 The Cavalcade of America, presented by DuPont. America has always honored its heroism. The chivalry of the new world pays its own particular court, not only to historic ladies of great charm and culture, but equally to women of action. In one woman lives the memory of both action and beauty. The memoirs of the 18th century call her ravishing, divine, unbelievably lovely, placing her among the world's fairest women. But the fame that has enshrined her in the annals of American history had little connection with beauty alone. It is the story of this woman of action that the Cavalcade of America tells tonight. The famed American beauty, Dolly Madison. For her overture, Don Burris and the DuPont Cavalcade Orchestra play the currently popular, a new moon, an old serenade. Welcome to a Quaker family in North Carolina, a daughter, and to the Empire of Great Britain, a subject. Her name was Dorothy Payne. When Dorothy Payne was one-year-old, Daniel Boone left for the wilderness of the West. And 83 days later, Massachusetts celebrated its famous Boston Tea Party. In 1776, four-year-old Dorothy Payne was no longer a British subject. At 17, she was reading the first issue of The Federalist, written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and a scholarly young statesman, James Madison. At 19, Dorothy Payne married John Todd, a Philadelphia lawyer, only to be widowed at 25 and left with a small son. In the national capital at Philadelphia, the beautiful young woman had many friends, and often called on Martha Washington, the wife of the President of the United States. I'm not a gossiping woman, Dolly. Yet, it is natural that I hear much tittle-tattle. And one thing lately concerned you. For sooth, I cannot for the life of me imagine what. Oh, Dolly, I suspect you are a tease. Am I forced to relate gossip straight out? Shall I help thee, Lady Washington? Rumor says a certain gentleman well esteemed in the Congress that's calling me most often. May have to let Dorothy wishes to know if I'm sentimental in crime? The answer is not at all. Not at all, Dolly. I've no thought of marrying again. You're still young, Dolly. I had my son tell you. Payne needs a home and a man to guard his interests. What do you think of James Madison, Dolly? You formed some opinion? I like not to say. You are a tease, Dolly Todd. Naturally, at 25, you would find 17 years a great age different. Age has nothing to do with it, ma'am. I'm not a young woman. But, Dolly, I'm a croaker. Oh, I could change. I might even become frivolous. Tell strange always to live in the public eye. Enemy, critic, opponent. Never to have a natural moment. Has thee not longed for peace, Lady Washington? Have I ever longed for old else, Dolly? And General Washington would come near to deserting the United States a thousand times to go back to Virginia and be a farmer. But marriage is like that, Dolly. Only one person at a time wants to desert. And there's always one to remember beauty. I do not think I like that word. I'm like someone on the bank of a stream who feels peaceful and longs only for peace. I think I understand. Good day, ladies. Good day, George. General Washington. Mr. Stodd, they told me you were here. We've been discussing someone, George. Be like with two ladies' heads together. Some bachelor I want. Oh, please. Everybody knows who. He's been calling on Dolly for months. James Madison. Lady Washington, too. Madison. Well, sir, it's less than nothing, really. Then don't blush, Dolly. Well, Mr. Stodd, James Madison is a fine statesman. And he's modest, extremely brilliant. Why? Kind? I'm glad to hear this, sir. It's just what I thought myself. A few months later, Dolly married the Virginia congressman, James Madison. And when Thomas Jefferson became the third president of the United States in 1801 with his government in Washington, James Madison's political star was already rising. He was Jefferson's secretary of state, and as Jefferson was a widower, Dolly Madison became presiding hostess at state functions. There were two political parties then, Jefferson's new party, and the federalists. And the crude little capital was in a turmoil of political jealousies, national and international. Late one night at the Madison home. Mr. Carroll. A thousand apologies, ma'am. President Jefferson feared if he came himself at the occasion rumor of a crisis. Therefore, indeed, you're not disturbing us, sir. Mr. Madison stays up very late writing and working. Oh, Carroll, any news? Mr. Secretary of State, I was told to repeat this message. The British minister, Mr. Mary, has complained to his government of an intentional direct insult to him and his lady on the part of Mr. Jefferson. Oh, I was afraid of it. Why, I don't understand. The president's the most friendly democratic man in Washington. Mr. Carroll, what's the complaint lodged after a dinner at the White House? Hi, madam. There, James, I told you. It was the night that Mr. Jefferson turned and offered me his arm to take me into dinner. I whispered to him frantically that he must take the wife of the British ambassador, that it was precedent, but he pretended to be deaf. Small wonder he likes you and he doesn't like them. Anyway, when dinner was over, the counter said to me, such an incident could mean war. War? Absurd. His Majesty's government demands an apology, sir. Something very public. Hang it, will the older