jefferson, virginia. i was the only one on the committee south of the line of dixon.y mrs mason and we all hoped dr. franklin would be our author, but he cared not to take on the responsibility. ithink he replied, gentlemen, do not want to be scrutinized by a committee. he looked at me, and it was mr. john adams who suggested i be the author. well, i said, "no, mr. adams, you must write it." he said, "oh, no, you must write it." he said, "i'm generally considered obnoxious, disliked. no, you have quite the flayer for fluid and fluids of this writing. i think you should write it." "besides that," he said, "a virginian ought to be at the head of this business." yes, we had put forth that resolution for independency first. your next question, mr. light? >> [indiscernible] thomas jefferson: you asked me what sources of inspiration did i draw upon in drafting our declaration. well, firstly, i would tell you that i still write. i still write on this lap desk, this slope, if you will. you can even refer to it as

jefferson, [indiscernible] thomas jefferson: you asked me whot robert hennings accompanied me to philadelphia in those years of 1775 in 1776. do i remember him? as he was my property and as his family were my property that it is a terrible contradiction to the principles of our declaration? well, i can assure you i had inherited, if you will, the family for my late wife. they were part of her dowry. in 1772ame my property when i married. and, if you will, those few users -- years later in 1775, was myhamming coachman. he was only 15 years old at that time. i remember as we entered the city, one of my first interests was to have him inoculated against smallpox. pursue thedr. to inoculation. he had inoculated me nearly 10 years earlier. robert returned in 1776. he remembered all of those individuals, all of us met their in the old state house in philadelphia, he knew who they were. he perhaps knew more about them than i did. well, he continued to be my coachman until i went to france. and after five years, returning here to monticello in 1789 where i learned robert hemmings had married. he marr

>> one final question, president jefferson. how do you hope future generations will read the declaration of independence? thomas jefferson: you asked me how do i hope future generations will look back on our declaration of american independence, how they will judge us. well, i answer that i hope future generations will continue to read our declaration of american independence. there were many people when i wrote that document who could not read, and i am hopeful that, in the future, we may have a universal system of education so that everyone will have that opportunity and read and reread our declaration. i wrote it in order that it could be publicly read, and let us never forget those occasions, too. let us look forward in the future to a continual recollection and refreshment of these rights, the inalienable rights of mankind. and let us realize that all eyes are opening and will continue to open to these rights. let us realize, if you will, that that the steady stream of the light of science will move us forward to recognize

jefferson: oh, my. angela, i gave instructions to ofm to record the confluence waterways into great missouri, not only to be attended with the many natives that we had not known of before, but also to making jottings of the composition of the soil, the degree of climate, and the flora and fauna that they encountered. they encountered over 150 variety of flora, over 175 varieties of animal life, as well. i delighted in receiving the cornflower, which i sent to bernard mcmahon, a horticulturalist in germantown, pennsylvania, nearby the city of philadelphia. he almost immediately put it to sale. i also received wild salsify. i enjoy it from out west. sweet, scented cranberries that were sent and also, as well, a flower that, if you will, i sent out to a man who quickly referred to it as a name on behalf of my good friend and co-commander of that expedition, lieutenant william clark, so these are but a few of the many, many plants. now, mind you, lewis and clark also sent me many, many dried plants that the

thomas jefferson: my favorite plant. oh, you asked me, benjamin, something i do not think i can give an immediate or ready answer. wonders areature's my favorite plants and flowers. i continue to enjoy the hollyhock. i enjoyed the snowball bush behind me. the digitalis i think is properly named one of my favorite flowers. the foxglove, properly named as it may be used medicinally to slow down rapid heartbeats. you know, benjamin, i wish i had known that during my younger years when i was first courting. [chuckles] your next question. >> we have a question from lynn asking if there's anything you tried to grow at monticello book could not because of the environment. thomas jefferson: you are asking me of my many failures in the garden. i say, yes, many. but know this. anlways try to plant overabundance, a great variety, a flowers and plants. the reason is because i know there will be a failure. but rest assured, we will always have successes. i am afraid i have failed, if you will, with the pear. , have failed with the pl

