>> jane hamilton kirkus next on the tv. she appears at the false ethanol in virginia. her book is american phoenix. >> good afternoon. [inaudible] i am delighted to be able to introduce jane hampton cook to you. are your mac jane is the author of eight books, including "american phoenix" which we have up for sale. she will be happy to sign about john quincy abends in louisa and the war of 1812. she also has a soft cover books are called star-spangled story, which is celebrating 200 years of our national anthem.

jane has authored several books from the revolutionary war. america's first lady ichikawa third cursed from the war in iraq and afghanistan. as a side, she is also former white house -- [inaudible] so jane, thank you for coming today. >> thank you so much for coming in thank you for hosting today into the asher lifelong learning institute at george mason. and also to c-span for being here as well. she mentioned my book. these are cover images that some of them. this one i have today and these are all available online and her bookstores. my passion is to bring history to life in ways that are real

and relevant to our lives today. we can't relate to what it's like to ride in a carriage everywhere, but we can understand what it laic for our families to be separated or one another by distance. so that is the one i try to focus on what the things we still have in common with people who've gone before us. just as a way of mentioning -- she mentioned i worked at the white house were a few years. i was george w. bush's webmaster in the era of president clinton with the first president to have a website. this is the second president. this is the first time we transitioned websites from president to president. it was an exciting time. as before broad and an smartphone in the technology has changed a lot 2001. and i have a love for writing before we moved up here to washington d.c. and i've written

a book about sam houston and his daughter, maggie. it was my first book. it was a children's book, but it didn't come out until 2002 when i was working in the white house. so you can imagine just the excitement of having your first book in print. but i was really fighting it because the night before i was supposed to leave to go to the texas book festival in austin. it was straight from the office to the airport. i didn't have my books yet. i got home and sure enough as a box of books and i finally had my first copy and i was nervous i wouldn't have a copy to take with me to the book festival. i go to the office the next day and i was at the eisenhower executive building next door to the west wings building. i wanted to go show it to a friend of mine in another office. i walked out into the hallway and there was nobody around

except for a secret service agent standing to the side with the curlicue cord coming out of this year and this year and a new he was secret service. they don't normally stand around inside the building, so i thought somebody is coming. and you are white house staffer in the president is walking through, that is not your time to chitchat. you are supposed to stand to the side and let him pass. you can smile and wave, but you are not supposed to stop him. it's not written nor you figure out pretty quickly. well, i was excited about my book and sure enough the doors open and president bush starts walking straight towards me. without really thinking i didn't say anything he had a just did this. [laughter] he saw he's homages bethany came out and started flipping through the book. this is not about him. this is about 10 houston, governor of texas before civil war.

so he is flipping through it and i tell them about my book and then he looks at me and says i need an autograph. and i realize he thinks i'm giving it to him and i'm really not because i needed it to go to austin within a couple of hours. i so what do you do if the president of the united states thinks are giving him a book, you better give him the book. so i was so nervous and i said there, would you like many famous for you now or later? he gave me that puzzled look, what? any figures it out. he goes later. so he goes on his merry way. i go on my merry way and i go to austin into the book festival with my book. when i got back i photocopied the inside cover a couple times in print is what i was going to safety and in the space i have. once i had it down, i wrote a little note and sent it over to the oval office and got a nice note back from him. so i've never given a book to the president of the united

states before since then it's that was really nice to have that with my first book to share with the president. you just never get to do that. now i fell in love that when working at the white house feared a really fellow muppets white house history. i found that for the white house website i could write about white house history and it was bipartisan. so it didn't matter what your political affiliation must come you could come to the white house website and read about biographies of the president. you could read about the rooms at the white house the white house, so i really became enthralled with a the history of our presidents and first ladies in white house and that is what launched my desire to go on and write about american history. i received a fellowship from the white house historical association and the organization of american historians to do some research on the white house. so i left my job in 2003 and started pursuing writing.

