everything. i think there are opinions that there were such huge separations for so long from john quincy and louisa catherine took only their youngest child with them to russia. and so, the two boys were left with her aunt. and so there was that thought that perhaps that was the reason they fared so poorly. >> i think i heard at some point in anecdote video one point grabbed his wife and watched the makeup off of her face because she didn't deal she should go out with makeup on. is that accurate? and if so, it obviously is disturbing to modern mind to hear that. is that a true anecdote? >> i'm sorry i didn't understand. >> i read an anecdote at one

point i think in russia his wife had dressed up and put makeup on and he was very much -- supposedly washed the makeup from her face and insisted -- >> i just couldn't air to go on with that. i don't know whether that was true you know, because she dramatized so much. [inaudible] [laughter] so i don't know how true that was. but she feels very deprived. it was a bachelor's wife who is suggesting that she put the roush on. >> you feel that he bore a brooch for some years with her father -- her biography says the father was about to go bankrupt -- >> that she suffered all her

life. two years before she died, that was the motif of her life that she may have married into a family that was with maurice steedman that she didn't deserve this family for that a thought that he had been trapped into the marriage. there are kinds of suggestions about that and he suffered and loved her father dearly and could never face that. so you find that rings true forever. >> great, thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you good thank you so much.

>> when people think of the military in the american west they think naturally a finding indians. and there is good reason because there are 1100 combat actions between the army and american indians during this period. so there's frequent combat. but there's other things that many people don't really understand. michael once called at the multipurpose army. in the 19th century, the federal government very limited. they don't have many deployable resources. and so the army does a whole variety of things. they are discoverers speared

destroyers, army contracts are an important part of the western economy. the army plays a role in conservation and the recent ken burns series on the development of american national parks it points out that the parks are established in an 18th century, but there was no one to protect them or preserve them. and so the army really because of the efforts of phil sheridan commanding general at the time the army steps in and literally saved the national park until another organization can be created. for better or worse, the army and the west is much more than five indians. the american people have historically had antipathy of fear of the regular army. from a english traditions really in revolutionary war traditions we fear a standing army is antithetical to literary.

it is hard for modern observers to realize because now the military is one of the most trusted institutions in the united states but that wasn't the case in an 18th century. and so the army even if later than a team 70s the army is about 25000 men and has a lot of jobs to do. the army would argue we are too spread out. the army would argue -- the army would've argued at the time that they don't have nearly enough men to do the things they are supposed to do as effectively and efficiently as they could have. but the american people again didn't see it that way. although they certainly welcome the army's presence. the army is often placed in the middle of two competing interests. for example, the army often sees itself as being in the middle of american indians and non-indians who want to take that indian land. but it goes beyond just indian

non-indian issue. for example, in the 1880s, and wyoming to fall places, there's some riot where local workers are opposed to the introduction of chinese immigrants who are coming to do various tasks. the army gets called in to restore order and there's this wonderful scene in the book where you have the chinese consult from san francisco, the chinese council from new york a translator and two army officers meeting in rock springs wyoming, trying to protect the chinese immigrants, trying to restore order. and so, the armies placed in all sorts of difficult balancing act. sometimes it does pretty well. sometimes it humbles the job unfortunately. over 200 indian men, women and children are slaughtered.

now there were about 30 army soldiers killed as well. it's one of those tragedies that didn't need to happen and just a horrible example of things gone wrong and the slaughter of hundreds of noncombatants. i guess i would argue that although the last major indian conflict ends in 1890 that the army continued to see the west of fundamental importance to its mission really until the spanish-american war that we know what the event of hindsight that there are no major conflicts of indians after 1890. but army officers at the time were talking about the possibility of those conflicts is that the army is heavily involved in the west really up until the spanish-american war come no one ironically quickly finds itself in a somewhat analogous position in the philippines that here again they are called upon to try to not

only conquer an area but to try to provide law and order some sense of order and stability. so in many ways, the experience in the philippines is very similar to what many of them had undergone in the west. in many cases this love-hate relationship that westerners have with the federal government is reflected in their dealings with the army. this is nothing new. we still have it today. i happened to be in washington d.c. at the beginnings of the modern-day tea party with it and it was fascinating to me. this is not a policy issue. it's fascinating as an observer to watch the tea party airs go on the metro, the washington metro system, which of course is funded largely by federal dollars that i thought it was ironic that tea party airs are

going to their demonstrations opposing the federal government on this creation of the federal government. they didn't see an irony in that. westerners kind of take the same attitude that on the one hand in theory they dislike the government. they don't want the government. but when they want the government help, they are more than happy to accept it. and so typically westerners are more supportive of the army in congress than non-westerners in an 18th century. you can see clear patterns are western congressmen traditionally opposed to the federal government over bigger army appropriations in part because they want those soldiers there helping them conquer a continent. many of those connections to

historians of the 19th century, we find it interesting that the army has traditionally not try to incorporate that the army has attempted to focus on conventional warfare. and that is understandable. conventional warfare is in many ways a potentially bigger danger to american security. it is in many ways these years that there is an enemy and you know who the enemy is. there's not a lot of fooling around with it. but it is interesting that at least until the 2000 and so we got involved in iraq and afghanistan, that the army's interest was on conventional fares and that runs counter to the history of the american army, which traditionally has handled all sorts of nonconventional operations in the mid-2000 right as we were

getting involved in iraq, the army conducted a big study brought a bunch of historians together and we were supposed to give papers on the armies rolls in this nonconventional affairs. the interesting thing to west was well this is the history of the army. under current top trend that has changed. the current doctrine underwent major changes under david petraeus come with much greater focus on what they called asymmetric warfare. that would argue this is themed. the commissions they find the individual issues are different the basic conditions are pretty similar, that you are trying to restore order in a very complex world, often with very few resources. >> or more information on the recent visit to corpus chri