and jefferson was great at this as well. and on the flipside, people like adams really struggled with the cabinet because he thought that they would be loyal to him for the office as opposed to having to really work hard to manage those relationships. so it can, it's when presidents have good cabinets we tend not to see them, they tend not to be too visible in their successes which gives the president an extra boost. and when they are not working well, then they become very visible, and they tend to detract from a president's mission. >> okay. we have some really great questions here, lindsay. knowing nothing about the first cab nerkts i have to ask -- cabinet, i have to ask was there fierce competition for these positions once they were created? in other words, once people found out washington was putting together this thing called a cabinet, did everyone want to get in and have a chance to serve? >> so actually, no, which is pretty remarkable. washington really struggled to get people to fill these positions especially in

that is a hard mystery of jefferson. what did he mean? the easy way is to decide it simply isn't true. it may not be. i heard a fellow say so. nevermind. the welshman got it planted where it will trouble us 1000 years. i think that is exactly right. if you look at all subsequent american history, from the time of the declaration of independence until today, i think he will find all -- you will find all of the intellectual and political debates in this country for 235 years, in one way or another, have written -- have been a debate how to interpret the core principles of the declaration of independence, the self-evident truth of equality and self-evident truth of rights. here today in the united states in 2019, the political controversies of this country today, at the deepest philosophic level, really come down to those two concepts, those two self-evident truths, equality and rights. and like the revolutionary generation of 1776, it is, i think, your responsibility to dedicate your lives, your fortunes, and your sacred honor to keeping al

jefferson was saying you are wrong, it's the presidents. genÊt threatened to appeal to the american people and now that was hugely disrespectful to washington very disrespectful to the nation and so when this threat came out when it was revealed that he said this washington convened a cabinet meeting and decided to request the recall of genÊt from france. this was a big moment because the united states had never requested the recall of a foreign minister before. if france disagreed or refused that was basically going to be denying the right of the united states to establish its own foreign policy and to require that foreign minister to adhere to that foreign policy. when they made that decision washington really needed to be sure that everyone agreed otherwise that would be problematic when they took this huge step. they all disagree and send the letter to france and eventually france did recall genÊt and that was a tacit agreement that the united states did have the right to set its own foreign policy. >> calling out the militia during

thomas jefferson had the good grace to essentially withdraw. rerun of00, there is a that, and that is where jefferson comes out as the only again after an election where it is necessary to mollify the electoral college, to indicate that votes for president and vice president have to be separately discerned. i want to read you both a paragraph in our book. wood, and is gordon historian. is on what your take he says. he says he was a realist. he thought all men are created unequal. he did not believe in american exceptionalism. better, nons are no different than other nations. we are just as vicious, corrupt." this is not the american myth, the american dream. he took on every myth that america lived by. we cannot live on adams's message, says gordon wood. words, adams did not know about genetics or dna, but he believed that people were unequal from birth. he was all into nature, not nurture. james: that is intriguing. ira -- i am reluctant to disagree with anything gordon wood says. but, john adams was not a democrat, that is the truth. in the s

and joined with jefferson and madison. madison was the secretary of state for jefferson. because at the national come as a patriot, he was above party. he felt that he knew that he was going to lose his seat in the u.s. senate for massachusetts by caucusing with the madisonian's. and he did so nonetheless because of principle. his father was wholeheartedly behind him in making that political shift. john adams for dave thomas jefferson. they have more than a decade of postpresidential correspondence. madison deeply respected john quincy adams. so, there's no simple answer. their ideas, their opinions and personal hatred change over time, and we see that a lot. >> i just wanted to add one other thing. we don't want to sugarcoat john adams either. he rubbed people the wrong way, and we included that in our book. because one of the things that's important for understanding the founding generation coming into the generation of john quincy adams, is to get the full picture. these are human beings. there are elements to their personality that we today might have trouble with, an

