and he is a in talker. you can have a conversation with him. and please help us with the chairs as well. [inaudible conversations] ...

two battles at concorde at bunker hill. it's about an hour, 15. >> it's an honor to be speaking here at the old statehouse. thanks for coming and thank you to booktv, c-span for joining us here. about three weeks into the design of reporting the revolutionary where we realized we were on pace to produce an 800 page, two-inch thick volume and so we quit lee retrace her steps and decided to scale back and produce what is now a 400 page full-color book for you. similarly, i prepared a five hour presentation for you this evening. [laughter] and decided to scale that back to a more manageable 45 minutes, so i will start by saying this.

without newspapers, there would have been no american revolution. newspapernewspaper s are what fanned the flames of the rebellion. they sustained loyalty to the cause. they provided critical correspondence during the war and they ultimately aided in the outcome. historians know this very well. for 220 years historians have referenced these newspapers in the footnotes of their own analysis and interpretation. what this book does is it imburse the traditional history books, taking those newspapers that have been in the footnotes and placing them at the forefront. for general readers like you to enjoy full access to full-color newspapers from the period so you feel like you are reading over the shoulder of george washington or paul revere. now, the process for putting

this book together was quite a journey for me. i started out as an enthusiast and then became a collect your and then became an educator through a web site and then ultimately through this book. the story of how i first discovered historic newspapers happened about five years ago. my wife and i took our first family vacation to galena illinois which is a cozy mississippi river town where on the main strip they there, we discovered a rare book shop. in that rare shop i found a nondescript container full of old newspapers. i picked one up and started reading it and with the april 21, 1865 "new york times." is reading about abraham lincoln and the reward for the capture of the conspirator. that moment triggered in me an intense passion and enthusiasm for history that i seriously had

never had. so for the next five years, it became this journey of meticulous kind of collecting of newspapers because i am from the midwest. i don't have convenient access to the wonderful archives on the east coast. i don't have access to a lot of the original found in the libraries and institutions across the country and so i made it a point to try to collect these because much like any other historical collectible they are available for purchase so if any of you have ever seen american pickers on the history channel i would say it's much like that. i would equate myself to a american pickers but more long the line of historic documents, newspapers, where i am traversing the earth, trying to find and locate and pick newspapers out of rare bookshops and european book dealers and people who discover them in

attics and behind walls and old home so an exciting discovery process. in newspapers eventually grew and accumulated to where they became a significant collection. one of the most significant private collections of american revolutionary newspapers and the story they told us that's knitting, one that's deserves to be shared with the general readership, which this book hopefully accomplishes. so tonight, what i want to do is walk you through what i would consider to be the four buckets of discoveries i have made along this journey and i've categorize those buckets is one being an old media versus new, the journalism discoveries, the history discoveries and then what i would call paper preservation discovery. so i will start with old media

versus new. quantity. today we are looking at practically limitless sources of news, television, radio, internet, social media, twitter. you name it, you have access to a seemingly unlimited quantity of news sources. back then, newspapers were the only mass media of the day. the first newspaper printed on american soil successfully was the boston newsletter in 17 four. it wasn't until 15 years later that we have the second american newspaper printed, also in boston, "the boston gazette." coincidentally, the next day, the third newspaper started in philadelphia, the american -- circulation. the top 100 newspapers in america average circulation

approximately 200,000. at the time of the american revolution the average circulation was approximately 600. now that sounds awfully low but keep in mind these newspapers were also read aloud in taverns and private homes in so while subscribership or circulation might be low, actual readership is quite significant. distribution. we have internet. we have telephone, or i'm sorry tv and radio today. back then the distribution of newspapers was done primarily through horseback and ship, commonly called tech abodes. the timeline. today news is instantaneous and on-demand. you can flip open your phone and have almost real-time news at your fingertips. 200 plus years ago the news came

weekly. i'm sorry, the news came weekly and so the time like you would open a newspaper and he would find news that was anywhere from a day old to a 2-month-old. a large part of that was just the transit time that had to go into how far the news traveled to reach that colonial place so you might have news coming from across the atlantic where the transatlantic voice was four to eight weeks. the length of these newspapers, today we have newspapers that are roughly 20 to 30 pages, multiple sections. back than the average newspaper was four pages long. picture one large sheet of paper. that one large sheet of paper on one side of that for pages one and four, so the front of the back page of the newspaper and then folded in half and inside you would have pages two and three. so what we think today --