and what -- i fell in love also a few years ago with this story about john quincy and believe that adams and the war in 1812. i want to focus on this story. this is a story of john quincy adams as a younger man had young diplomat, lots of hair. he doesn't keep the hair for very long. so what i want to do is start with july 4th, 8 tino nine. it's independence day. we are going to hone in on boston. austin is the time of 33,000 people. the fourth-largest city in the united states. but adams is not a very happy fellow because he had lost his dream job a year earlier in the u.s. senate. he's teaching a harvard at this time. he's practicing law into uni that would be perfectly respect about that is what we did with our lives. the rest of our lives is teach

and practice law. but when you are the son of john not a comment if you are not serving the public, nothing else compares. so he's really lost his dream job and his wife talked in her diaries about how miserable frame he was to live with him during this time. because he was very unhappy. but this makes them very relatable because of all known someone who has lost their job or has had to change jobs and maybe didn't want to. and this is what makes them relatable is just that banks of losing sort of your purpose in life and having to do something you don't really want to be doing. so how did he lose his dream job? well, in 1807 from the british navy attacked the u.s. as chesapeake off the coast of north vote. three were killed, 18 wounded and four were impressed or kidnapped. said the british navy captain seized for the men on the ship

and accused them all of being british deserters. in fact, two of them are legitimate american citizens. and this is called impressment come in the practice of taking them one of forcing them into the british navy. this is what johnson v. adams that about impressment. he thought the impressment is the man is to all intents and purposes a sub i'm just, a moral base enter radical as the slave trade. and he was someone who opposes slavery. he thought it was just abominable to take someone and rob them of their citizenship and force them into a military that could potentially be at war with that person's native country and that was awful to him. so the prior this impressment was going on because britain was at war with france and they needed every man they could get. some of the men they impressed were legitimate british deserters, but many were american citizens.

the state department estimates about 5000 men weren't pressed during this time period. john quincy adams thinks the number was low and there was a lot unreported. he thinks the number was more around 9000. you can understand the injustice a lot of people felt about this track is. the other thing that was going on is we are a country that only has four ambassadors around the world to a weren't even as higher rank as ambassadors. we are really a country that is struggling for identity and sovereignty. in order to survive as a country, we have to thrive economically. this is what was happening. britain and france were up more. so britain create a policy that if you were an american merchant ship and you want to go and trade coming out to first get a license from great britain. france led by phenol and turns around and makes the same policy. if you're an american merchant

ship and you want to trade in europe, you have to first go to a french port and get a french license. you couldn't possibly legitimately have a license from france and a license from england's first. so this has created havoc for our merchant ships. there's a lot of forgery going on, a lot of british ships the state's american papers and american ships. it was just chaotic and that's the economic problem we were facing as a country. so after the british attacks the uss chesapeake in 1807, president thomas jefferson took assigned to figure out what he wanted to do. he did not want to go to work in stimulant. what he decided to do with the sent the senate and embargo and asked them to cut off trade with england, just cut all of it off. well, what does senator john quincy adams of massachusetts to do? his father ran against thomas jefferson and lost, but he also

knows that the men back in boston aren't going to be happy if he cuts off their shipping trade. but what do you do? he really was concerned about impressment and decided to put the union above regional interest in the supported jeffersons embargo. as a result, he lost his senate seat. they were so mad at him they didn't even put his name on the ballot in 1808. so he resigned when he realized he was not on the ballot, he just out and out resigned. this is what he said. he wrote his mother a letter. he said this. i discharged my duty to my country, but i committed the unpardonable sin against party. and that is how he viewed this loss. he felt it deeply. it was a deep one for him to do what he thought was right and to not be supported and not. so we are back july 4th, 1809.

there is a new president in town, james madison became president in march of 1809. on july 4th, john quincy adams received official paperwork from washington. keep in mind she's doing very much what we do on july 4th. he's going to an independence day parade goodies watching fireworks and he receives this packet of papers saying he has been appointed as the minister when obtained chari to the court of saint petersburg, russia. and this was quite an astonishing development. he was quite stunned at this because russia had not officially recognize their independence at this point in time. now his friends and foes responded very differently. his enemies thought it was a great way to get john quincy adams out of the country, just send them off to russia. his friends called it an honorable exile because it was an honorable position to be a

diplomat, but it was in exile because russia was so very, very far away. today is constitution day and this is really the basis for john quincy adams decision. he said i'm determined to go. i have back west and the judgment of those to whom the constitution has lifted and he thought it has to place me abroad. he was very dedicated to the whole concept of the three branches of government in two of those three branches called into service. he also believed this. the public service to a man of independent patriotism is neither to be solicited nor refused. think about that in our modern politics. it's neither to be solicited, neither is said to be refused. a little different now than it was back then. but this is his philosophy. he really believed that this is a quote with their sons.