jefferson, with hamilton. or he would try and find a middle ground that merge old perspectives. he held the family dinners which made help, maybe didn't. he assured both of them how valuable they were to him in the cabinet and pleaded with him to stay and not retired because he wanted those different perspectives. but ultimately he felt the disagreements and the differences of opinion again were really helpful to them. it was important to hear all of the different sides of an issue. while jefferson was really uncomfortable with that conflict and frequently wrote about bundling it was that hamilton would go on for three-quarters of an hour so he would give a 45 minute speech in this space, washington was okay with it and was willing to let them battle it out because he thought it made him in the presidency and the nation better. >> you argue in the book, in several chapters, that the cabinet, the institution of the captain, washington's tablet,, greatly affected some of the most critical important leadership de

thomas jefferson had the good grace to essentially withdraw. but in 1800, there is a rerun of that, and that is where jefferson comes out as the winner, but only again after an election where it is necessary to mollify the electoral college, to indicate that votes for president and vice president have to be separately discerned. brian: i want to read you both a paragraph in our book. the author is gordon wood, and historian. i want what your take is on what he says. he says he was a realist. he thought all men are created unequal. he did not believe in american exceptionalism. "we americans are no better, no different than other nations. we are just as vicious, corrupt." this is not the american myth, the american dream. he took on every myth that america lived by. we cannot live on adams's message, says gordon wood. it would be too much to bear. jefferson said what we needed to hear in some respects because you cannot have a nation based on the notion that we are in equal from birth. in other words, adams did not know about genetics or dna, bu

jefferson was outraged. he had his attorney general, caesar rodney, write a letter to allport -- to all port collectors in the country. there was an exchange of views like the post mccullough exchange which was published in the opinion johnson issued. so when fletcher arrives at the court in 1810, he is not one of the in crowd. he is the enemy. he has a problem. that problem is threefold. he wants to be true to his own principles. he wants to be true to the things he had embraced as part of the john marshall project. but he also wants to appeal to his patron, thomas jefferson. how does he walk that line? is renowned for three things. first, the notion a state statute can set up something that is a contract subject to the contract clause, even though it is not a private agreement. the traditional common-law understanding of contract. second, fletcher is the first time the supreme court declared a state law unconstitutional. third, the johnson concur. the first two are simply wrong. one of the very first opini

in jefferson's time, his book was that book. printers asked him if he wanted to change anything in the book. he always said "no." that includes the dehumanizing passages about black people. susan: one set of memoirs that is available on bookstore shelves today is ulysses s. grant's. what is the story of him writing that set of memoirs? craig: it's almost an unbelievable story. he was a wonderful writer. i think we sometimes forget that when he was a general, some of his orders that would go out at the battlefield were printed everywhere in newspapers. they really introduced people to his literary style, which was concise, funny, and concrete. he was a tremendous writer. but he did not want to write a book. after his presidency, publisher after publisher said, your book would be the biggest selling book of any civil war figure. do you want to do it? he did not want to. what changed his mind were two things -- he went through a terrible bankruptcy, and he became ill with what ultimately became a fatal form of cancer. and so, he ha

what is jefferson davis thinking about this time? why don't you leave the valley and go up to maryland and see what you can do with washington, d.c. so during the campaign season after the nominating conventions are done, a confederate army invades maryland and is outside of washington, d.c. turned back by july 13th. jefferson davis says, okay, i think this is working. we're going to make the northerners happy with lincoln so angry about this war they will vote for mcclelland. general mccrossland leaves the valley, goes to williams burg, asks for huge -- give me all of your gold, all of your greenburgh. they deci they decided to take all of the money and he burns chambersburg down entirely. he walks away, says it is okay. when you start burning cities like the union army has done sometimes, then the voters are going to turn against the guy in the white house. that's the plan. 1854, the casualty list in the summer of 1864, what grant is doing is tearing the nation apart. there's the atlanta campaign. atlanta isn't conquered until sept