one second. the front page and the fourth page were typically typeset earlier in the week, whereas the interior pages, pages two and three were typeset later in the week or closer to the actual publication date. so what we -- what we were associated as being front page cover story news was typically found on page two or three, not on page one and four where you would have more the evergreen type of content soap or news, advertisements and such. the frequency. we talked about how today we have the daily and back then you had we laid. today we have left and right-leaning media. back then you had patriot and loyalist newspapers. is very important to me that this book include oath all perspectives of patriots and loyalist as well as american

newspapers. this takes us to the journalism discoveries. today, newspapers have professional staff of reporters, editors. back then they didn't have professional paid staff. the number one news source was private correspondence. so here we have an early 1774 pennsylvania newspaper that has an article that starts off with letters from boston containing -- complaining the taste of their fish being altered which would suggest a humorous take on the boston tea party. what you will find most commonly is the extract of a letter from the articles of the day. you will also note their warrant headlines. the headlines weren't very common in 18th century and so most of the articles back then

would lead with extract of a letter or a dateline. another primary news source was the exchanges. there were other newspapers so once the colonial printer would print their weekly additions they would send issues up and down the continents to the colonial printers who would in turn reprint extracts from that edition in their own often under dateline. new york january 6, this is a boston gazette issue from 1756, so here the new york dateline tells me this news came from new york and place likely in the new york newspaper. after action reports are also a primary source of news once the war begins. so after action reports or when the commanding officer would write a summary of the events of the military engagement that they were in battle and send that up the chain, often in america the president of

congress. the present of congress then would share that after-action report with the local newspaper printer. than that newspaper printer would send their addition up and down the continent and you would see the after after-action report appear in multiple newspapers up and down the coast. here we have a january 23, 1777 issue of the continental journal. this includes george washington's own account of the battle of the crossing of the delaware. you can see it the top for dateline, baltimore and that is where congress was meeting at the time. i said earlier that you really don't see a lot of headlines in newspapers. mostly the datelines and the extract of the letter. here's april 21, 1775 gazette extraordinary for its content and data that reports the breaking news of the battle of content and concorde would also

historically significant for his journalism. the fact that the left column there is dedicated to that lexington and concorde. more importantly, it's the two word headline, bloody news, which surely caught the attention of the columnist reading the newspaper. more so was the point that i made earlier about how breaking or domestic news was typically found on pages two and three. this is domestic breaking news on page one, so another significant journalism piece to catch the readers attention. illustrations are something you don't see frequently in newspapers. where we do see them as in the nameplate, where here we have paul revere's famous join or die in nameplate with the serpent and the dragon. we also see there them and

advertising so for instance the advertisement left is for tri-cornered hats and on the right is for a carriage. there was however one illustration depicting a current event, only one and that is the battle of bunker hill. the virginia gazette of august the 26th, 1775 rented in the middle column an eyewitness account of the battle unhcr hill. the eyewitness account contains such a vivid details of the actual battlefield or the entrenchment that the publishers of this gazette put together a rudimentary kind of illustration using just a common pipe tool that they had in the print shop. this is what it looked like. now periodical's coming from great britain like the gentleman's scots magaziner monthly periodicals and you

intend to see maps and some illustrations in their but not in newspapers. you would think that after this addition that other colonial newspapers would see this and perhaps take similar processes for developing similar types of illustrations. we don't. my guess is that logistic week time was not on their side and they couldn't do this repeatedly so this is the only known illustration to depict a current event in a newspaper during the entire revolutionary war. this is also the age of enlightenment, so we have journalism as entertainment and its education. on the left is the new jersey gazette from 1778 where the right to columns are dedicated to the reestablireestabli shment of the continental army. it details the infantry, the artillery and the calvary and on the left the column dedicates mathematical theory. on the right is the freeman's

journal printed in philadelphia, where the entire front page is dedicated to news of the surrender of cornwallis in poetry. advertising is also something that struck me in the sense that there are a lot of advertisements for runaway slaves, indentured servants for sale for soldiers. david mccullough is an advocate for primary sources and the general public and students reading primary sources and what he says is that these deserted soldiers advertisements in newspapers or where we get a lot of the information about what the uniforms look like. they are describing the soldiers that had deserted. another adjusting advertisement that struck me was in the january 20, 1770 issue of the pennsylvania ledger. here we have 10 days after the

first publication of thomas paine's common sense, one of the first advertisements for common sense. there it is. what was interesting to me about this particular edition is that in the same newspaper is another advertisements for a new edition of common sense, which suggests just how quick he this pamphlet is moving. which brings me to the history discoveries. no taxation without representation. that argument springs to life in newspapernewspaper s. in particular the may 10, 1764 issue of the pennsylvania gazette. on page two is one paragraph that details the forthcoming sugar acts. in that article, it says the scheme of taxation that has been previously debated in parliament whether they had the power to lay such tax on colonies collins which had no representative parliament and determined in the

