Jefferson easily retained the presidency in the election of 1804, trouncing Federalist Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina. A looming problem was the threat of war with both France and Britain that led Jefferson to try a novel tactic, an embargo. His successor, James Madison, continued with a modified embargo, but his much narrower margin of victory over Pinckney in the election of 1808 indicated growing dissatisfaction with the Jefferson-Madison handling of foreign policy.

Madison broke with Jefferson on one very domestic matter: He allowed his gregarious wife, Dolley Madison, to participate in serious politics. Under James Madison’s leadership, the country declared war in 1812 on Britain and on Tecumseh’s Indian confederacy. The two-year war cost the young nation its White House and its Capitol, but victory was proclaimed at the end nonetheless.