countries never accept us as equals? Will they continue trying to make us toady and scrape? Oh, well, Carroll, please report to Mr. Jefferson that I will have an answer for the British by 8 o'clock in the morning. Thank you, sir. Good night, Mr. Madison. Good night, madam. I will take you to the door. I'll serve until the bed. Thank you. It's a very dark night. Oh, but I see you, Valentin. Hi. Good night, ma'am. Good night. I wish you both well. Dolly, I'm sick of the malice, the lies, these misunderstandings. I'd like to chuck this all behind me. Oh, no, James. What good am I? It seems to me he'd go from one blunder to another. Enemies on all sides of us. I'd like to retire. No, James. Big, cool library at Montelia. View over the hills. Oh, James, we can't run away. Well, why shouldn't we? Mr. Jefferson has my promise. He was afraid they might leave him. Where would he get another secretary of state? He knows we must stay. I perceive you mean it. When you're serious, you slip into this quicker talk. Look, Lee James, why wouldn't this be a possible solution for Mr. Jefferson? Couldn't he have the invite the British minister and his lady to dine at the White House along with the president informally? Jefferson is at his best when informal. Oh, he has such charm with his friends. He might draft a note tonight, James. Like this. Dear Mr. Minister, honored sir, it comes to my ear that your good lady wishes to be served at table. As the rest of us have no such appetite, we are agreeable. Dolly. Oh, James, don't look so solemn. Navy knows how to write it, James. Fine words. Mighty adjectives. Pretty phrases. Yes, many words. Little sense. Thus we learn diplomacy. Dolly's efforts moved over the blunder, but it was never undone. His majesty's minister always refused after that to dine with Jefferson. And through Jefferson's great years when the nation was strengthened by the purchase of the Louisiana Territory and by the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition, it was potentially weakened by continued misunderstandings with both England and France. In 1809, James Madison was elected president. And by this time, Dolly had learned the ins and outs of political life. She discovered a gift for fashionable and picturesque clothes, and her reputation as a great hostess was invaluable. One night at a ball in Washington, two ladies of the diplomatic colony watched her enter the room. One was the Dutch minister's wife, the other the wife of the British ambassador. There she is. White satin and sapphires and such a gaudy scarf. Rest assuredly as though she would have stepped into a London rout. Brainless. Oh, I think she's beautiful. You would not find her spoiled if you knew her well. I try not to know any more provincials than I can help. Oh. But I think Mrs. Madison is coming over here to speak to us. Leaving the gentleman with her and coming alone. Good evening, ladies. Now, good evening, Mrs. Madison. Good evening, Mrs. Madison. Isn't it a pleasant ball? They say the orchestra is trying new tunes from London and making very little of them all the bound. However, they try so hard, madam. I'm sure we should all wear our best smiles to encourage them. Madam, I've regretted not meeting you often, for I've heard your stay in Washington is uncomfortable because of your quarters. I presume we have the best the city affords. My husband always said it's worse than the most primitive parts of Spain. We were stationed last in Madrid. I should love to hear stories in Madrid. I've never been abroad. Really? Well, it's a long distance, not from this country, but I like it here. I like the big, hearty country dinners. I went to a state dinner the other night. Reminded me more of a harvest dinner. Well, kids, there's so many of us are from Virginia, ma'am, and used to the plantation style of entertaining. Madam, I would, we might be friendly at this ball. You mean, you and I? Yes, madam. In England and America, tempers run high. One misunderstanding piles on another. We might show this gathering that there's ground for improved relations. I believe that is the duty of our husband. The president ardently longs for peace. Listen, madam, the orchestra is playing a new figure in the Lancers. Will you not lead it for us? Oh, yes, please. There are three young men at the door, the best dancers in Washington, madam. Oh, I beg you. Let some join you in the figure, and we'll all watch. But really? I am familiar with this new set. It was most popular in London, and I found it great. I shall lead you to the floor myself, madam, and you can show us how to do the new dance. Come. Throughout her years as mistress of the White House, Dolly Madison, by her instinctive charm and sympathy, sought to avert the catastrophe threatening America in 1812. Had the handling of the disputes between England and America been entrusted to people with a determined tact of Dolly, matters might not have ended as sadly as they did. The idea of war was hated by both countries, if they stupidly blunted into war. And it was a frantic, saddened woman who, on a stormy night in 1814, waited nervously in the White House for her husband to come back from the battle front. Why doesn't he come? He shouldn't leave me here to worry, Mr. Cowell. And Mr. Madison felt that the army commanders at the port preferred to have him there as a matter of morale, madam. There's nothing they can