affirmative. also interesting to me about this article is this is where you get the first teaser for the forthcoming stamp act that everyone knows so well. and internal tax that is cut off and you can see that but an internal tax is forthcoming. violence and mobs and riots are also something that struck me because of the sheer magnitude of the violence that is reported in the newspapers of the day. in particular, this is a supplement to the boston newsletter from september 5, 1755. extraordinary for multiple reasons. one, the front page of this two page issue is details of the destruction of lieutenent governor thomas hutchinson's home, the lieutenant governor of boston but on page two from newport rhode island, we read of similar home destruction so here

it reads, for a three day riot that to-do list. this. day one, a symbol and a wrecked gallows, make effigies of stamp master hated loyalist, hoisted effigies by net 15 feet high come make a fire and burned effigies to ashes, choose the deputies of the town, choose the committee to instruct the deputies on the stamp act. date to an evening, gather a crowd and march to the house of hated loyalist number one. shatters windows and break his doors to pieces, damage partitions and run furniture. march to the home of hated loyalist number two, tear his house to pieces, demolishes furniture and ravages seller, destroy all provisions and wind. march the home of the stamp master. damages home if he doesn't resign. received the promise of resignation, returned to the first-year homes to continue

destruction and then the following morning, day three, listen to the stamp master's public resignation and wait for the loyalist to sail to england and sell their real estate. so we have such violence reported in the newspapers and the sis and a boston newspaper so surely the bostonians were probably pleased to see that what they had done previously was catching on in the other colonies. this had the desired effect that they very much wanted. it enforce the stamp masters to resign, which prevented the enforcement of the stamp act. what you see in the newspapers after this is all up and down the colonies, the other towns taking similar courses to prevent the enforcement of the stamp act. along similar lines with the fact that benjamin franklin was

one of those targeted, hated columnist whose home came this close to being destroyed by a mob of patriots because ben franklin showed sentiments of moderation in compliance with the stamp act. he appointed a friend of his to be a stamp master and those sentiments of compliance and moderation come through in the newspapers. for instance benjamin franklin printed the pennsylvania gazette in 172-92-1748. for the next 16 years until 1758 he remained a business partner wear on the back of every pennsylvania gazette it's filled with his name printed by d. franklin and dee hull. while he didn't, was inactive in the daily printing business, it still carried his name and that pennsylvania gazette was one of the first principles texts of the stamp that.

that in sylvania cassettes just a few weeks later was also advertising for franklin's poor richman almanacs which in the 1776 edition were promoting is having the fold text of the stamp act which all columns should be familiar with because it will affect you all. there in those newspapers accompaniments you start to see sentiment of moderation. also the boston tea party, this is the december 21, 1773 gazette printed in salem massachusetts. here we have one of the most popular eyewitness accounts. it was written by an impartial observer, a pseudonym that was very common. in this account, you read about a padlock being destroyed aboard one of the ships and how the colonists, the rebels who were writing click they replace that headline so germane blame us for

anything but the destruction. you also learn that same account of one of the rebel colonists pocketing some of that tea and quick. >> the senate has been in recess subject to the call of the chair. the ap is reporting that the white house and gop leaders have reached a deal on the fiscal cliff. the vote on the measure will be the next step followed by action by the u.s. house of representatives. in a return on tuesday at noon th eastern.e ut senar f senatef iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, in the last few decades, real middle-class families in america -- i say real middle-class, making $30,000, $440,000, not $400,000 a year, have steen season their jobs being more insecure, their wages stagnate, in fact, their income adjusted for inflation is

less than it was in the late 1990's. their savings and pensions have shrunk or disappeared, the cost of education has soared, at the same time the wealthiest americans and large corporations grow ever richer and pay less and less in taxes. for example, take dividends. prior to 2003, dividends were always taxed as ordinary income. but now they're taxed at a less rate, at the capital gains rate. income of hedge fund managers are taxed at a lower rate than middle-class families, so-called carry interest rule. the share of our nation's wealth going to corporate profits has been rising, as the share going to wages and salaries is declining. this has led bit by bit, tax

code change by tax code change, pension cuts by pension cuts, job outsourcing by job outsourcing to an economy that's out of balance, that threatens the very fabric of our society. that's because the gap between the rich and the real middle class grows ever wider. that's because our economy is driven from the middle out and not from the top down. our economy is driven by middle-class families with good jobs and money in their pockets to spend. so our first goal must be to put americans back to work and to get our economy moving, to rebuild the real middle class now. now, the average american across our land tonight, today, they probably think that what we're about here is just that, to

