Congressional wives not only expected Dolley to call, but also to invite them to the White House. This created a tremendous burden of entertaining. Dolley was known for her entertaining, which she enjoyed, but this was too much even for her. "We have members in abundance with their wives and daughters," Dolley wrote to a friend, "and I have never felt the entertainment of company oppressive until now."
Historians generally agree that Dolley was extremely valuable to her husband's administration. She managed to be all things to all people. One woman approvingly described how the Madisons maintained a royal setting at their parties, where women curtsied to the President before going to their seats. A Senator from New England described the same scene as egalitarian because the Madisons always mixed different classes of people "from the Minister from Russia to under clerks of the post office and the printer of a paper---greasy boots and silk stockings." Reviewing the vastly different evaluations of Dolley Madison, one historian concluded that she was "brilliant in the things she did not say or do."
Dolley was already a great success, one who would definitely be remembered, when she performed her most famous act. It was August 1814, the last year of the War of 1812, and British troops were approaching Washington, D.C. President Madison was out of town conferring with his military advisors. Dolley had been told to "be ready at a moment's warning to enter my carriage and leave the city; that the enemy seemed stronger than had at first been reported, and it might happen that they would reach the city with the intention of destroying it." But Dolley insisted that she would not leave "until I see Mr. Madison safe so that he can accompany me." When a friend arrived to warn her to leave immediately, she agreed to leave "as soon as the large picture of General Washington is secured. I have ordered the frame to be broken and the canvas taken out."
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