but the uniform principle of your life be how to make your talents and knowledge most beneficial to your country and useful to mankind. that was their governing philosophy. i again if this is what makes them relatable because we know people who've dedicated their talents to their country and to humanity. sometimes the service nationally in the military. sometimes it's organizing for the book. it's making your talent useful to your community and i think that philosophy really makes them relatable. now what about louisa? louisa with his wife issue is very musical. i got chills when i was doing research on this. louisa we know couple days before she finds out about this appointment, she is singing and entertaining people at the piano after dinner. we don't know what song she sang, but we do know one of the more popular songs and this time

period was the boston patriotic song for the atoms of liberty song. he had two names. the atoms of liberty song was written for her father-in-law. so i don't know that she ever sang that song, but i would be shocked if she hadn't wrinkly because it was for her father-in-law. when i look it up, i discovered to the library of congress that is the same tune as the star-spangled banner. i thought this was before the star-spangled banner. so even that was an old english drinking song, most people associated it as the boston patriotic song. she's going to russia. she was very shocked as you might eat. two weeks before they left, her father-in-law made a very critical decision. he decided that their three children that john quincy and louisa had three sons, ages eight, six and two. the two oldest sons would not go

to brescia. they would stay behind in boston. john quincy and louisa would be allowed to take their 2-year-old. she had no say in this decision and she was heartbroken. she wrote every preparation without the slightest consultation with me, even the disposal. she is shunned, stunned and shocked and very anguished over this. this is the era of jane osten, when women didn't have a lot of decision-making power, even in their role as mother on a likeness. she cried out in her diary, this agony, can envision a such sacrifices? never was her answer to that. this makes her very relatable today in my opinion because we know people whose families are separated by distance, by divorce. we can understand her emotions being forced to be separated from her children.

now it makes john not a, her father-in-law, seem really cold by our modern interpretation that he made this decision. but he made this decision. he's decided to separate the family in order to preserve the family line because if the whole family had gone on the ship and if the ship had wrecked, he would've lost all all of them at once. he also really wanted those older boys to be educated in america. that's another reason why he made the decision that was very, very heartbreaking. so on august 5th, 1809, they embarked for russia. this is the ship they took, it is called the horus. it is a merchant ship. there wasn't enough time to acquire a military vessel. they were already worried they wouldn't get to russia on time because sailing season can end as early as october. the water can freeze in the harbor and russia as earlier thought tober.

so they were nervous about getting there. it's a good 80 days to travel by ship. on their journey, they came face-to-face with the crack is of impressment. an english ship stops them, had all the sailors lineup, read the descriptions written about each one and accuse one of them is being a british deserter. john quincy had to intervene. he said i know this man's family my whole life. this is someone from boston, not from london. so he came face-to-face with it. he discovered in denmark to 300 u.s. sailors had been detained by the danish and the danish rendered to sign on a lan at this point. after madison became president, he lifted the embargo so all sorts of ships set sail for europe and some of these got captured in denmark and they were accused of being british, not being american and selling

british cargo. so he comes face-to-face with the very problems america is dealing with at this particular time. this is a panorama of st. petersburg around the time. it was illustrated around that time. they were there. so this is very much what about like what the library of congress image. when johnson gets to russia, he has a very distinctive mission. his mission is to convince emperor alexander to trade openly with the united states because this was the strategy if we could get russia to trade with a, then that would put a lot of pressure on england and france to change their policies against this because russia was the largest country in europe at this particular time. alexander expected john quincy's credentials, so this was the

first time russia officially knowledge the independence of the united states. during the revolutionary war, we sent a delegation over there and his grandmother, catherine the great was allied with england and refused to officially recognize american independence. so this is a big step here in our relationship with russia. emperor alexander is this dashing, charismatic thirtysomething emperor, very charming, but is also allied with the pole and at this particular point in time. he'd been up for a couple times earlier, but this time he's an ally and there's not an ambassador from england to russia at this time. there's a french ambassador and he holds the highest rank from europe, the french ambassador does. we just love this image of napoleon. let's see, did it go? there we go. all the way. so they very quickly figure out that they are fish out of water in russia.

this is an image of the winter palace would be emperor held the event that everything you can imagine. but john quincy realizes they are spaced it to the southern tip romance. but john quincy write his mother that dissipation has become a public duty because they were going by left above, night after night, whether hosted by the emperor one of the other diplomats. louisa only had one dress she could wear. it is silver tissue, which is a cause like material. she had the french traffic or try to show her different ways to wear it, but there is no hiding the fact that she had one dress and he had one suit as well, one silk suit. it was embroidered most likely, but not nearly as decorative as the others. the first ball that they went to come at the women were covered in diamonds and so are the men. that is how different the plane,

frugal, thank you adams is worth russia. they really could not compete. so they've realized very quickly that they cannot compete financially with the other diplomats. this was their disparity. john quincy adams salary was $9000. he's the second highest-paid u.s. government official only after james madison the president. the french ambassador's salary is $300,000. there's no way that he could entertain. the other problem is he hasn't received his money yet. adams didn't have a check after the u.s. government, said he was using his own saving until he received a salary cut. that's a huge part of the problem. how do you succeed? if you're an american, how do you trade with america if you can entertain she only has one dress to wear.

this is oil in it down pretty simply, but they engaged free and fair trade with the other diplomats. they made america's case and they showed a genuine interest in russia's culture. the add-ons -- they go off the record. they use a different term back then, that they would ask if they could speak to one another, these diplomats beyond their country's instruction said they could have their official conversation about whatever issue and then they ask a contact phileas gentleman not representing their country. so he spent a lot of time discussing with russian officials and other european diplomats different games. this is sort of a sounding to me. the russians and the french didn't believe or realize that we produced sugar, cotton and indigo. it is astounding to me that

there was a point in time when america was not known for producing cotton. but that is where we were at this point in time. defense is from 1810 shows that american families produce 60 million yards of cotton and cotton mills produced about 146,000 yards of cotton every year. there's a humorous entry and john quincy's diary where he has 600 diary pages from this time period in his life. so there is a lot of material that we produced the value of $1.5 million. he gets into this conversation with the french ambassador and the french ambassador doesn't believe we produced sugar. he kindly reminds him, napoleon sold us louisiana. the other thing that really surprised me is even in this time period, americans and the english speak differently than the britons. i wouldn't necessarily thought

that, but john quincy adams makes a very distinct his note in his diary several times that he said to the french ambassador, look, you want to know how you can tell the difference between americans and people from london? we speak english differently. listen to how we speak in bush. i thought that was very interesting and fascinating because we don't have audio recordings from that time, we don't really know how people found dead. so we thought that was very fascinating. so that is some of the debate he got into with some of these diplomats and with the emperor himself. he made the case that way, too. john quincy and louisa also took a very genuine and true in russian culture and they find ways they can do this but don't violate their principles of living within their means. so a lot of the things they did, these are pictures of the late 1800s to the library of congress in st. petersburg and

you can get an idea of what the architecture and these were both there. david asked the government -- russian government if they could visit places like the hermitage, which has an enormous art collection. they loved our, both louisa to john quincy were fascinated. adams went to a factory so he could view of russian commerce had to offer america. we offer america appeared through into the fountains you see here and they also visited churches. he would go to services that the emperor at the palace, but it also see how the peasants went to church. at one particular point, he thinks that all the diplomats are expected to be at the same day service led by the emperor, but it's for the peasants can come as well. he shows up and realizes he is one of the only diplomats they are and that he made a faux pas, he wasn't really supposed to show. but the russian foreign minister

