Meanwhile, in 1809, James Madison, Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson, had been elected President. On June 18, 1812, Madison signed a declaration of war against England. The causes of the war, sometimes called the Second War of Independence, were basically several aspects of nationalism. Some resentment against the British still smouldered, fanned by British contempt and condescension toward her former colonists. Because many English sailors deserted their ships to sail under American colors, British ships intercepted American vessels and "impressed" their seamen. Furthermore, many American politicians wanted to annex Canada. Neither the war nor the President was popular with the people, who thought the President weak and called the conflict "Mr. Madison's War." Attempted American invasion of Canada was a fiasco and by August 23, 1814, the British forces were so close to Washington that the clear and present danger of an actual invasion of the American capital seemed imminent. John Graham, Chief Clerk in the Department of State, and two other clerks, Stephen Pleasanton and Josiah King, packed the valuable public records of the State Department in coarse linen bags which Pleasanton had purchased earlier. These included the original Declaration of Independence, articles of confederation, federal constitution, treaties and laws and many other papers. Stephen Pleasanton found conveyances, loaded the bags into them and took them to a mill 3 miles beyond Georgetown, where they were concealed. Pleasanton spent the night of August 23, 1814, at Salona with the Rev. Mr. Maffitt. The next day, fearing that the mill might be too accessible to the British, who were fast approaching Washington, Pleasanton took the state papers to Leesburg for safety.[67] Dolley Madison, the President's popular wife, could hear in the President's House the sounds of cannon "from a skirmish at Bladensburg." The President had gone to meet Gen. William H. Winder, commander of the military district, and had left his wife instructions to "take care of my self, and of the cabinet paper, public and private."[68] Writing to her sister, Lucy Todd, Dolley cooly reported that her husband desires that I should be ready at a moment's warning to enter my carriage and leave the city.... I am accordingly ready; I have pressed as many cabinet papers into trunks to fill one carriage; our private property must be sacrificed, as it is impossible to procure wagons for its transportation.[69] She continued the letter on Wednesday, August 24: Two messengers, covered with dust, come to bid me fly.... At this late hour, a wagon has been procured; I have had it filled with the plate and most valuable articles belonging to the house....