thomas jefferson: oh, my, well, i have finished. and good afternoon indeed, mr. light, and to all of our friends, welcome once again here to our house, to monticello. mr. light, as you refer of course to patriots' day, so we have heard it now referred to ourselves in virginia, nothing could please us more in virginia to be reminded, if you will, about our initial associations with massachusetts. yes, patriots' day is something that we are happy to be reminded of, as i know all of our friends in massachusetts continue to be reminded of that occasion in which the citizen body there

what is jefferson thinking at this time? why don't you leave the valley and go up to maryland and see what you can do with washington d.c.? during the campaign season, after the nominating conventions are done, i confederate army invades maryland and is outside washington d.c.. he has turned back by july 13. jefferson davis says ok this is working. we are going to make those northerners who are happy with lincoln so angry about this war that they will vote for maclean. general mclaughlin, cavalry officer goes to maryland, chambers burke, asks for all the gold, all the green backs. you do not have a ton of people in chambers for. we will take all the money in the bank and send it someplace else just like it was an 1863. he burns chambers burned down. he says it's over. when you start burning cities like the union army has done sometimes, then the voters are going to turn against the guy in the white house. that is the plan. summer of 1864, the casualty list of the wilderness spot sauvignon, what grant is doing, is tearing thi

jefferson as you mentioned to protect life, property, and restore order. but still ahead, american cities reeling from riots a liv report on the after math in chicago. that's coming up plus inside an analyst on the crisis from geraldo rivera and maria bartiromo and deroy murdock.

it comes to play mostly in jefferson, much more so in jefferson davis than in alexander stevens. he wanted and expected the support of both france sbeng land during the war, because of the large amount of cotton that was going to england but a number to france as well. davis was a far better politician than stevens. he never mentions slavery as a reason for secession. there was good quotes on his white supremacy early. alexander stevens was sort of the joe biden -- can i say that -- of the administration. he would say anything. in his speech to the secession convention, he said it's about slavery, white supremacy. that's why we left. we're better for it. our constitution is built on that. jefferson davis was playing it a little more carefully and he was quite surprised -- i think he was rather surprised when england didn't come in on the side of the confederacy, and part of that was the slavery issue. england realized it would abolish slavery in the '30s, i think, throughout the empire. if it was about slavery, they weren't going to get involved. >> also, there was an incredible

what is jefferson davis thinking about this time? why don't you leave the valley and go up to maryland and see what you can do with washington, d.c. so during the campaign season after the nominating conventions are done, a confederate army invades maryland is outside of washington, d.c. he's turned back by july 13th. jefferson davis says, okay, i think this is working. we're going to make those northerners who are happy with lincoln so angry about this war that they will vote for mcclellan. the calvary officer goes to chambe chambersburg and says give me all your green backs. you don't have it because the people decided we're going to take the money and send it some place else. the calvary is here just like it was in 1864 and he burns it down. he lights it up and walks away from it. when you start burning cities, then the voters are going to turn against the guy in the white house. that's the plan. summer of 1684, the casualty lists of the wilderness, what grant is doing, is tearing this nation apart. there is the atlanta campaign.

so colonel jefferson let's yield the floor to you, sir. >> good. remember now 1941 world war ii was kicking out. i graduated from clark college in june '42. so the first thing i did went down from detroit, went down from the federal building and joined. i thought they were going to send me tuskegee because we're seg grated and all the training is in tuskegee. they said go home and we'll call you. took me almost 9 months before they called me. remember now i'm a graduate. i'm a clark college graduate and i'm in the last class going to tuskegee of blacks who were college graduates because the army, navy, marines were grabbing black men with college degrees. the classes after me went through three months of college training detachment. i graduated in january '44 from tuskegee as a second lieutenant. we were sent to -- air force base fly the p-39 because the three qusquadrons were the 301, the 302 and the 99th. these three squadrons of blacks were flying p-39s up and down the shores outside of italy. and my class, we were supposed to be replacements fo

to also engage in magical thinking and jefferson didn't have the clout. they probably wouldn't know his name andco gordon reed told me that when they interviewed for years ago, that's not true for washington. it's okay to be flexible but erkeep dealing with a person and it's a circular thinking. >> in the middle, yeah. >> thanks so much for coming. this is awesome and i was just reading through the introduction when you speak about washington and i was curious to hear your thoughts about writing so directly about historians when you are also writing history, kind of curious about that dynamic of choosing to name people and now decided to do that. so i have a graduate degree and and so i do come from the background in which i think about historiography and all the things that have been written before are in conversation and what i possibly learned from that and how i want to enter the conversation, but i am a popular historian which means that when i get to chapter one it's narrative. i have notes but i'm telling you a story and so i needed to really be di

jefferson davis was one paragraph. most had subsets. when you add up those subsets, those articles, there are about 350 different topics that are embodied in those 67 amendments. one of the first things i had to do was to sort of categorize. create a charge listing the topics along the top and the proposal was then the left side. if you have read extensively in the decade of the 18 fifties. from the compromise of the 1850 to the civil war, these amendments tracked the difficulties that the country was trying to deal with. the largest -- largest number of articles dealt with slavery in the territories. not surprising. because that was the election around which the election of 1860 turned. it is what do we do with slavery in the territories? our southerners allowed to take their slaves there and have them as long as they want? should the federal government prohibit slavery in the territories? that was the republicans position. the republican party did not come into being until 1856 after the kansas nebraska act. in opposition to its core

so colonel jefferson let's yield the floor to you, sir. tell us a bit of history of yourself and armed forces. >> someone asked why the hell did you go to the army? i remember 1941 world war ii was kicking out. i graduated from clark college in june '42. the draft was -- so the first thing i did was went down to the federal building and joined. i thought they were going to send me to tuskegee, put me on a list. took me almost nine months before they called me. remember now i'm a graduate, i'm a clark college graduate, and i'm in the last class going to tuskegee of college blacks or college graduates because the army, navy, marines were grabbing black men with college degrees. the classes after me went through three months of college training detachment. i graduated in january '44. from tuskegee as a second lieutenant, we were sent to -- air force base, flied a p-39 because the three sections of the three squadrons were the 301, the 302, and the 99th. these three squadrons of blacks were flying p-39s up and down the shores outside of italy.

it comes to play mostly, much more in jefferson davis then and alexander stevens. he wanted and expected the support of france and england during the war because of the large amount of cotton going mostly to england but a number to france as well. and an interesting -- jefferson davis was a far better politician than alexander stevens. he never mentioned slavery as a reason for secession. some good quotes early in this period that i'm looking at, alexander stevens is the joe biden, can i say that, of the administration. he would say anything. as i said in his speech to the virginia secession commission, convention, it's about white supremacy. that is why we left. and our constitution is built on that. jefferson davis was playing it a little more carefully and he was quite surprised, think he was rather surprised when england did not come in on the side of the confederacy. and part of that was the slavery issue. england would abolish slavery in the 30's, i think it, throughout the empire. if it was about slavery, they were not going to get involved. >> also, there w

the university of virginia i can't remember but there was a symposium so with james monroe and thomas jefferson and the descendents of slaves and then later, just last year i was at montpelier for another town that was monroe, jefferson and washington but yes and i have stayed in contact. >> so many relationships have been built in this journey several were those that worked at montpelier this is the most elite of elite americans called the father of the constitution and to preserve the secret fire of liberty at the very foundation of america's national eat those be at the mandate came up with the political compromise you do so much to flesh out the people that are in your slave descendent line what about these contradictions with james madison or does that matter? doesn't matter who he was? that is a good question and it's tough. i think it does it's hard to balance out his faults it would be great if he freed slaves and lived up to the ideals but he didn't he did not free a single slave. >> george washington freed the slaves and thomas jefferson freed slaves and those descendents but madison

