburn, the nex

"devastation" but none of the crew set foot in washington. so either he exchanged booty with another briton or archibald canes the canadian is mistaken as is the white house. well, we then went to see the portrait of george washington. they took away the rope that keeps you about 20 feet away and then for the first of countless times i saw the artist's amazing mistake. in the painting george washington is standing up facing you. there is a table next to his right leg, under the table are some books and the title painted on one of the books reads "laws and constitution of the united states" s-a-t-e-s. can i believe it? gilbert stewart made a spelling mistake. extraordinary. well, when the british arrived on capitol hill, they confronted by the twin buildings of the senate in the north, the south and covered wooden walkway. as they entered, they expected to find signs of republican simplicity. but instead, they found evidence of splendor. now, i go to town in this book on what the building was like because it wasn't a normal building. it was like those great cathedrals in medieval euro

two weeks for the wagons to arrive in washington. they're so great. they had a fire in the middle of the 19th century but you can see what remains of them in curved bookcases at the library of congress and it's incredible. this man, this renaissance man, every subject you can think of is there. archaeology. history. art. farming. it's all there in different languages. that was thomas jefferson. amazing. well, two days before the british arrived, the commandant ordered the navy clerk to get a hold of transport to take 124 barrels of gun powder out of the navy yard into the safety of virginia. booth settled up across into georgetown and saw a wagon outside a store. he rode up and told the two apparent owners he was impounding it for the department of navy. this is wartime. and so some citizens who might normally have buckled to bureaucratic pressure bustled chasing off government officials with abuse and profanities. this is exactly what happened to booth. in a vivid chronicle written two weeks after the departure of the british, he described what happened next. and it's got my fing

washington and madison pretty quickly. but cockburn was so unimpressed with the american defenses that he didn't mind sending this word. he knew that there was nothing really the americans could do about it. in its third year, the war had taken a very ugly turn for the united states. driven primarily by events overseas, in particular in april 1814 prosecution the application of napoleon, which appears to have ended two decades of war in europe, and the british who had been able to really devote relatively scant resources to this annoying war on -- across the ocean were now in a position to put an end to this conflict. and relatively small number of troops, some of them from the force that had just defeated napoleon, some of them who had been under the command of the duke of wellington are put on transports in france and sent across, including some 4,000 that are sent to the east coast. and the other thing that happens is the replacement of warren with admiral alexander cochrane as the new commander of the north american station. and cochrane was a real hater of americans, his brother had

with his rhetorical skill. when he thought of firm and yett reasonable leadership, he had washington in mind.n and when he reached for symbolic embodiment of the republican style, it would have not been one of the democratic republican clubs that sprang up in the p mid-1790s even though hamiltonian federalists saw them as having been inspired by ough madison. havin they went so far to nickname g club members the mads. basically implying that they're not quite stable upstairs. no, madison would have found a more appealing symbol of the moe republican style and the national gazette.na the newspaper that madison helped found in 1791. that was for madison a prime a source of educated public opinion. not what we get today. not polls. get educated public opinion. he wrote public opinion sets ss bounds to every government. here we get this theme that is weetty consistent with madison, setting boundaries. g this is a fundamental principle. it meant restraining, ries. disciplining excesses. this is what madison was committed to.str unlike his friend thomas jefferson, madison never had complet

this summer, during the war of 1812, british shoulders invaded washington, d.c. on august 24 1814 and set fire to the white house and the u.s. capitol building. president james madison and first lady dolly madison fled the city. next, highlights from a symposium looking back and what was known as mr.madison''s war. the white house historical association and james madison's montpelier cohosted this event. >> our next speaker will be talking about dolly madison and the british invasion of washington, d.c., in the war of 1812. we have heard some things about dolly madison's role. now we'll hear more from holly shulman, a former editor of the dolley madison papers. pers.dited a group of p a dr. shulman continued to publish dolly madison papers which she has grants from the historic preservation and records commission of the national archives. please welcome holly shulman. [ applause ] >> those of you who are interested in the full papers of dolly payne todd madison, what i do now is as complete as possible edition of the dolly madison papers in the dolly madison edition. like the book, it

washington. if the army came under counter attack, then having the royal navy squadron coming up the potomac would relieve pressure on them and perhaps they could carry out some of the army forces down the potomac if they were to get trapped at washington. beyond that, there were some important targets still up river from where they stood. primarily, this included the city of alexandria, which was then -- although in virginia, in the state of virginia, it was then part of the land making up the district of columbia. this was a very wealthy port on the potomac. and they also could pose a threat to other targets in washington that hadn't been taken by the british army. though they don't know this at this point. georgetown had been left alone by the british and there's an important foundry that makes weapons for the u.s. navy that is still sitting untouched. in any event, they were proceeding up river when they're hit by the huge storm. the remarkable storm that comes through washington on august 25th sweeps down river and severely damages several of the ships in gordon's squadron. and

