He advised a declaration of war.

Six months later in a "written message to Congress" he reported progress. Things were not going well in the war, he wrote, but truth and justice would eventually prevail. Canadians would be blessed with an American victory bringing them freedoms they could only dream about.

Meanwhile, he asked his "fellow citizens of the Senate and the House of Representatives" to pledge more troops -- and more money -- for his plan to free Canadians from tyranny.

But first he reminded Congress of "the providential favours which our country has experienced in the unusual degree of health dispensed to its inhabitants, and in the rich abundance with which the earth has rewarded the labours bestowed on it. In the successful cultivation of other branches of industry, and in the progress of general improvement favourable to the national prosperity, there is just occasion also for our mutual congratulations and thankfulness."

He wanted Congress to be aware of the blessedness of the American way of life, to be willing to share it with Canada whether Canada wanted it or not, and to remember that sometime blessings must be balanced with bad stuff.

"These blessings," he said, "are necessarily mingled with the pressures and vicissitudes incident to the state of war into which the United States has been forced by the perseverance of a foreign power in its system of injustice and aggression."

He told Congress he had hoped for international support for his invasion of Canada, but had failed to win it. He confessed to "unsettled controversies" with more than one nation which had resulted in a war "which is not without difficulties."

But not to worry he told Congress and country: "The spirit and the strength of the nation are nevertheless equal to the support of all its rights, and to carry it through all its trials. They can be met in that confidence."

Eloquently he continued: "Above all, we have the inestimable consolation of knowing that the war in which we are actually engaged is a war neither of ambition nor of vain glory; that it is waged not in violation of the rights of others, but in the maintenance of our own; that it was preceded by a patience without example under wrongs accumulating without end, and that it was finally not declared until every hope of averting it was extinguished. ..."

Readers thinking they hear an echo but can't recall those exact words can relax; they were read into the Congressional record and reported in the press close to 200 years ago. The echo readers hear is from President George W. Bush defending his decision to go to war and now seeking more troops, more money and renewed support from a doubting Congress.

Earlier Madison had assured his nation Canada was ripe for conquest, that the Loyalists who had fled north during the American Revolution would return to the fold, that French-speaking people of Quebec would rise to shake off their English yoke; and that native Indians would quickly recognize the benefits of being ruled by a president rather than a king.

American soldiers should be welcomed as liberators.

Nothing went right. The Loyalists remained loyal, the French- speaking inhabitants were not enamoured by the British presence, but preferred it to the United States. As for the native Indians, well, Madison informed Congress they had turned out to be a bad bunch all round, ferocious in battle, and not at all welcoming to the forces marching to bring them freedom.

There are many arguments as to what touched off what became known as Madison's War; were claims that British blockades of French ports during the Napoleonic Wars damaged the U.S. economy; complaints the Brits were press-ganging American seamen to serve on British ships; and the newly minted United States wasn't keen on having a surviving British colony as a neighbour.

Strangely, while citing the blockades as one justification for war, Madison boasted that despite the best efforts of the British to dominate the high seas, "our trade, with little exception, has safely reached our ports."

A more pressing need for the conquest of Canada was the need to "intercept the hostile influence of Great Britain over the savages." To those same "merciless savages" he was offering the "peace (and) civilizing attentions" which had already "proved so beneficial" to natives fortunate enough to live on shoddy reservations in the States.

Unfortunately for Madison, the Canadian Indians, the French Canadians and the British Canadians rejected his magnanimity. United they fought with such determination that Madison was forced to tell Congress that despite the justness of his cause and the power of U.S. forces "the expedition" -- as he circumspectly termed the invasion -- "terminated unfortunately."

This "adverse event" was brought about by "the use made by the enemy of the merciless savages under their influence."

Stubborn Indians just failed to understand "the benevolent policy of the United States (which) invariably recommended peace and promoted civilization among that wretched portion of the human race."

Naturally, God was on Madison's side, the end result sure: "It remains only that, faithful to ourselves, entangled in no connections with the views of other powers, and ever ready to accept peace from the hand of justice, we prosecute the war with united counsels and with the ample faculties of the nation until peace be so obtained, and as the only means under the Divine blessing of speedily obtaining it."

It wasn't the first time the U.S. had tried to conquer Canada. George Washington ordered Benedict Arnold to give it a try in 1775. Benedict not only failed, but later became so attracted to British ways and money he became, and remains, the United States' most famous traitor-spy.