carried. yes, sir. >> my question is about the whiskey rebellion. do you think that george washington was ever on any level intent on commanding troops in battle, or do you think that these sort of went to western pennsylvania and on his generals uniform just to sort of like for the spectacle? >> the answer is yes, because he called at 13,500 troops to put down a rebellion of an estimate 5000 rebels. >> but my question is whether or not he himself was intent on mounting a horse and commanding -- >> he tried to but he was too old, too fat and couldn't get into his uniform. he had of a new uniform made. and he and alexander hamilton wrote out to carlisle, pennsylvania, in a carriage,

decided that he, washington decided, well, and his colleagues decided he was too old to go into battle. they made alexander hamilton inspector general, which made him essentially commander of the armed forces. and then general light horse harry reid took command of the force that went out to western pennsylvania. washington turned back from carlisle, went back to philadelphia. the troops did go out there. by the time they got out there the rebel camp have broken up completely. they found about 20 drunks. it was rather disgraceful. the troops are so angry they put the drunks and open carts and carted them back to philadelphia marched them down the street of philadelphia. they were tried for treason. all were acquitted except for

two, and washington part and the other to. yes, ma'am. [inaudible] >> i'm sorry? [inaudible] >> is in the constitution. it's not a law. it's in the constitution. >> i have a question. in my mind the question is then, does the president, duly elected, violating the letter of the law usurped the very freedoms which we citizens are provided by the government just to save the republic? >> usurp is a very strong word. usurp means taking someone else's power, seizing someone else's power. and we have to say he assumed or

asserted those powers, because after all, congress was not here. hear the president is charged with running the government. there's no congress. no one to consult. the cabinet in those days were very, very small. you had five men, two of them were really not a cabinet members, postmaster general and the attorney general. the attorney general was not the chief law enforcement officer. he was simply a legal adviser to the president. but he had no law enforcement powers. [inaudible] one follow. usurping the power of congress by violate the letter of the law as laid out in the constitution? >> this makes for endless discussions. should president obama have allowed congress to shut down the government? i don't think the. i think he should have declared

a state of emergency instead of letting millions of americans suffer. to me, he was as cruel to the american people as governor christie was to the people in fort lee, new jersey, by -- >> thank you very much. >> you are welcome. thank you very much and i'll be glad to sign books for you. [applause] >> for more information visit the author's website. >> you've been watching booktv, 48 hours of book programming beginning saturday morning at eight eastern through monday morning at eight eastern. nonfiction books all weekend every weekend right here on c-span2. ..

>> the senate returns today at 2:00 eastern time to begin debate on the so-called dock fix legislation that determines how much the government pays doctors who treat medicare patients. later, members resume nomination on john to wednesday. -- owens. a motion to waive the budget act, the doc fix bill and a procedural vote to formally begin debate on