do now. Now is our troops driving back through the city. Look, look from this window, sir. The soldiers are running away. Just the campaign was badly planned, Mrs. Madison. If Washington were here, I'll know how fortunate he is dead. Madam. How would he feel to see a nation so disunited it couldn't drive the enemy from its gate? We've beaten them at sea. That leaves us some hope. Excuse me this by glad, Mr. Cowell. I'm going to look out the window again. Oh, pray don't do that, madam. Rockets are bursting everywhere. There's a messenger coming, madam. He's riding up the drive this minute. It's from the president. Benjamin Suki. Yes, sir. Perhaps Mr. Madison is on the way. Fire, everybody! Run, everybody! Run the president just to run them. Mr. Cowell Suki, what is it, Tom? Mrs. Madison, I've got a message for you here. Mr. President just scribbled it at the fault. Oh, thank you. May I see it, Mr. Madison? I won't leave. You must. We're responsible for your safety. Jeb, Col. Pasteur and Jacob Barker from the garden. The British will burn and pillage. They destroy all before them. Oh, I never felt less of a quaker. If I could only plant a cannon in every window I'd stay. We're beaten. Your husband would be the last to admit it. Mrs. Madison, you must come. Well, all right, I'll go. We have the carriage to the door, Mrs. Madison. Better be off at once. Suki, Jeb, take all the servants. Go now and leave in the wagon. Do your best to find safety. Yes, ma'am. When you're in Virginia, make for Bumpedia and say the Mr. Central. Yes, ma'am. Come on, let's go now. Oh, listen, they are curbs. You're club, ma'am. Do you have a scarf? Mr. DePicester. Yes. Can you reach the picture of Washington over the battlefield? With a chair, ma'am. Mrs. Madison, this is no time. Do it like Mr. Washington. Take off the frame. Take off the frame. I don't think... Did it screw you tightly? Yes. Then get that axe, Mr. Barker. Smash it. Just as we'll do it. Take only the canvas. Don't roll it. Get it straight to Virginia. I trust you for this, Robert DePicester. You will see it, St. Ma'am. God bless you. Goodbye. Goodbye, ma'am. Goodbye. Run, ma'am. Hurry. I can't think of what important you find a picture. Oh, that clown is enough to break your heart. To hear a country dying. America did not die, but the War of 1812 dealt some bitter blows to the young republic. And the burning of the city of Washington was one of them. Dolly's inclination to stay, as usual, had been wiser than many of her advisors. Had she remained in the White House, the invading British, as in fact they later maintained, would not have burned it. When the shadow of war was finally lifted from the land, Dolly Madison continued to set for future President's wives a code of genial, informal, kind-hearted behavior. And she retired to Montpelier with no less grace. Everyone flocked there for advice, consolation, and entertainment. But 19 years later, when James Madison died at the age of 85, the longest lives of our president, Dolly felt lost at beautiful Montpelier. In her 60s then, burdened with sorrow and the heavy debts contracted by her son, she took a small house in Washington. What will happen, Mr. Reed, if the sheriff makes this foreclosure? Well, Mrs. Madison, he'll take all the slaves from Montpelier and sell them to settle Payne's debt. There's no other way I could get the money. You've sold everything you own, Mrs. Madison. I've often wondered how you get along. I make shifts. I'm economical. I know you think me a very foolish woman, Mr. Reed. No, ma'am. Payne's your only son. I know that. Mr. Reed, I really called you here to ask when the sheriff seizes my slaves, is there any way to be sure that he sells them in families, not separating husbands and wives and children? No, ma'am. That's just luck of the auction. I see. Poor creatures. Well, I can't let them be sold at auction. I don't know. What else you can do? I can sell Montpelier. Oh, you can't do that, ma'am. It's the Madison family plantation, and it's yours. Perhaps whoever bought it would let me come and look at the gardens and springs. Mrs. Madison, you won't get a cent out of it. Your son's creditors will get every lick of the money. Let them. The place will be sold with the place as a unit. Yes, the best-announced Montpelier for sale once. Dolly Madison, the dowager, they called her now, the straight, calm, gray-haired woman who lived in a tiny house and wore queer old-fashioned clothes. And yet was asked everywhere. People were not quite sure why they asked her. Many another shabby woman with beauty twenty years behind her would not have been considered desirable the best reception. But young people flocked about her and the older people worried for her. Daniel Webster, who lived next door to her, had instructed his servant to slip food into Dolly's kitchen from time to time, for it became known that when Dolly did not dine out, she might not dine at all. But pride kept her silent and it was only through the interest of a few friends that at last, one day on the floor of Congress, gentlemen, there are unique services to be rendered to her country by a woman whose husband is high in public life. In a thousand unseen ways, she may smooth the path of government. She may mend broken friendships and halt the drawing room and fused that too often become fused on the floor of this Congress. She may be a willing listener to the hundreds who seek help from their government. Yet so rarely does a woman do so that the one perfect wife of officialdom has come to be known as Dolly Madden. Gentlemen, let me tell you of a reception I attended last week. An old lady, nearly 80 years old, walked into a room where a hundred people stood chattering. They fell silent at her entrance because she is still beautiful. No, because she has given her country a lifelong devotion and the most thoughtless must pay her the tribute of silence. Gentlemen, I tell you this Congress must pension Dolly Madden. Congress has pensions far less worthy figures in American history than this venerable woman. Thank you, dear. I'm so glad to see you. You're off the best. Has anybody been here yet, Aunt Dolly? No, dear. You're my first caller today. I thought for a minute you were Mr. Webster's servant who spoke of bringing over some fresh rolls on their baking. He comes while you're here. We'll have tea, dear. Are you hungry, Aunt Dolly? Hungry? Oh, no, my goodness. What's that idea into your head? Aunt Dolly, I've got something wonderful to tell you and they'll just give me a live for telling you first. Well, if it's something you shouldn't tell me, dear, please don't. But I have to tell you, I ran out of a gallery the minute they took the vote. You're going to get $25,000. Are you going to buy all of Great Uncle James' notebooks in his letters, in his library, and everything? Congress? United States? Yes. And Mr. Stevens made a big speech and he said the Madison papers would be more than worth $25,000 in a few years and so they're going to put the money in the trust fund for you and everyone cheered and... Oh, my dear. Now you won't have to worry anymore, Aunt Dolly. Tomorrow, I'll be 80 years old. They knew that. It's a birthday present from Congress. My birthday present. The best one I've ever had. At last, before she died, the people of her own generation and century realized the greatness of Dolly Madison. She had genuinely loved and served her country, served it in the many difficult and invaluable ways that fall to the lot of a woman close to government. Most social figures long for power. Dolly Madison remained unselfish. She's been too long remembered for mere beauty. When in the history of America, Dolly Madison was really the kindliest of diplomats, the wisest of friends, and the most unobtrusive of counselors. A woman who well deserves an honored place in the cavalcade of America. And now here's Basil Reisdale, speaking for the DuPont Company, and bringing us another story from the Wonderworld of Chemistry. Ever since the opening of the San Francisco World Fair, one of the big topics of conversation among the crowds out there has been the Wonderworld of Chemistry. This is the DuPont exhibit, located in the Homes and Garden building where chemists demonstrate chemical marvels and explain how they're produced. The lecturers who take you through this remarkable Wonderworld tour show the various steps from raw materials to finished product in a most fascinating way. As to the most interesting demonstration, that probably depends on your own special interest. I suppose the people who garden might vote for the past control section where you see what chemists are doing to fight insect enemies. The demonstration of refrigerants is another spectacular sight. The testing of neoprene, man-made rubber, and the demonstration of dyes are both full of dramatic interest. There are, in fact, scores of sights to hold your attention. Many people find particular interest in that latest miracle of chemistry, nylon, an extraordinary new material developed as a result of long research in DuPont laboratory. I'm told that nylon is the first man-made organic textile fiber repaired wholly from raw materials from the mineral kingdom. When you see it in its various finished forms, you can scarcely believe that it's made from coal, water, and air. There, in the wonder world of chemistry at the San Francisco World's Fair, you see nylon in the form of bristles, spun threads, and, yes, finished hosiers. Fine hosiery is one of the most promising of the potential uses for nylon. Other likely uses are knit goods of many kinds, woven dress goods, bathing suits, underwear, fishing lines and fishing leaders, sewing threads, draperies, and upholstery. Nylon has exceptional strength and elasticity, as well as beauty. Filaments can be drawn as fine as a spider's web, or of a size suitable for the remarkable toothbrush bristles now being used in Dr. West's miracle-tough toothbrush. These extant bristles of nylon are most unusual, since they are little affected by water, don't get soggy or limp, don't break off, and have an exceptionally long life. Yes, nylon is another spectacular achievement of this scientific age to be seen in the wonder world of chemistry at San Francisco. Another illustration of the DuPont pledge that does honor to all chemists better things for better living through chemistry. Next week, in response to many requests, the Cavalcade of America will present a repeat broadcast of the life of Velutel Irine DuPont, the founder of the DuPont Company. On tonight's program, the part of Dolly Madison was played by Agnes Morehead. Until next week at this same time then, this is Thomas Chalmers saying good night and best wishes from DuPont. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.