solve our country's most pressing problem -- creating new jobs, laying the foundation for future economic growth and, thus, reducing our deficits in the long term. but instead, we are here tired in knots to avert a manufactured fiscal cliff which could have been avoided six months ago by the house passing s. 3412 to avert the tax hikes on 98% of americans. now, i have said repeatedly that i will evaluate any such fiscal cliff legislation on how these proposed policies affect working families and the real middle class. again, the real middle class, those make $30,000, $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 a year. so i'm disappointed to say that in my opinion, this legislation

that we're about to vote on falls short. first, it doesn't address the number-one priority, creating good middle-class jobs now. unemployment remains way too high. this bill should include direct assistance on job creation measures. for example, our infrastructure, education, job retraining, how many jobs we see out there going wanting because people aren't trained for those jobs and yet we don't have enough money to put into job retraining. this legislation before us neglects our most pressing concern at the present time and that is the lack of jobs and the lack of qualified people to fill those jobs. secondly, this proposal does not generate the revenue necessary for the country to meet its needs for everything from

education to job training, infrastructure, research and development. the idea that people earning $300,000 to $400,000 a year could not pay the taxes they paid in the 1990's, when the economy was booming, is just plain absurd. but that's what we're being told, that people who make $300,000 or $400,000 a year simply cannot pay the same taxes that they would have been paying in the clinton years. furthermore, these wealthiest americans made a lot of money in the last decade. so what do we do? now we're raising the estate tax exemption to $5 million. it was $1 million under the clinton tax years, so now the few that are really wealthy, made a lot of money, they've accumulated this wealth and now

we raise the he is statement tax so -- the estate tax so they can now tax past it on without any of the gains not paying any tax because the heirs now get it with a stepped-up basis so none of that is taxed. and so what we see then are the few who are wealthy getting more and more wealthy. so wealth becomes even more concentrated under this system. now, some will say, what's the problem here? you wanted to protect the middle class. they are in this bill. how can you object if some higher-income individuals are protected as well? well, i point out these are not unrelated matters. with government investments and government spending dropping being squeezed every year by my conservative friends on the other side of the aisle, with deficits remaining high, every dollar of sacrifice that the wealthy forego is sacrifice that

we will later be asking of real middle-class, modest-income americans. every dollar that the top 2% of taxpayers do not pay under this deal, we will eventually ask folks of modest means to foreg forego -- to forego in social security or medicare or medicaid or head start benefits or other items that benefit the real middle class. i believe it is gravely shortsighted to look at these issues in isolation from each other, especially since the republicans have made crystal clear they intend to seek mandatory spending cuts just two months from now using the debt limit as leverage. so number three, why in this deal do we make the tax benefits

for the rich permanent while the progressive tax benefits we put in place in 2009 to help people of modest means, why are those temporary? for example, the estate taxes that benefit the wealthiest are made permanent. the earned income tax credit that affects the lower income, that's temporary. the income tax rates that are set now are going to be made permanent to benefit higher income individuals, but the child tax credit is made temporary. the a.m.t. fix is made permanent, but the american opportunity tax credit for modest families to be able to afford to send their kids to college, that's made temporary. in this deal that we're about to vote on, logic is turned on its

head. we provide permanent benefits to those who need it the least, yet this deal sunsets the modest assistance to middle-class families. and again, i repeat, middle class, real middle class, not $400,000 a year middle class. i mean the real middle class. i think it is quite telling that earlier this evening, last evening, grover norquist said he is for this bill, but our former secretary of labor bob reich is opposed. so maybe now, maybe now i guess we are all believers in trickledown economics. not i. i guess we redefine the middle class as those making $400,000 a year when, in fact, that represents the top 1% of income earners in america, not the middle class.

so i guess that we now accept as normal practice in reaching bipartisan deals that the most vulnerable in our country like those who are out of work and who depend on unemployment benefits can be held hostage as a bargaining chip for more tax breaks for the richest among us. now, i'm not saying that everything in this deal is bad. there are some good parts of this, but i repeat i am concerned about this constant drift bit by bit, deal by deal toward more deficits, less job creation, more unfairness, less economic justice, a society where the gap grows wider between the few who have much and the many who have too little. so, mr. president, for these reasons, i must in conscience vote no on this bill.