at that one, jefferson and washington. and saving contact. >> host: you build so many relationships in this journey, several with people worked at montpelier and many others. the most elite of elite americans, the father of the constitution, student of the indictment and preserving the sacred fire of liberty, at the very foundation of america's if those in this is the man who came up with the political compromise for enslaved africans as 3 fifths human. you do so much to flesh out the people in your slave descendent mind. how do you make sense of these contradictions in james madison. the other question is does it matter who he was? >> guest: does it matter who he was. it does matter, hard to balance out the trends, it would be great if he had freed slaves and lived up to the ideal, but he didn't. he didn't free a single slave. >> host: i cut you off. >> guest: george washington freed slaves that were in fact his own. he did friesen slaves -- thomas jefferson freed slaves who were his direct descendents but james madison -

how the jefferson award winners found a way >>> the spirit of being better together on display in san francisco this afternoon. u.s. bank stepped up to donate 1000 meals today to vulnerable residents and chinatown. dozens of residents wearing masks lined up outside the house for the free meals. the donation was made and partnership with the chinatown community development center. priority is given to the people that live in single resident occupancy units and share communal kitchens. >>> canceled graduations and missing out on important milestones and uncertainty about the future are all making teenage mental health a major concern during this pandemic. mental health nonprofit "one mind" is working to connect with teenagers during a three-day live streamed event with celebrities, raising awareness. >> it is stressful and unusual times. anxiety and depression will come for many people. the important thing to remember is that we can all grow and we can take this time to deliberately connect with friends and family in whatever way that we can with zoom or face time or whatever channel yo

what is jefferson davis thinking about this time? why don't you leave the valley and go up to maryland and see what you can do with washington, d.c. so during the campaign season after the nominating conventions are done, a confederate army invades maryland and is outside of washington, d.c. he's turned back by july 13th. jefferson davis says, okay, i think this is working. we are going to make those northerners who are happy with lincoln so angry about this war that they will vote for mcclellan. general mcclauselen goes through maryland, through chambersburg, asks forgive me all your gold or all your green backs, you don't have it because the people of chambersburg decided we're going to take all the money and send it somewhere else and he burns chambersburg down entirely. lights it up, walks away from it, says it's over. when you start burning cities like the union army has done sometimes then the voters are going to turn against the guy in the white house. that's the plan. summer of 1864 the casualty lists of the wilderness, what

thomas jefferson, as you can see, is probably the third most decayed president here. you see that he is starting to fall apart pretty good. and he died, so i've heard, on the same day as john adams, four hours apart. albeit on july the 4th. i thought that was an interesting piece of history. on dry days in the summer, often we allow our guest to walk through here. you can see that this area is pretty wet. we have some significant weather here lately. we have never seen snakes back here, but it looks like it is an area that is completely conducive to snakes. i always make sure that my guests are mindful of that as they are walking through here. there are all kinds of different weather where we will conduct these tours. the neatest thing i have seen is a bald eagle circling georges head. we have been out here in electrical thunderstorms that night, where it looks like there is these crawler lightning strikes that are coming out of fdr's mouth. i have not been back here in the wintertime, but i know there's a lot of people that would absolutely die to photograph or see t

i was at montpelier, the sins of monroe, jefferson and washington. your favorite contact. >> host: you built so many relationships in this journey, several for people who work at montpelier but many others. in addition the most elite of elite americans, the father of the constitution, student of the enlightenment, the sacred fire of liberty. the very foundation of america's -- this is the man who came up with political compromise to count enslaved africans as 3 fifths human. you do so much to flesh out the people who are in your slave the sentence line. how do you make sense of these contradictions in james madison or my other question is does it even matter who he was? >> those that matter who he was, that is a good question and a tough one. it does matter. hard to balance his faults with his strength. he didn't free a single place. >> host: after that. >> guest: yes. george washington freed those slaves who were in fact his own. thomas jefferson freed slaves who were his direct descendents but james madison didn't create a single slave. to go to ph

colonel jefferson let's yield the floor to you. tell us a bit about yourself in the armed forces. >> someone asked me what how did you go to the army? i remember, 1941 world war ii is kicking off. i graduated from clark college in june 42. the first thing i did after the draft was go down from detroit, the federal building, and joint. i thought they were going to send me to tuskegee and we were segregated and all the training was there. they said go home and we will call you. they put me on a list. took me almost nine months before they called me. i'm a clark college graduate. i'm in the last class going to tuskegee of college blacks. the army, navy and marines were grabbing blackmon with college degrees. the classes after me went through three months of college training detachment. i graduated january of 1944. from tuskegee a second lieutenant, we were sent to an air force base to fly the p-39. because the three sections, the three squadrons were the three oh first, the three or second, and the nighty night. these three squadrons

