Thomas Jefferson destroying potato bugs.
James Madison
next took charge of the helm of State, and very unsettled weather he found it for a new beginner.
During his Administration the country became involved in another war with Great Britain, growing out of certain liberties taken by the latter with American vessels upon the high seas.
Whenever an English man-of-war ran short of hands its commander simply helped himself from the crew of any American merchantman he happened to encounter. James Madison stood it as long as he could, and then declared war. This was called the “War of Twelve,” (afterwards increased to several thousand,) and lasted two years.
Commodore Perry met the enemy on the Erie canal on the 10th of September, 1814, and after a spirited naval battle they were his property.
☞ See illustration.
James Monroe
woke up one fine morning in 1817 and found himself President of the United States. He set his wits to work and invented the “Monroe Doctrine,” a neat and ingenious contrivance for preventing any foreign Power from starting branch houses in America. He got it patented.
