By Ray Hill
The fascination with royal families is hardly new. I well remember just how many people were caught up in the wedding of Prince Charles to Diana Spencer. Like every capital of a civilized country, Washington, D.C. has a vibrant social life and the visit of King George VI and his queen, Elizabeth, to the United States captivated much of the country. Those folks who have watched The Crown on Netflix realize their daughter is Queen Elizabeth II.
The invitation to visit America had come from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and it was heralded throughout the media of the day for no reigning British monarch had ever trod on American soil. The United States and Great Britain had something of a checkered history since the Colonies broke away from the British Empire. The Capitol still carries scars from the War of 1812 when President James Madison and First Lady Dolly Madison had to flee before British troops burned down the White House. Relations between the
Around noon on Aug. 24, 1812, at the height of the War of 1812, British Redcoats engaged with about 8,000 American soldiers defending a bridge spanning the Potomac River at Bladensburg, Md. The War of 1812 was sparked by a disagreement over naval.
In saying all of that, the contradictions inherent in its history, its sectional and racial fault-lines, and entropic constitutional architecture mean that any rose-tinted affection is tempered by experience and a heavy dose of realism. Back in 1998, while in Columbus, Ohio, I watched Bill Clinton fess up about his mad dalliance with Monica. He cut a lonely figure that weekend, skulking round the White House lawn with only his retriever Chappaqua for company. Clinton’s was a tumultuous presidency. A chaotic transition, a prolonged battle to pass an economic plan, Hillary’s failed health care reform, Newt Gingrich’s ‘Contract with America, a shelling at the ’94 mid-terms, the Oklahoma Bombing, re-election and finally impeachment.
Shank: Capitol no stranger to attacks
Richard Shank
The attack on the United States Capitol this week was a reminder of previous incidents in a building some call the world’s home for Democracy.
On Aug. 28, 1814, during a conflict dubbed the War of 1812, the British came to town and during a two-hour stay torched the Capitol and White House, both of which were still under construction.
The invaders piled the furniture in the House of Representatives Chamber and ignited a huge bonfire. A second fire in the Supreme Court Chambers, then located in the Capitol, wreaked havoc throughout the structure. With that accomplished, they moved on to the President’s House, (White House) and did the same. Dolly Madison, wife of President James Madison, rolled up George Washington’s portrait in the East Room, and fled the city.