award in the bay area goes to jeolle and darius dun lap. >> nominate your own local hero for a jefferson award >>> i know some places are cooling down but i'm in the east bay and i can already feel the heat. >> we're sending you cool thghts, my friend. >> steffy: of all the places in the world, this is where you take hope. >> thomas: how was i supposed to know you and liam were gonna be here? >> steffy: well, you and hope can stay put. liam and i will just find another hotel. >> thomas: (laughs) good luck trying to convince him to leave. >> steffy: what choice do i have? i can't have him running into hope, not here. no way.

because rush was friends with jefferson. and some of the divisiveness, by the way, i think many of these people blamed it on alexander hamilton. regardless of the fact he has a musical and none of them do currently, he has a better publicist than the rest of them. rush, adams, and jefferson all very much blamed hamilton for sort of fanning the flames of partisanship. and being kind of a bomb thrower in this era. and hamilton, during the yellow fever epidemic, announced he had yellow fever, and the cure that he was cured by somebody other than rush and the cure that he , had was the federalist cure. it really was unbelievably partisan, and a lot of it had to do with other countries. the image of being criticized for being too french after the french revolution was very common in the political writing in america, especially in the 1790's. fred: sarah? sarah: i think that there is an omnipresent fear of the french and british influence that is going to tear apart the first federal government. let me offer two quick, concrete ex

jefferson had another vision. if you compare the jefferson portraits that were done over the course of his lifetime, there is a portrait that is done when he comes back from france from his time in france and he , has this, like, super freely lace cravat, and his hair is all fancy, and he has a super fancy jacket. two years later, he has a portrait done as secretary of state and it is starting to shift to a super streamlined look. by the time he is president, he is downright shabby. that was intentional to convey a certain way of governing. to sort of sum all that up, these norms were constantly shifting. they were constantly being negotiated. some of them still continue to govern today. there is the expectation people will not profit off of office. it was expected from the beginning and carried through. whereas we don't expect the president to show up to congress in a cream-colored carriage. so a constant shifting process. well i'm going to take a stab at sort of addressing all of them because i think in many way

but people suspect, rightfully so, thomas jefferson and/or f.d.r. should probably be up here front and center with the big three. and i don't disagree with that. so i finally asked the owner why andrew jackson ended up here front and center, and his response to me was very interesting. he said well, that's simple, he's got really pretty hair and i like his epaulettes. he does. he has nice hair and bright epaulettes. i started doing these tours and talking about legitimate president accomplishments and people didn't care. nobody was entertained. i started saying andrew jackson's parrot sweared and people love this stuff. people want to hear the silly, odd stuff. president lincoln, the tallest of all of the presidents at 6'4", which was pretty darn tall for back in the day, contrary to that the shortest president was the president james madison, who was a full foot shorter than that. he was 5'4" and 99 pounds. president lincoln, obviously, assassinated in the ford theater, and he actually predicted his death from a dream that he had had the night befo

does prevail and the federalist party john adams and alexander hamilton on one side and jefferson and james madison on the other with intense competition like we have today hyper partisanship so to rebuild the electoral college thinking about jefferson's reelection in 18 oh four. he is the new image where there is partisan competition it isn't a consensus anymore us versus them if one side wins the other side loses the other side should be the majority party not the minority party. the majority rule based on the federal constitution the united states of america a compound majority were jefferson wins the electoral college to accumulate so that is the new idea adopted in 18 oh three ratified in 18 oh four. no one ever taught me that in constitutional law class that was ignored. and with those fundamental principles are as rich if not richer than the philadelphia convention. they had 12 years of the country under their built on - - belton republican form of government with the image of majority rule. that is the creation the basically to fall apart in the era of andrew jackson. after th