sees him and sees his discomfort and begins to explain the liturgical nature of the service. it is really a very sweet opportunity for added to take a genuine interest in their churches cost of an out is how they won over the adverse to this genuine interest in the art and culture in things they could relate to in russia. they also took walks around st. petersburg where they would frequently run into the emperor. he liked to take walks and both sides, but the ad but the emperor and adams would try to time is sometimes so they could run into each other. the number could he relaxed and informal and talk to them when he was at the palace he had to be a lot more formal. luisa spoke french fluently. she actually grew up in france. her father was a maryland merchant running the london side of an annapolis shipping

company. so when war broke out during the revolution, he took his family to france. so the lisa was born in 1775, the senior is she not been peer mother is british. her father is american and they flee to france. so she goes to school taught by french nuns and that is how she learns to speak and glitch. her mother was thought louisa spoke french better than english. so she could engage in conversations about art and music and culture and she really did impress a lot of these diplomats and the women she spoke to. so while they are doing this, debating, showing an interest in the culture, things are beginning to change on the word stage. in may of 1810, napoleon gets married to the austrian

princess. the french ambassador to russia is obligated as he put it to host a big wall honoring the marriage. napoleon is nowhere to be seen, nowhere at all. but the emperor, emperor alexander is a guest. not a hoe spears to become wall and suddenly louisa feels a tap on her shoulder and she turns around and sees the adverse standing there. he says to her in french, would you dance with it the next polonaise. she's quite stunned pearce she's never been asked to dance before. these are very formal dances. so she's a little nervous, a little astonished. they take the dance floor and they danced by themselves and then others joined him and they go through the formalities of it. she said she got through well enough, her heart beating quickly. you cannot must read in her diary, she doesn't say this, but if we were to make a movie of the story, sure hope we do. i'm working with a producer to

try to do that, you can almost see the ladies in the room taken their fans, covering his mouth and whispered in his dancing at the american spies. it really caused a big hubbub that he was dancing with louisa. shamus wondered if there was a little bit of a romantic undertone to it. she wasn't sure what the emperor was really up to there. and they didn't know for a while. but suddenly, within a week or two, the french ambassador and the french council and all the diplomats from france start paying a lot of attention to john quincy and louisa atoms. suddenly the ambassador says mr. adams, you would make a great representative from your country to my country. maybe she go to france and ask for a transfer. her suddenly a lot of attention paid to adams and he realizes that dance with the emperor's way of signaling i am going to

trade openly with america. sure enough within about four months, he learns the policy towards america is obstinate from the russian emperor. and this causes all sorts of problems. the french ambassador they engage in a lot of titles of which, he and john quincy adams do. there's just a lot of back and forth, a lot of attempts by the ambassador to squelch the emperor's decision that ultimately adams prevails and to give you a good example of the ships stuck in denmark in 1809 would take six months for the ships to reach russia. it is shortened to six weeks when russia agree to open the trade with the united states. so things are going really great. trade is open now. we have russia as an ally. so what happens? well, several things do.

in 1811, president madison since john quincy adams the latter, notifying him that the unanimous consent of the u.s. senate just nominated him to be on the supreme court to fill a vacancy. they didn't have hearings on tv. he wasn't there to answer anybody's questions. but they voted unanimously for them. we know he becomes president nader both in the senate and after he was elected to the u.s. house. he's the only u.s. president to have been elected to all three branches. now, what does he do with this disappointment to the supreme court? it is what he wants to serve the public at home and an honorable position. he knows his father is doing a happy dance and his mother, that he's been chosen to be on the court. well, it goes back to louisa.

louisa is six months pregnant at this point and if he accepts this position, it is may. they could get back to america, but what kind of danger in jeopardy would that hurt her and the pregnancy and? she loses two pregnancies while she's in russia. she had lost two pregnancies before this time, so her health is delicate. so they talk about different scenarios. but if they waited until after the baby was born in august? it would still be a while before would be safe for an infant to travel by ship. so he turned it down. he doesn't use the term pregnant in his letter to president madison, but he did note the dedication and devotion that a parent should have to his family. so madison can kind of read between the lines about what that is about. he also tells madison i have long entertained the deep and serious distrust of the qualifications for a seat on the

bench. he wrote his father a letter and then i am sorry, very sorry to disappoint expectations of my country by withholding myself in the judgment seat. but happier for me than it would be to disappoint their expectations upon the seat itself. what adams knew as he knew what his talents were and he knew what they were. he knew that he was not a judge. he was a lawyer by training, but as he put it, he had some heretical views on common law of and he knew that if he became a supreme court justice, he would make some pretty radical decisions that would accept the apple cart in the american judicial system have been so he just decided, that is not for me. but he also turned it down because of louisa and that shows you that he has grown. the man who didn't stand up to his father on the decision of those two boys is now making --

putting family into the mix in his decision-making, which show some growth by our modern standards. he decides is going to have his son come to him by boat in 1812. why not? we know what happens in 1812. america declares war against england in napoleon invades russia, all in the same month. there's no way he's putting his son on a boat. he told his mother in a letter to the fore came to this state, do not send them on a boat to see me. so this is what he wrote. i like this quote a lot. you know, this is his response to finding out that we were in fact their border. i think he found out in late july from the bush newspaper. if our trial is not to come, give us your spirit to bear with

fortitude and to rise ultimate power and virtue from all the evils. i like this part. there is from the world, the compassionate written, which means even the compassionate written were bad -- was bad in his mind. that is the way he looked at it at least. he also wrote his brother is better at the same time. he said this. whether the emir minister direct hostility, i trust a country will prove true to itself. any compares here that the case opens before us a situation as formidable as 1775 in 1776 was to her followers. did you see they are briefing the mantle of that independence is on the line here potentially depending on the outcome of the war. well, luisa gave birth to a baby

girl. within a few months, the daughter contracts a flu-like sick as in then she starts having convulsions. louisa diary gets pretty thin during this time period. ensure that the baby passes away in september of 1812. very tragic. i interviewed a pediatrician to get some good. she was tv. the teeth are coming in. there were trying to get her real food instead of milk. she contract it, was probably dehydrated. it could do she had an underlying genetic condition from the convulsions or it could be a flu-like sickness that she had induced something else. so louisa of course is very heartbroken at her diary becomes

very dark. she's very suicidal in her diary. as you read her shock and her grief as she poured out into her diary, she was very depressed and she gets to the point where she wants to be laid to rest next to her daughter in the cemetery. that's how depression becomes during this time period. they are stuck in st. petersburg won in st. petersburg when apollyon spurning moscow. her spirits that they will come to st. petersburg, that the french will. and he does go bad for the french. they live russia and emperor alexander decided to push forward with the coalition pursued napoleon that to france. advance was one of the few diplomats. they could. they were close. but he is stuck here in russia while his country is at war. emperor alexander held victory ceremonies. this is a new cathedral at the time, newly built and that was

where a lot of the victory ceremonies were held when there are victories during his pursuit of napoleon across russia. now for alexander's relationship with the adams is taken turned. he offers in 18132 mediate between america and great britain. adams responds very positively. he doesn't know what james madison is going to say, and in fact he's right. madison sends a delegation. wait for senate approval of the delegates. he just sent them onward to st. petersburg. the british however i have had a very different reaction. they were the offered to mediate

with america, but the british prime minister complains privately that the russians are have become half american you can imagine anyone saying that about the current leader of russia when it comes to america? not at all. it's a very different relationship here. all the british say no, this really forces them to decide to directly negotiate with america. they decide to toss around a couple of cities to go alternately against belgium. and the five americans he's the lead. and he goes to negotiate the treaty. in the spring of 1814, napoleon goes to exile. so the world is changing quickly and their world is vastly

changing. buoys his home home with her son charles in st. petersburg, waiting for every breath with a letter from arresting. a lot of you probably know what happened in the war of 1812 at this point, 1814. adams writes lisa if either embraced or several letters. he really misses her. he's really come to trust her judgment and he asked her to keep them as her most exclusive competence whatever he writes on this east negotiation. say not a word until they ensure state secrets with the mothers. he talked a lot about the negotiations that these letters. shows a lot of love and trust with the british diplomats are now have a diplomatic relationship with russia again.

the corner's louisa and status, tell me the negotiations. mr. adams is not our business, but she is really surprised that the mail to my pastor so direct you she knew what was going on at the negotiations. wow, there is a setback in the negotiation. there's a lot of dithering on pre-advocate about the negotiations before they actually do to the details of the negotiations. this is why. the british were waiting for the outcome of those sending reinforcements to the east coast. on august 24, 1814, the british military burned our capitol and white house and this is an illustration of the remains of the capital. you can see the benchmarks here. there was no dome yet on the capital. it takes about six weeks before the delegation learned that the burning of the white house.

initially a setback or negotiations as you would expect. it would give the british the upper hand. the louisa is in st. petersburg forget about this atrocity here she is saying here now part of britain again, aren't you? but it is the other european diplomats really thought it was barbaric to burn the white house, to burn the capital. it was okay to capture somebody's capital, but you don't earn someone else's hard or their letters, the letter of congress of course was burned because it was housed in the capital. she witnesses several scenes where the reddish diplomats are shunned and some of the social offense and they have to leave early as these others, only napoleon burned moscow and their view. and it's sort of also backfires that the commerce of vienna, which is where edgar alexander is at this point in the leaders

are now dividing up food spoils of napoleon and the british think they will have the upper hand at these associations over what is going to happen to europe than they realize, no. it is backed irene on them and they better come up with a peace treaty quickly. john quincy adams did a post office for great britain because the delegates they are just give their instructions pretty quickly and he had to wait six weeks to get some and from president madison. adams and the other negotiators recommended to the british. you've read different accounts of the treaty again and never takes credit for deciding where going to go back to prewar boundaries. the british say it was their ideas, adams notes in his diary, it's quite funny. everybody wants to take trudy, which is the border of canada as they were before. on december 24, 1814, adams and

the other signs, the treaty against, which is the lasting peace to treat america and great britain. i met a group of belgians this summer who came in and they were visiting and bringing yellow roses. yellow role and they celebrate the group is very proud of the fact that america and great britain signed the treaty. this is how adams reflected on the signing of the treaty. i considered the day on which i signed it as the happiest day of my life. because it was the day on which i had my share in restoring peace to the world. adams had been friday in louisa that he was going to come back to st. petersburg. that was the plan that after,

then the received two what their next assignment would be once they concluded peace. so he went to a letter and said this is january 1815. honey, saw the house, and they did make those business decisions back then. this was her response. consider the astonishment through letter has caused me. if you can, i feel i will be much imposed upon. this is the heavy trial, but we must get to read it on risk and if you receive it with the conviction i've done my best, i shall be amply reported. this could be potentially a 40 day journey. women of her social status

didn't travel in the carriage with a male protector, father, that was the custom. she would travel from st. petersburg because it was winter. there's no travel going on. 40 days over 1600 miles. this is war-torn europe. napoleon and his troops have been through. this is rough country she's going to travel through. she's forced to make life or death decisions. one of the reasons this would make a good film is because of this journey in particular. she reaches the corner of poland took cost of river and its later that day. about 4:00 in the afternoon. they say it's fine. we don't really know how secure the ice is to get your carriage over the river. he could take the long way

around that we don't think you're going to find shelter for the evening. so what do you do? she decides to cross to make sure they take the most solid pass. you can just picture this on film. she wrote that they had to cite violently to keep the carriage from upsetting and getting to the other side. she's making those kinds as decisions. whatever services on and on it goes. she gets to the outskirts of france, if he hears the rumor, then napoleon has been in exile no longer in exile. it is in fact marching and gathering man and marching to retrain the throat of paris. so that meant supporting the king of france and napoleon.

she is told she's about a day and a half ahead of napoleon. so she decides to press forward. they do what john quincy pair then to get caught up in what is behind her. she's 30 minutes ahead. and sure enough, they, across the road mind by a mob of people who are awaiting napoleon's passage. they see that she's in a russian carriage and they hate the russians at this point. sure enough, the imperial guard sweeps alongside her carriage and the imperial guard is the closest guard to napoleon himself. the nurses with her, screaming

and crying. she has fears and memories. she pulled out her passport and used her perfect french to speak to the officer of home explain who she was and why she was going where she was going. and he says to her, your french will help you immensely. hold your handkerchief out the window and call out long-lived napoleon to get you to paris. she agrees to do that, even though she doesn't like napoleon. and then they call out to the mob and they say, this is just an american lady going to paris to meet her husband. the mob when they hear she is not russian, but american, they start chanting lot with the americans. long live the americans. you can't imagine that happening today in france either. not as much as it did that then. so that is how she gets to

paris. there is a rumor that goes to head the she's napoleon sisters. so she just kind of goes with that and makes it to paris. she's reunited with john quint v. he finds out that he's going to be the next diplomat to england and that their sons are going to join them over in england. the family is soon-to-be reunited. this is how she reflected on her journey. when i retrace my movements to this really long and arduous journey, i can't humble myself too much in painful adoration to the providence were shielded me from all dangers and inspired me with the unswerving date, which teaches for protection from above. she decided to write about her journey because she wanted to be remembered. she recognized and may be it's

not quite so trying as imagination predicts them to be. she really wanted to show that women were much more capable than men out that they were and that is one reason why she wrote about this journey. but it all speaks to our desire to be remembered for the things that we've done in our lives. i found this quote when the publisher and i decided to name this book "american phoenix," i thought this was very appropriate to describe john quincy and a louisa atoms. the phoenix would all have to do with bias, we too be one or it. referring to marriage perhaps, we used to be one part it. you'll remember from the apology that phoenix is in the vehicle expert. he's actually described like an eagle who dies in the apology and stories to greater heights.

that is why the image of the phoenix fits john quincy in the weave patterns quite a while. items transforms from a man who started his time in his life being down on his luck, losing his dream job. he so on path to become secretary of state in president. madison had been secretary of state. jefferson had been secretary of state and roh have been secretary of state secretary of state. saw these were stepping stones. he comes back to the united states after serving in england and after that he becomes president. so that if this transformation, which is false is that the filmmakers look for. but she had overcome to help her and forced her to realize that i'm going to live for my child who is with me, i've got to pull it together here and make the

decisions to get safely to paris. she transforms from another without decision-making power in her life over her son's future to a woman entrusted by her husband to make life or death decisions should travel to meet him in paris. america itself is also phoenix. we entered the era of good feeling. we never went to war with england again. our commerce thrived. we transformed from a country that was the name only two truly an independent and sovereign nation. the respected by others to freely trade. when john quincy adams was president, he negotiated 17 commerce treaties, and the most of any president today. it did notice on path to being not just a son or daughter of england, but really our own independent country. that's the american phoenix legacy for john quincy and louisa atoms.

and if you like, you go to the microphone after questions so that they can hear you, i will be happy to answer some questions about this here. i really -- i used in the book -- i used original source material, so everything in the book and quotations for something they wrote in their or in a letter and so it's really based on their regional source material. that is important to me as an me as a disjointed look at the original text as much as possible and make that a starting point. you could do that with dolly madison during this time. if there isn't that much that she wrote. their sound that's not nearly as fast with the items have here. so does anybody have any questions? [inaudible] >> the question is what is her relationship with her mother in law?

sometimes it's painful they had a tense relationship and how this journey that advocate of respect at her. but i found they had a very tender relationship and the letters that louisa would write abigail, she called her my dearest mother when she miscarries in russia. she writes her mother-in-law, i'm sorry to let you know i've deprived you of another relation that only you would unders and my grief. so it seems like a had a very tender relationship. in may of 1811, louisa finds out from a letter to abigail that louisa sister died at childbirth and she wrote three letters because in january of 18 about him because she kept finding out news like this. so she would write a letter thinking it was rowley letter she was going to send and then something happened and she found

out about louisa sister. so there is definitely a good strong relationship. one thing that helped louisa was that she knew her children weren't good hands under abigail and she wrote that a lot that nothing would, you know, console me other than the fact they know they are in your hands. anybody else? can you go to the microphone? that would be helpful. ..

so there was a lot of desertion. some of the deserters to become american citizens. so it wasn't quite cut and dried as far as that was concerned. i wish i had an audio recording to know the difference. >> anyone else? >> we would like to thank you very much. very interesting. you all have forms come if you would fill those at and put those on chairs up front before you leave. jane has books your answer would be happy to sign them for you. thank you. >> thank you.