, do you think we could find george washington, thomas jefferson, james madison, george mason, john marshall and patrick henry? we ain't going to find them. now, at some theoretical level they are there. that is, human beings with the capacity for leadership are there, but the situation doesn't permit that group to rise to the surface. and so the question is, why did that situation exist in 1776? now, there is another answer to this, which is that great leadership only emerges during times of great crisis. and this makes eminent sense, the pressure that the crisis creates. and yet we can all think of examples where there's a great crisis and there's no leadership. like now. [laughter] [applause] or the coming of your -- world war i in europe. so what was special, you can't say there was something special in the water back there then. you can't say god looked down upon the american college and bless them. supernatural explanations are not admitted. even if you're an evangelical you're not allowed to use those in a historical conversation. i don't know whether i have a good answer to

that surround washington, d.c. specifically, i'm going to talk about three myths. i'm going to present them to you in the form of a question. the first one is did the british really burn washington city? question number two. is the white house really called the white house because it was painted white because of the scorch marks when the british burned it in 1814? the third one is, did the great storm that came through this region, not just washington, but the following afternoon, put out the fires and save the city? now, because we are talking about myths, i guess you have already figured out the answer to all of these. but, i would be curious with a show of hands, how many of you have heard of the myth of the great storm? whether you believe it or not? okay. i was correct in taking the observation that many people have heard about that. the title is slightly different from what you have in your program but myths from the war of 1812, i think sounds better than myths during the war of 1812. some of these actually came about after the war, not necessarily during the war. let's

. the chariot's front decorated by a portrait of washington. the chariot sits astride a globe encircled by a band inscribed with signs of the zodiac. the 12 constellations that traditionally represent the universe from earth's northern hemisphere. the presence of the zodiac has been noted by others but not explained within the context of american history. a congressional resolution on june 14th, 1777, authorized the design of the flag of the united states. 13 red and white stripes were its major identifying elements, but the resolution concluded that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation. both the designer of the american flag and latrobe conceived of the historical importance of america's governing system as extraterrestrial. the great library in alexandria egypt inspired latrobe's choice of the architectural look. it was inspired in 1812. a u-shaped room across from the senate chamber but sunken five feet to accommodate one full and two half stories. its central reading room overlooked by galleries of book stacks. eight elaborately car

during the war of 1812, british soldiers invaded washington, d.c. on august 24, 1814 and set fire to the white house and u.s. capitol building. president james madison and first lady dolley madison fled the city. historiansouse discuss tonight. discusses the portrait of george washington, saved by dolley madison. house historical historical society hosted the event. >> we have presentations from two good friends of the white -- white house historical association. allman has literally held in his hand the history of the white house since joining the white house curator's office 38 years ago. for the past 12 years, mr. allman has led that very important office as white house curator. this is one of the best jobs there is, to care for one of the most historic and stored elections in the world. the office of the curator is charged with the preservation and study of the collection of art, furniture, and decorative objects used to furnish both the public and private rooms of the white house. as an official residence and an accredited historic house-museum , a house that has been home and o

ross burned several buildings in washington. americans at the time, and as pointed out this morning, british after the fact considered it retaliation for the american burning of government buildings at york, canada. perhaps only one government building and perhaps not the american army after all. this provided the burning of the public buildings provided opponents of the location with an opportunity to argue for removal without having to did he mean the city. during the month prior to convening of congress in late september 1814, residents expressed fears that the opponents of the city might prevail. washington socialite eliz a, granddaughter of washington, went so far as to accuse secretary of war john armstrong, jr., of allowing the british to capture the city in order to give ammunition to those who wished to move from the potomac and win himself political support in what might have been upcoming campaign. the 13th congress reconvened in the patent office on september 19th. while members talked privately about the possibility of an immediate removal, president james madison assur

was -- many people still held out the hope that the washington family would allow george washington's remains to be built to be installed in the crypt at the capitol. so latrobe had accounted for that in his design for the rotunda. thank you very much. >> thank you. our next speaker will be william seale. and to us at the association, he doesn't really need much introduction. he's been a part of our organization as an adviser to our board for at least as the time he published his president's house in 1986. he's been a mentor to us on the staff with research eeducation, publication. over all those many years and now is the editor of our white house history publication that you all received a complementary copy in your packets. i hope you'll enjoy that and hopefully become a subscriber to our journal and keeping up with the latest research. of course, william seale is an architectural historian and specialist an the restoration and preservation of historic buildings. his handiwork is all over the country in executive mansions and capitols. he's also, of course, published th

cats and their pals in washington that president obama lost his nerve and wouldn't appoint her. so she ran for the senate in 2012 and the rest is history. welcome back, senator warren. >> thank you, it's good to be here. >> you know, ten years have passed, since we've had that first talk, and the middle class is still struggling. their income, adjusted for inflation, is lower than it was five years ago. and they've lost about 3% of their purchasing power since then. yet stocks are sour i s ars ars economy's soaring and the benefits are not going to middle class families. why can't washington do better? >> i think washington doesn't do better by them because washington isn't trying to do better by them. if you look at washington as a whole, i think this is the fundamental problem in our system right now. washington works for those who can hire armies of lobbyists, armies of lawyers, and get just the rules they want. it doesn't work for families. raise the minimum wage. nobody should work full time and still live inpoverty. minimum wage nationally hasn't been raised in over seven years.

retreating now just as the british had advanced on washington. he'd ordered his troops back a number of times, but he really botches this retreat. so as the maryland militia are falling back, a lot of them start heading north towards baltimore, others are heading towards georgetown, and really none of them are heading back to the third line of defense, which has been formed by joshua barney and his navy flotilla men and the district militia which had raced up from washington during the course of the morning in the terrible heat. in fact, the maryland militia commanders hadn't even been informed that there was a third line. no one had told them that joshua barney and the district militia had formed behind them. so they're retreating in a chaotic fashion. winder is losing his nerve, and he ends up ordering a general retreat, and this even as the british are starting to approach the third line of defense, which is made up of barney and the district militia. now, the british at bladensburg have to moveup hill to attack this third line. barney is situated on a strong position right on the di

. she talks about her career as a columnist for the "washington post" and her change from being an atheist to someone of faith. she also speaks about her long marriage to ben bradlee. >> sally quinn, on january 19 of this year you wrote, "when i started 'on faith' over seven years ago, i was an atheist." let me stop there, this was not your first, why did you say you were an atheist? >> i had been an atheist most of my life. i became an atheist when i was about 4-years-old. i'd always been taught to say my prayers, "i pray the lord my soul to keep." when my father was in the military and he was in germany during world war ii, and he liberated dachau and he had the staff photographer take pictures of the holocaust victims. he made scrapbooks out of them which are at the holocaust museum. he brought them home. i looked at the photographs and i thought there cannot be a god. how could a god let this happen? that's when i stopped believing in god. i did not know the word "atheist," but i just knew not believe in god. i learned the word "atheist" when i was 13-years-old. i told my fathe

during the war of 1812, british soldiers invaded washington on august 20 4, 1814, and set fire to the water house -- white house and u.s. capitol building. james madison and dolley madison fled the city. discuss thats night. allman describes the saving of the portrait and william seale describes the events leading up to the burning itself. this is a 30-minute event. >> william allman has served our country and joined the white house curator's office 38 years ago. for the past 12 years, mr. allman has led that very important office is white house curator. this is one of the best jobs there is. to care for one of the most historic and storied collections in the world. the curator is charged with the preservation and study of the collection of art, furniture, and decorative objects used to furnish both the public and private rooms of the white house. as an official residence and accredited historic house museum, i house that has been home and office to 43 presidents of the united states. mr. allman is a vital friend to the white house historical association and we welcome him tonight

would appear washington continues to attempt to shape in reshape the middle east. to cross-talk the islamic state i'm joined by my guest jobber husain in london he is director of the iraqi association also in london we have joseph willits he is from the council for arab british understanding and in washington we cross to ray locker he is the washington enterprise editor for usa today right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want ray if i go to you in washington we have the u.s. defense secretary saying the islamic state threat beyond anything we've seen is it really of this magnitude here because we've heard this before about other groups and the march toward go ahead ray in washington. well we have a history of doing that i mean the government as we saw that pre two thousand and three with saddam hussein in iraq saying he had weapons of mass destruction he didn't we invaded anyway and now all of the rest of the world wonders about our credibility however we had an attack on nine eleven thirteen years ago that killed more than three thousand p

burning of washington in the title. they talk about the burning of the white house and just in case you haven't had enough of that, there's the most recent book by peter snow which is "when britain burned the white house." all of these books are great but the question -- or maybe the point that i'm trying to make is that to the average person when they read a title like that, it's going to give them an impression that is not necessarily what really happened in washington, d.c. and i find it ironic that we have three books that talk about the white house, a very important public building, no question about it, where the president lived and it hurt the morale when you burn the president's house. no question about it. but to me, of all of the buildings that were burnt, the most significant was the capitol building. that's where the seat of government existed. and none of these books have that in their title. just interesting to me. and just so that you know they are all in good company, this is the title of a chapter in one of my books. "washington is burning." we all do it. almost all of

invaded washington, d.c. and set fire to the white house and u.s. capitol building. el speaks at a vogle symposium looking at "mr. madison's war." this is about >>> okay. first i want to announce following our next presentation, we will take a ten-minute break. our next speaker will be speaking about mr. madison will have to put on his armor, coburn and the capture of washington. steve vogel is the author of through the perilous fight and the pentagon history. he's a veteran journalist who wrote for "the washington post" until 2014. most recently covering the treatment of veterans from the wars in afghanistan and iraq. his reporting about the war in afc was part of a package of "the washington post" stories that was selected as a finalist for the 2002 pulitzer prize. he covered the september 11th attack on the pentagon, and also covered the fall of beryl -- of the berlin wall. he's actually currently working on a project on the history of berlin during the cold war, so maybe he has gone back in hi mind at least to the fall of berlin. a graduate of the college of william and mary wi

washington journal for the theme of the 2015 c-span student cam documentary competition. >>> 200 years ago this summer during the war of 1812, british soldiers invaded washington, d.c. and set fire to the white house and the u.s. capitol building. at a symposium on the war to mark the anniversary, kenneth bowling discusses the white house and capitol buildings. the historical society jointly host this symposium. this part of the event is 35 minutes. so the first speaker that will be coming up this afternoon is kenneth r. bowling. kenneth received his phd from the university of wisconsin. his specialty is the creation of the federal government. he's been very active and interested in particularly researching the seat of government. he's been the author of many book and articles. throughout most of his professional life, he's been the co-editor of documentary history of first federal congress. i do want to say one thing about one of his books, which i think is a real classic now, that's the creation of washington, d.c., which is published back in 1991. if anybody wants to know abou

slowly but surely to fear the islamic state it would appear washington continues to attempt to shape it can reshape the middle east. to cross-talk the islamic state i'm joined by my guest jobber hasan in london he is director of the iraqi association also in london we have joseph willits he is from the council for arab british understanding and in washington we cross to ray locker he is the washington enterprise editor for usa today right gentlemen cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want ray if i go to you in washington we have the u.s. defense secretary saying the islamic state threat beyond anything we've seen is it really of this magnitude here because we've heard this before about other groups and the march toward go ahead ray in washington. well we have a history of doing that i mean the government we saw that pre two thousand and three with saddam hussein and iraq saying he had weapons of mass destruction he didn't we invaded anyway and now all of the rest of the world wonders about our credibility however we had an attack on nine eleven thirteen

a minor. >>> residents in one ft. washington neighborhood have wondered for months now are we going to keep our homes or possibly lose them? that was until last night when prince george's county e-mailed residents telling them their fate. surae chinn reports from ft. washington's piscataway drive. >> we knew it could go either way. >> reporter: up until the county's e-mail miles cullen held out hope he would be able to stay in their dream home. he and his family have been partially living in a camper parked out front so they could have access to running water. >> we know we're going to have to move on here. >> reporter: his is one of six homes to be condemned. 22 other houses down the hill will be able to stay. since may an active mudslide has turn. these family's lives upside down. the slope has moved roughly an inch since the disaster. construction on piscataway drive won't happen until the county buys the homes on the hill and condemns them and that might not happen until the spring. the county's e-mail warns residents they may have to find another place to live for about half a

policymaking system, to write a book about relation between iran and the u.s. tehran and washington have experienced one of the most dysfunctional relations, if not the most, one of the most hostile relations, if not the most, and during recent modern history i really can find readily such hostile relations between u.s. and any other country even with the soviet union there was official relations, ambassadors, even with vietnam, such a war between iran and everything the u.s. and vietnam still now they have official relations, but iranians and americans have failed to establish a normal relation and have experienced all means of hostilities, from economic war, covert war, intelligence war, cyberwar, political war. the u.s. definitely tried over three decades to bring regime change in iran and failed. therefore, i tried to explain the roots of hostilities between iran and the u.s., from the u.s. point of view, the west point of view, and the iranian point of view. you would see a lot of literature, books written about iran and the u.s., west and iran, but rarely you would find scholars in

up, big ten college tour continues. . good morning. welcome back to the "washington journal." good morning. welcome to the washington journal. we want to hear from you. send us a tweet. or go to facebook,.com. send an email. at the white house before going to new york for meetings at the united nations, here's what he had to say about the air strikes on monday. >> last night on my orders, america's armed forces began strikes against targets in syria. today the american people give thanks for the extraordinary service of the men and women indown form including the pilots with the courage and professionlism we come to expect from the finest military the world has ever known. earlier i outlined our strategy i made it clear that as part of this campaign, the united states would take action against targets in iraq and syria so these terrorists could not find a safe haven anywhere. also made clear america would act as part of a broad coalition. we were joined in this action by our friends and partners saudi arabia, united arab emirates, jordan, bahrain and qatar. american is proud to sta

obtain 2014 christmas ornament. finally to white house association in washington and those watching on c-span from across america, 14 prestigious supporters guide us through one of our most significant periods in history. to begin our full program, it's my pleasure to welcome president and ceo of james madison montpelier to present our session one apprehenders. >> good afternoon. it's so wonderful to be here. i wanted to say our board chair in may joins us as many montpelier board members. i hope under the circumstances a chance to meet our leadership. could not be more pleased to have this ton to sponsor this next two days, mr. madison's war and the burning of washington city. declaring war, congress and the president exercised pourt that were granted by the constitution. for our young country only three decades removed from war of independence. the war of 1812 tested many of the ideas in the constitution and it called upon madison to abide by limitation of powers he worked so hard to institute. as we commemorate sobering events of 1814, this panel will be shedding light on scholarship

office any orders to coburn and ross to burn the public buildings in washington? and the implications being retaliation, question mark. >> thank you very much. this is one of the great questions about what happens in washington. were coburn and ross operating under specific orders to do something as specific as burning the white house? certainly there was a sense that after the occupation of what is now toronto and the destruction of the public buildings there, and in other parts on the niagara front where there had been cross-border destruction of public and private buildings by both sides, that the public buildings of the state that started the war were fair game. and nobody in europe would have thought this was in any way surprising. the whole operation was organized by george coburn. he was the only man among those in command who had been long enough to work out the target and how to get there. the chronology is quite clear. the army with ross and alexander cochran arrives in the chesapeake, and the next morning they set off up the paw tuxant and cross towards bladens burg. he is

defenses of washington. i'd like to welcome and thank each of you all for joining us this morning for the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the battle of fort stevens. ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the presentation of colors and the singing of the national anthem by anita frasier. ♪ o say, can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? ♪ ♪ and the rockets' red glare the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ o'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ and the home of the brave ♪ [ applause ] >> you may take your seats. the invocation will be delivered by the senior pastor of st. luke's baptist church, the reverend aubrey lewis. >> let us bow our heads. eternal father, this morning we come to celebrate a historic occasion, one that has tremendous significance in the

the city of washington. he was in a free-willing mood. he taunted and mocked the madisons. and then he tweaked the honor of whiteman. he said take a souvenir chltsds he said i'll take one for myself. he selected a hat belonging to the president. and the british drank, they bought wine from decanters into cut glass. that he told us at the hemt of their region and the success of his majesty's land and they drank for peace to american and down with madison. and when one of the men found a ceremonial hat and raised it by the tip of the bayonet. he said if they could not capture the little president, they won't parade his hat in england. and that night, they burned 2 white house and the treasury. and that night, the state and war departments, the last of which because the content of rope and tar sent clouds of choking black smoke over the city. the ruins were a telting commentary on a scale of cities deg regags. that's the seen as they left the capital. now, they came on wednesday night. at thursday, 2:00 p.m., there was a two hour storm that may have been a hurricane. locals had never s

. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. smith: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from minnesota, mr. ellison. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. plellson: i agree with the -- mr. ellison: i agree with the last speaker, mr. dent. this is a very difficult vote and i think everybody should approach wit a tremendous amount of trepidation, concern, and i'm sure all of us are doing the best we can to come to the best decision we can on behalf of our constituents. but today, i plan on voting for the measure. the reason why is that the civil war in syria has claimed thousands of lives, thousands more living under the deadly rule of isil. 200,000 syrians have been killed so far as the world for four years has not done much to protect them. now, the fight in syria and iraq can ultimately only be solved politically, and i believe that the growing humanitarian crisis caused by conflicts in the region warrants an urgent response from the united states. any military action against isil must be led by iraqis a

. officials just revealed they know who he is. elizabeth prann live in washington with what we know. >> good morning. the f.b.i. is combing through the propaganda isis videos which shows executioners beheaded by men who could be british. they use tools such as facial recognition tech technology. another isis video features two men and identifying them is a top priority for the f.b.i. as far as future hostages the fate of them is unknown. listen here. >> not going to get into the intelligence we have surrounding the attack that we know that they were planning. so i'm just not going to get into details on that. on the hostages that we still believe obviously that isil holds hostages, i don't have any information today to provide in terms of what their captivity looks like or where they might be or anything like that. >> another big development, we're learning u.s. ally, britain, says it will join airstrikes against targets in iraq after weighing its options. prime minister david cameron expected to vote on that approval today. >> that is pretty scary when they are talking about one of

thing. >> the burning of washington tells us something important about the state of the union in 1814. one massachusetts newspaper ran a satirical headline, the president lost. the story was about how madison had gone missing since the battle of bladensburg and contended and here i quote, he does not even know where he is himself entirely lost and bewildered. in other words, the president hadn't just lost washington, he had lost his mind. so if you think politics is bad today, it isn't any better. now, we have to -- i think several of the presenters have returned to this question, does the burning of washington turn madison into a failed president? a simple sound bite would fly today. but it misses the larger historical context. the british torched the capital to humiliate the president and actually to humiliate more than one president in reducing washington, the city, they were symbolically reducing washington the general who reduced lord corn wallace at york town 30 years before. you should read british newspapers, they rallied because they fqxçyresented american politicians chest

the british can take plattsburgh, there is no troops between here and washington, d.c. there is no american -- the cavalry is not coming. and with plattsburgh gone, they can sweep down the lake, they can go on to lake george, and they can go on to the hudson and split the united states in half. in the meantime, the treaty of gent talks are on. and this is a bargaining chip. if you can take plattsburgh, and you can redraw the northern border of the united states, wherever the british troop lines are at the time, well, these negotiations are going on, that's going to be the new northern border. what they had in mind, they didn't plan to take the united states again. this is not a revolution. what they planned was they wanted a new northern border for the united states. not the 45th parallel, but the 43rd. they wanted the northern border of massachusetts to be the border of the northern united states. if you take that line, and you run it across the country, take that parallel, you end up in buffalo. that means that the united states would have lost maine, vermont, new hampshire, and

is a real classic now, that's the creation of washington, d.c., which is published back in 1991. if anybody wants to know about behind the scenes and proceedings and meetings and all the things that went on in terms of the location of national capital, this book is a must read. i'd like you to welcome kenneth [ applause ] >> thank you, bill. rather than thank the individual organizations, i just want to say i think most of us would agree that this conference just rocks. [ laughter ] >> i would like to thank in particular the editor of our papers for the fine job they are doing. fiona griffin and marsha anderson. [ applause ] one of the i think so i have in common with the next speaker, we tend to edit and precise our talks to about the last minute. so i apologize if suddenly i can't read my own handwriting. >> some water. this is going to have to sit up here. in late june 1790, james hemings, enslaved half brother of thomas jefferson's deceased wife prepared dinner for secretary of state and two guests. he had invited hamilton and james madison of virginia in an attempt to resolve a