and then later just last year we got mount hillier and another town monroe, jefferson and washington and we stayed in contact. >> so many relationships in this journey. several with those that work at montpelier along with many others. talk about the most elite of americans called the father of the constitution and to preserve the sacred fire of liberty at the very foundation and yet this is the man that came up with a political compromise of enslaved africans three fifths human and then flesh out the people in your mind had you make sense of these contradictions? or does it even matter who he was? >>. >> that's a good question. and a tough one. i think it does matter. it's hard to balance out his thoughts with his strengths it would be great if he freed slaves and lived up to his ideals, but he didn't. >> i cut you off. >> that george washington did not free his black slaves but jefferson freed slaves from descendents. that james madison did not free a single slave. so his slave went with him to philadelphia to contract madison to be sold to a northern or northern not just knowing t

jefferson had another vision. if you compare the jefferson portraits, there is one from when he comes back in france, and he has a super frilly lace cravat. his hair is fancy, a fancy jacket. and two years latter is as secretary of state and it is starting to shift to a more simple look, and by the time he is president he looks shabby. so these norms were constantly shifting. they were being negotiated, and some of them continue to governor todagovern today. they want to make sure that people will not profit from office. they don't expect the president to show up to office in a cream colored carriage. >> working to address all of them, i think in many ways it comes down to this question of how exactly do you keep a representative government from failing. when you look at it at the time it was universally accepted that man was at base selfish. when humans are left to their own devices, their lazy. so if you start from that premise self-government is a terrible idea and dwlyet there a experiment in doing just that.

so he, you know, like jefferson and all of them, they lived this kind of strange dichotomy of having all these lofty ideals, wonderful ideals, but not truly being able to live up to them. >> uh-huh. >> i think, you know, they probably said well, that's the way we do things here and, you know, didn't really want to -- [inaudible] -- they knew it was wrong, but as far as acting on it, it was very hard for them to do. >> yeah. let's see here, what positive or negative reactions have you received from your book? >> well, so far -- [laughter] >> i've only had positive reactions. yeah. >> [inaudible]. >> there's probably going to be some controversy here. there are still people who are disputing the account and the dna test for sally's family. >> right, right. >> i mentioned building relationships at pilliar. you mentioned speaking at workshops and symposiums there, reexamining historical narratives and how they are formed and who is included. there is a real history movement that wants to contextualize how we remember, whether it is integrating that story of sally hemmings or here in geor

and those that were owned by the university i was at montpelier monroe jefferson and washington so yes i have met them. >> you built so many relationships in this journey several that work at montpelier and many others but this is the most elite called the father of the constitution to have the sacred fire of liberty which at the very foundation be at this is a man who comes up with a political compromise calling them three fifths human you managed to flush out the people that aaron the slave descendent line how do you make sense of these contradictions or does it matter who he was. >> doesn't matter who he was? that is a good question and a tough one. i think it does matter. it's hard to balance out it would be great if he lives up to those ideals but he didn't he didn't free a single slave. >> george washington that he did freeze some slaves washington and thomas jefferson and those that were direct descendents that the closest he claimed to that to philadelphia and the contract madison sold to the northerner knowing that assuming eventually he would be freed that madison himself did

at that when it was descendents of monroe, jefferson, and washington. so, yes, i have been in, stayed in contact. >> you have built so many relationships in this journey, several with people who work at montpelier but many, many others. talk about, this is the most elite of elite americans. he's called the father of the constitution, student of the enlightenment and preserving the sacred fire of liberty, which is at the very foundation of america's national -- and yet this is also that he came up with a political compromise to count enslaved africans as three-fifths human. you do so much to flesh out the people that are in your slave descendent line. how do you make sense of these contradiction in james madison? my other question could be doesn't even matter who he was? >> doesn't matter who he was? that's really a good question and a tough one. i think it does matter. it's hard to balance out his faults with his strengths. it would be great if he had freed slaves and that lived up to his ideals, but he didn't. he didn't free a single slave. [inaudible]