Happy Birthday, President Madison

It's a tradition for us to take note each year of the anniversary of the birth of our Fourth President, James Madison, for whom---at least indirectly---Madison Park was named.  As we've previously detailed, we might just as easily now be living in Monroe Park, but Madison Park it is and presumably shall always be.

This date marks the 261st birthday for President Madison, and 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of his second election as president of the United States in 1812.  It was a year in which he was both re-elected and presided over the ill-advised War of 1812.  That was the contretemps, as referenced by British Prime Minister David Cameron at our nation's capital earlier this week, in which the British burned the White House.

Here's a little bit of trivia about our Fourth President:  Madison ran for President in 1808 against Charles Pinckney, who had the distinction of having earlier been defeated for President by Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1804.  Madison's Vice President was former New York Governor George Clinton, who had also been President Jefferson's Vice President for the previous four years. Clinton is one of only two Vice Presidents in American history to have served under two different Presidents (the other Vice President being John C. Calhoun).  George Clinton's nephew, DeWitt Clinton, was defeated for President by James Madison in the election of 1812.