1. Blake, the mayor of Washington, D.C., returned to the destroyed city on 26 Aug. 1814, and called a meeting of citizens at McKeowin’s Hotel to keep order and forestall the possibility of a slave revolt. On his way there he met Dr. William Thornton, the superintendent of patents, who had persuaded the British not to burn the patent office and who had taken measures that morning, in Blake’s absence, to prevent looting. Thornton had also visited the British wounded left in the city, and in response to a request for protection from their commanding officer, had gone so far as to suggest that the American night patrols include British soldiers in order to prevent their stray comrades from being shot. Thornton later claimed that Blake approved of his actions. Blake denied this, and asserted that the citizens’ meeting had rejected the idea of combined American-British patrols. A newspaper feud ensued, in which Thornton defended not only his conduct on 25 and 26 Aug. 1814 but also his suggestion to JM a few days later that a deputation be sent to the British force at Alexandria asking that private property in Washington be spared, after Blake had refused to broach the subject with the president. Blake took issue with what he believed to be Thornton’s insinuations that he had abandoned his duty by leaving the city, and in reply to an acrimonious rejoinder from the doctor, cast aspersions on Thornton’s public service and hinted that his interactions with the British had been treasonous (National Intelligencer, 7, 9, 12, and 14 Sept. 1814; Pitch, Burning of Washington, 151).