Book Reviewed: Perfect Union by Catherine Allgor

Dolley The First Lady, Dolley Madison, wife of the Fourth President of the United States of America, James Madison had a strong will and unique personality. She hosted parties for Washington D.C.'s social and political elite and invited members of both political parties spearheading the concept of bipartisan cooperation. At this time, the position of First Lady was not officially authorized or defined. She was known to have saved the only portrait of George Washington before the British burned down the White House in the War of 1812. Historical figures were brought to life through their experience of this unprecedented attack; the presidential family displaced, a nation humbled, and an American spirit shaken. Dolley sometimes served as widower Thomas Jefferson's hostess for official ceremonial functions befriending the wives of the ambassador of Spain, and France. Her charm precipitated a diplomatic crisis called the “Merry Affair,” after Jefferson escorted Dolley to the dining room instead of the wife of Anthony Merry, the English diplomat to the U.S., in a faux pas. Dolley was known for her good heart and warmth, but she was indifferent to the plight of her slaves and the practice of slavery in America. Even though James Madison is a founding member of American Colonization Society that sought to liberate the slaves and be sent to newly created African nation of Liberia. in 1836, at the James Madison’s funeral, white mourners were moved by the slaves gave vent to their lamentations that showed their admiration for him. Jams Madison had stipulated in his will that female slaves not be sold after his death, but to combat debt and need for the cash, Dolley proceeded to sell her slaves. Dolley grew up in a quaker family and her parents did not approve the practice of slavery. In 1783, following the American Revolutionary War, her father John Payne emancipated his slaves. In the last days of her life, before Congress purchased her husband's Presidential papers, she was in a state of absolute poverty. A slave named Paul Jennings recalled that she suffered for the daily necessities of life. Occasionally he gave her small sums from his own pocket; this was years after he gained freedom from her. However, in the periodical of abolition movement “The Liberator” the editors disputed her claims of poverty stating that U.S. Congress had given her liberal amount. Even conceding her penury, the editors were blunt and censorious. Why did Dolley’s contemporaries admire her? In this book, historian Catherine Allgor reveals how Dolley manipulated her gender role to construct and to achieve her husband's political goals. By emphasizing cooperation over coercion, she learnt to find common goals that benefited her husband’s leadership, and her difficult issues with her son’s failures.