the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to the consideration of h.r. 8, that the substitute amendment, the text of which is at the desk be agreed to, there be ten minutes of debate equally divided between the two leaders prior to a vote on passage of the bill as amended, that there be no other amendments in order prior to the vote, that there be no points of order in order to the substitute amendment -- in order to the substitute amendment or the bill. finally, the vote on package be subject to a 60-vote affirmative vote threshold. the president pro tempore: hearing no objection, without objection, so ordered. the senator in -- from nevada. mr. reid: very quickly, we have worked really hard this week. we had to be here, we senators, are happy to be here, but there are four individuals who didn't have to work this week but they volunteered to do so. they are the four pages who kept this place operating with helping the floor staff and us. they could be home with their families and friends enjoying the holiday. instead, they are here with us. we have 18-year-old jared nakura

of arlington. he gave up his winter break to be here. 23-year-old priscilla pelly of washington, d.c. she is a staff assistant in my office. 22-year-old erin shields of tacoma, maryland. and 16-year-old winden liu of hawaii, the only remaining current page who skipped her vacation to help here. i want the record to reflect our deep appreciation to them and wish them the very best in their future endeavors. mr. president, working throughout the night and throughout the day, we have reached an agreement with senator mcconnell to avert tax increases on middle-class americans. i have said all along our most important priority was to protect middle-class families. this legislation does that. middle-class families will wake up today to the assurance that their taxes won't go up $2,200 each. they will have the certainty to plan how they will pay for groceries, rent, car payments

all during next year. the legislation also protects two million americans who lost their jobs during the great recession from losing their unemployment insurance. i'm disappointed that we weren't able to make the grand bargain, as we have tried to do for so long, but we tried. if we do nothing, the threat of a recession is very real and passing this agreement does not mean negotiations halt. far from it. we can all agree there is more work to be done. i thank everybody for their patience today, and they have had a lot of patience. i also want to thank my friend, the republican leader, senator mcconnell, for his hard work to reach this bipartisan agreement. it's been difficult and been very hard. as we have said before, senator mcconnell and i, we out here do a lot of talking to each other. we kind of go over everybody's head, but he and i know when the talk is done out here, we work hard to try to help this country. so i -- he's my friend, and i appreciate this very, very much

the work that he's done on this. for example, this bill cuts $4 billion fiscal year 2013 and $8 billion fiscal year 2014. these are real cuts. they're in this bill. i hope the new year will bring a new willingness on the part of house republicans to join democrats in the difficult and rewarding work of governing. the speaker said all along he was waiting for the senate to act. the senate soon will act. now i hope for america that the speaker will allow the full house of representatives to vote on this bipartisan legislation. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the president pro tempore: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i want to thank my good friend, the majority leader, for his kind words and thank everyone for their patience and their counsel throughout this process. i also want to thank the vice president for recognizing the importance of preventing this tax hike on the american people and stepping up to play a crucial role in getting us there. it shouldn't have taken us this

long to come to an agreement, and this shouldn't be the model for how we do things around here, but i appreciate the vice president's willingness to get this done for the country. i know i can speak for my entire conference when i say we don't think taxes should be going up on anyone, but we all knew that if we did nothing, they would be going up on everyone today. we weren't going to let that happen. each of us could spend the rest of the week discussing what a perfect solution would have looked like, but the end result would have been the largest tax increase in american history. the president wanted tack increases, but thanks to this imperfect agreement, 99% of my constituents will not be hit by those hikes. so it took an imperfect solution to prevent our constituents from a very real financial pain, but in my view, it was worth the

effort. as i said, this shouldn't be the model for how we do things around here, but i think we can say we have done some good for the country. we have done some good for the country. we have taken care of the revenue side of this debate. now it's time to get serious about reducing washington's out-of-control spending. that's a debate the american people want, it's the debate we'll have next, and it's a debate republicans are ready for. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. reid: mr. president, the vote will start immediately, and people should get here as quickly as they can. the president pro tempore: the clerk will report the measure. the clerk: h.r. 8, an act to extend certain tax provisions enacted in 2001 and 2003, and so forth and for other purposes. the president pro tempore: under the previous order, amendment 3348 is agreed to.

the clerk will read the bill for the third time. the clerk: calendar number 402, h.r. 8 -- 502, h.r. 8, an act to extend certain tax provisions enacted in 2001 and 2003, and for other purposes. the president pro tempore: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. there is a sufficient second. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: can we have order. the clerk will proceed.

vote:

quorum call: vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the vote on the yeas are 89, the nays are 8. 60-vote threshold having been achieved, the bill, as amended, is passed. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: mr. president, we

don't expect votes today any more -- any more votes today. we're going to wait and see what the house does on sandy and we'll -- i think whatever we do on sandy will have to be done by unanimous consent anyway. so i wouldn't expect any votes until we come back here to reconvene on the 3rd. which is -- let's see, let me figure this out -- it's the day after tomorrow. i think. note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: