Skip to main content

tv   Book TV  CSPAN  January 20, 2020 7:15am-8:01am EST

7:15 am
7:16 am
he is the author of the british are coming. the war for america. i will stop there and move on to brenda wineapple who is the author of several books as you know including the ascetic nation, confidence crisis in compromise, 1848 to 1877 which was named the best book the 2013 by the new york times.
7:17 am
in the sight of american historians. regular contributor to regular publications since the new york times in the book review. the extensive research has a. in american history when our country was rocked by the first ever impeachment of an american president. please welcome rick atkinson and brenda wineapple. >> thank you very much thank you for inviting me to be with you in miami. i know we want to get onto impeachment. >> the last time i was in miami to talk to a book.
7:18 am
i just finished the guns of last light. and even then in 2013 in that project took me 15 years i was wondering what to do next. it would've been the pick -- pivot of the perspective. i have the heart for it. it would have required to start world war ii all over again even earlier in because i cannot shake a personal fascination that i have with an earlier century since i have as a kid. i completed the first volume of what i hope would be another trilogy. there is an extended prolonged in june of 1773 when king george the third traveled on the southern coast of england for a four-day review of the royal navy.
7:19 am
it is a proud display of military muscle precisely ten years after britain's great triumph in the seven years war. in the creation of the first british empire with the victory over the french in the spanish. 1773 as they gear that the phrase that the sun never sets on the british empire was coined. and then the volume ends with the two battles at trenton. together they revived american hopes it became all but extinguished at that point. let me suggest that there is a lot to dislike about the founding fathers in the war that they waged for american independence. all men are created equal it did not apply to 500,000 black slaves. all citizens and all residents of the 13 colonies when their fine words were penned in 1776
7:20 am
or was it valid for native americans or women. for the eight year duration of the american revolution those who remain loyal to the british crown and even stragglers who were uncertain of the wisdom. they were subjected to dreadful treatment public shaming disenfranchisement. and sometimes execution. partisan belligerence. metastasize in the civil war. i would've hanged my own brother had he taken part with our enemies in a contest. in the defense of a wage war. for liberty and to secure basic rights of the american promptly invaded canada in an attempt to win. what cannot be one. this is the first but hardly the last american invasion of another land under the pretext of veteran life.
7:21 am
>> the enduring image of a farmer leaving has plow to grab his musket and go on and defend liberty is mostly mythical. george washington's army was rarely larger than 20,000 men. this is in a country of two and half million people. especially after the initial enthusiasm that were routed at lexington. they faded in 1775 relatively few american men volunteered for this military time. and too often badly led continental army. in yet, who would deny that the creation story remains
7:22 am
valid, vivid and often thrilling. even in 2019 at a moment when national unity is elusive when our partisan rank seems ever more toxic. the story informs who we are where we came from and what our forebears believed in perhaps the most profound question what they were willing to die for. indeed at least 25,000 americans died for the cause possibly many more. it's a larger proportion of our population in any of our wars other than the civil war. so what can we learn from that ancient coral. first, this nation was born bickering it is in the national genome. second that there are foundational truths that not only are indeed true but are self-evident. third leaders were there -- worthy of our admiration rises to the equation with grit and wisdom and grace.
7:23 am
what ever trials in the set the set as today we have overcome greater perils before that should be a great comfort to us. we are the beneficiaries of a enlightened political heritage handed down from that revolutionary generation after many subsequent trials. it included structures on how to divide power and how to keep it from accumulating in the hands of those who think primarily of themselves. we cannot let that heritage slipper way. we cannot allow it to be taken away. we cannot be oblivious to this gift or the hundreds of thousands who have given their lives over the past 240 years to affirm and sustain. the american revolution was not a war between the dynasties. that work fought for commercial.
7:24 am
they have gradually become sundered by divergent values and conflicting visions of what the world could be. certainly the rebels could be wrongheaded in believing for example that they have greater economic leverage over the other countries than actually possess. or in character cheating george the third. was more complex and admirable than the overbearing many who still dominates our imaginations. and even tonight will be missing across the state somewhere in hamilton. george and his ministers made three critical miscalculations. most cal columnists remained loyal to the crowd. capable of arousing it.
7:25 am
it would intimidate the and structure us. and failure to restore the authority in america would what eventually and stitch the newly creative british empire. encouraging things in canada. india, it's an 18th century version of the domino domino theory that would propel us into vietnam hundred 50 years later. britain also underestimated the difficulty of waging a war across the 3,000 miles of open ocean. for eight years this turned out. they were unable together food from the american countryside without being ambushed have to rely on provision shipped almost always entirely from english and irish ports. but the vessel transported in
7:26 am
the winter of 1775 and 76 only eight of those 40 ships actually reached the forces in boston. the west were blown by gaels. or they were intercepted by rebels. when the british moved in made new york a year later in the summer of 1776 and ask for 950 horses to be shipped to them so they could move their artillery carriages and so they could go anywhere of those 950 horses that were sent from britain 412 died in the process. this was like the british for years. even when the american rebels were fighting in the logistical difficulties i will give you one example. without salt armies and navies could not cure the beef and fish and pork that they needed to carry with them so that they could move anywhere.
7:27 am
more than 100 pounds were needed to cure a thousand pounds of pork before the war americans imported 15 bushels of the stuff. when the shooting started the british trade embargo shingled two thirds of that supply to encourage saltworks along the coast. all of the old women and children are going down to the jersey shore to make salt. 400 gallons of seawater are needed to boil off a single bushel and supply of firewood. virginia spent more than 6,000 pounds to build evaporation ponds. in the end they collected only 50 bushels. it's probably the most expensive salt in the history of salt.
7:28 am
>> let me talk for a minute about george our last king. he is an intriguing adversary. queen elizabeth ii only recently opened up to outside scrutiny. it was part of a project that catalyzed the papers. they became king in 18th and 19h century most of them previously unpublished. most of them from the reign of george the third. they were allowed into take a look. every morning i would shut my badge again at the norman gate. in 21 wooden stairs to the gear of garrett of the round tower. there is the paper. georgia was his own secretary late in life. most of the correspondence was made himself. as you paul through these pages a great list maker.
7:29 am
from 1764 to 1765. a royal navy vessel under construction. of all the regiments with the number of officers in musicians. for each tabulated with the scratchings in the margin. they copied out their own recipes for cough syrup. i will get you some. rosemary writes vinegar brown sugar all boiled and silver. quick silver. it was the obscure princess. charlottesville virginia. she learned to say god save the king. they married six hours after they met.
7:30 am
he have the marriage bedroom decorated with 700 yards of large basins of goldfish. because nothing like you having a bowl of goldfish. they have the union approved fertile she produced children with lunar regularity. they see the personal care responded. he has been invested with his kids. he is easy enough to dislike. the war he chooses to wage and he chooses to wait it because he is the hardest of the hardliners in london is brutal, bloodied and often savage unlike modern more killing in war killing an 18th century is usually intimate
7:31 am
at close range often with the unit. this 18th century musket was mostly inaccurate. and almost hopeless beyond a hundred yards. in the fight at lexington that they conquered on april 191975. the rebels fired at least 75,000 rounds but only one in every 300 bel ballots actually hit a red coat. the shots around the world were probably missed. >> those are some of the nuts and bolts of the 18th century. what are the emotional guts of the revolution. that is what still moves us. they admire the americans for their endurance. for their sacrifice not only displayed by men serving in
7:32 am
the ranks but by others caught up in the fraught events of those times. they haven't seen the husband in months when she wrote to him and bring him home as soon as possible. a visit from you anytime would be agreeable. meanwhile she would harvest the corn sell their oxygen for enough cash. your loving life until dead. one of the worst operational surveys of the war. 3,000 soldiers exposed. on the upper west side of manhattan. we are in the space of eight hours.
7:33 am
greene picks himself up and takes a deep breath. he writes to his wife the virtue of the americans is put to a test, i am hearty and while i missed all of the hardships. be of good courage. don't be distressed. all things will turn out for the best. be of good courage. he is speaking to us. to you, and he is certainly speaking to me. the central figures in our creation story. have been involved in reverence. worthy of our perpetual scrutiny. often of emulation washington is a case in point. he owned more than 300 slaves when he died in mount vernon. you cannot square that circle morally. they demonstrated the shortcomings. the man who could never tell a lie sure could prevaricate.
7:34 am
washington's carving about the troops into his officers and lot in life. i distrust everything. he here at the in 1776. great responsibility in large as him. he rightly embodies the sacrifice of personal interest to a greater good as well as other republican virtues. incorrupt ability. for every citizen today. they are delete demanding that in the leaders. at all levels. >> the story considered at the american civil war a redemptive tragedy truly the same of the american revolution.
7:35 am
it embodies the enduring aspirations. it brought forth a nation of bounding with a sense of destiny. the cause of all mankind. even though the war offers clues international temperament. it remains a bright mirror in which we see traits that fashioned the american character. we have come far in almost two and half centuries in power. in some respects those ancestors remain near the me know. their struggle turned up issues. the proper limits on executive power. the obligation of citizenship
7:36 am
and the elusive quest for a more equitable society. the primal question persists in 2019. who do we want to be. democracy is never a thing done the poet and library of congress told us even jefferson declaration our foundation secular scripture it's something a nation must be doing. they did not give men and women the equality. invited them not to know their place but to keep it. the american revolution lasted 3,089 days and the result was ethical and enduring the creation of the american republic among mankind and the
7:37 am
most remarkable achievements. nearly 90,000 more days have elapsed since those horse flies swatting men sitting in philadelphia asserted a human birth right of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. keep in faith that those who fought suffered and died for the principles we profess. more than a nodding acquaintance. for better and worse. their story is our story their fight remains our fight. thank you so much. [applause]. >> what a pleasure to be here and to be here with rick
7:38 am
atkinson and what a pleasure to talk about yet another war. but this when i'm in a talk about the aftermath of the war. i will talk about the impeachment of andrew johnson which seems to be in one sense for getting andrew johnson. but a timely topic. in fact, a friend of mine recently called me a witch for having the start of this book in features six years ago when we were deep in the obama administration and an impeachment was on very few mines. the interesting question behind what i'm going to talk to you about today is why i began investigating the impeachment of andrew johnson and why i started it all. and in some sense one of the things i think i will skip to the end. rick said, the impeachment
7:39 am
suggested to me when i came to understand it a sense of enduring aspirations of a particular country. in especially since it happened in the aftermath of a very brutal war a tragic war in many senses. but what was peculiar to me was that there were so few books written about the impeachment of andrew johnson and if anyone knew anything about that it happened very close on the heels of the war. all they knew at the time was that that trial had been referred to in a 1956 book by john f. kennedy called profiles in courage. and in that particular book.
7:40 am
a republican is a different party than it is today. they stood against the party and cast the deciding vote to acquit andrew johnson of impeachment. and for kennedy this was a profile in courage because this particular man lost the history was a senator from kansas who voted and cast the deciding vote. it seemed very odd to me and what also seemed odd to me is that kennedy then wrote that the actual cause for which the president was impeached and then tried was not fundamental to the nation. it seemed to me impossible that an impeachment that
7:41 am
occurred not only right after the civil war but after the first ever presidential assassination. that that cannot be that was not essential to the welfare of the nation. in this particular context really, what the book also said and the reason johnson was impeached was because there were some fanatics called radicals who really wanted to victimize the president and victimize the south. this particular point of view as i came to understand that actually was born partly from dw griffith movie the birth of a nation where the leader of the opposition to andrew johnson a man named thaddeus
7:42 am
stevens was cast at the scene. he was bent on destroying the south. it was thought to be assigned of the devil. if you think of the context as i said on the aftermath of war i think you have to reconsider what might have happened because the andrew johnson and the entire country faced in 1865 serious questions about the direction the country would take. and in particular what terms with the 11 seceded states of the former confederacy would be allowed to reenter the union. in other and other words should the state that had waged war against the union be welcomed back into the house and the senate as if they have never seceded. what were the terms of reentry. the congress gets to decide
7:43 am
the qualifications of its own members. enter johnson when he came to be president after the assassination refused to call a special session of congress to decide these matters and decided to in fact establish southern state governments pretty much sink it -- single-handedly and furthermore he argued that since the constitution for the secession the union had never been dissolved. that is like saying because murder is against the law lincoln was never assassinated. but to johnson's way of thinking. they should resume their place in the federal government. former rights and privileges ignored as soon as they were deemed loyal. they have to renounce the session. they would swear allegiance to
7:44 am
the federal government. but that leaves a very important question that no one seem to be thinking about. what about the 4 million black men and women recently free who have been deprived during their life. what about their civil rights. shouldn't they be controlling the education. the representation in government. weren't they citizens enter johnson answer the question he was told to say this is a country for white men and as long as i am president it shall be a government for white men. it is really astonishing when he said that in 1865 it was as
7:45 am
astonishing as it is today. once johnson then got into the white house he not only started to reestablish southern state governments based on white supremacy but, by executive order he started pardoning confederates at the rate of about 100 per day and he vetoed what congress passed the civil rights bill which restored the legal and property right legal rights to black citizens. and gave them citizenship. instead what johnson did was restored the property rights of the confederate and authorized their return to government post. why they then used this handoff policy to can docked a new form of state rights.
7:46 am
they began passing black codes against those. from owning property, traveling freeway and making contracts in and join any form of civil rights or due process. they elected so many former confederates to high office that for example the louisiana state legislature was called the rebel love is legislature. they were organized in a state militia and knew more. for a brutal example. they made up two thirds of the 550 man force. in the summer of 1866 within hours after a congressional congressional constitutional congress was organized in new orleans black men were executed pointblank by the confederate police force while they kneeled and prayed for their lives. and their corpses were kicked
7:47 am
in. he concluded that reconstruction in louisiana was a continuation of the civil war. and that was in 1866. johnson had not been in office very long. he was touring the south to rally support for his self. into rally support gets the passage with the radical nest of the 14th amendment. they had hammered together to enshrine civil rights legislation into the constitution. during the trip. the swing around the circle he went on a tear yelling that the congressman who disagreed with him should be hanged or executed. he was so mortified. it was locked in a baggage
7:48 am
closet. but the decision to impeach injured johnson did andrew johnson did not come easily or quickly by his abuse of power by his denial of the legitimacy of congress. it's the 11 confederate states were not seated then congress could not pass any laws. they were so disgusted by this that they called for johnson's impeachment as i said in 1867. the matter went to the judiciary committee. we are kinda used to that. to buy time. it was launched with a long investigation that basically went nowhere. and part of the reason was that at the time then like now
7:49 am
no one knew what the impeachment of the president of the united states would look like or what were the sufficient grounds legal or otherwise that were necessary. a conviction we now requires the person being removed from office but as for further punishment we don't even know what the convicted person may or may not be prosecuted by law. originally, the crime warranting impeachment was mount administration but james madison had objected the term was too hazy. all we know that his high crimes and misdemeanors treason or bribery they are the grounds for impeachment and impeachment takes a majority vote in the house. but, the question still remains does the president had to commit to illegal acts to be impeached, should a man in a position of power be held accountable for his actions? should deplorable bigoted or reckless acts be considered
7:50 am
impeachable particularly if they are in other branches of government. in federalist 65. federal 65. as you probably know by now. alexander handled -- alexander hamilton set a high crime is an abuse of authority. from some public trust. impeachment is therefore a national and crossed into the context of public men. with the violations of law or infractions against that murky thing. andrew johnson was impeached in 1868 because he actually violated the law. congress have sought for a long time to thwart his violent supremacist policies
7:51 am
with legislation that overall have been moderate its civil rights moderation. have not confirmed political right. it was passed in order to enshrine those rights. and whose ratification as johnson had tried to stop. they then passed three reconstruction acts. to bring him further in and to create with what they considered to be a new fair and enlightening country. they wanted to actually confer voting rights on black men and forget women they don't come until the 20th century but johnson said conferring these rights would weaken, degrade and finally destroy the government. but, allowing white
7:52 am
southerners to rejoin the union quickly while at the same time denying black men the vote seemed to many republicans black and white of re- planting the seeds of rebellion within the next quarter of a century he said well germinate and produce the same bloodied stripe which has just ended. in other words we need to pass legislation to make sure that there is equal representation in the country. it also passed a tenure of office act. it presumed to protect the secretary of war who is protecting the military who is protecting black men in white republicans at the polls. that is what johnson did. he violated that particular
7:53 am
law. he broke the law no longer to the house do they have a choice. it was voted overwhelmingly to undertake extraordinary steps. the first ever impeachment of the president. johnson was tried in the senate and as i mentioned acquitted by only one vote. no impeachment was not a mistake in incident in american history it really did have to do with the direction the country was going to take. and in fact the tenure of office act violation was not really why johnson was impeached beyond it was the recognition even by those who have been reluctant that impeachment was absolutely crucial to the nation to its welfare, to its future, a future envisioned by those who understood the time has come it was long overdue to create a free and fair country this,
7:54 am
impeachment was one of the last great battles with slavery and the national government might actually and soon free itself from all vestiges of human oppression that was the reason for impeachment it was and is fundamental to the nation which in a certain ironic sense helps explain why we learned so little about it. that impeachment then and the reason for it seem good enough to me. thank you. [applause]. i think there is time for questions. we had time for two questions at this time. please approach the mic. thank you. the obvious question please
7:55 am
comment on our present situation should there be a conviction? >> we are assuming the house will do that. >> mister atkinson i first heard about you for my twin sent who decided after the towers were struck on september 11 that they wanted to go to west point and serve their country they read many of the books to prepare for the experience they found out of service in grad school. thank you for that. their mom has been reading some of your books. adding to west point.
7:56 am
i enjoyed the book very much. my first conclusion was that countries go to war still mostly for economic reasons as opposed to philosophical or political reasons in the other was one of the reasons i think george washington had so much trouble in the new york area in those battles because we have a navy. he couldn't move troops quickly. it wasn't only until the french came in that i blockaded the siege of yorktown that we were actually able to win that war. and by the way, my nephews who are in middle school are still impressed about my knowledge of it. they think i'm brilliant.
7:57 am
>> the second question first. of course we have no navy. we try to build a small continental navy. most of them never got into the fight. it was not only the greatest navy of the 18th century it was the greatest navy ever until that point. it really constrains what americans could do in terms of fighting the campaign that was not land-based. and that would plague washington and everyone else involved in strategy. throughout the war and not until the french come into it with their big fleet. do we succeed. because of the allies that we have. britain had no allies. they have alienated all of the other european powers. something worth remembering that the only thing worse than fighting with allies was fighting without them.
7:58 am
next time we give a thumb in our eye to the closest friends there are lessons to be learned from this. the first point that you made country, and people go to work for all kinds of reasons. the economic is also a basis for it. they go to war because their feelings are hurt. they go to work because of minor incidents that don't seem like a legitimate cause of war. i've spent my entire working life studying work, why did -- writing about war. one of the few universal truths that i have learned about it is that it never goes the way you think it is going to go. it never goes the way you think it is going to go ever, and that is worth remembering
7:59 am
also. next time we decide were going to have adventures around the world. >> the civil war philosophical reasons. >> think you so much. let's give our authors a round of applause. rick atkinson and brenda wineapple thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. >> the book signing as we know is on the other side on the same floor on the other side of the elevator. thank you. [inaudible conversations]. here's a look at some of the events that book tv will be covering this week. pulitzer prize-winning journalist will talk about the wilmington riot and coup.
8:00 am
on wednesday we will be in new york city at the museum of jewish heritage for a talk by a holocaust survivor max ison. also on wednesday look for us at politics and prose bookstore in washington dc for sarah wagner's report on the continued searching for the bodies of the nearly 1600 american soldiers who were killed in action during the vietnam war. .. .. >> guest: i had a bill focused on 5g technology and the bill passed 413-3 and the premise of this bill is that we are facing significant challenges with the future 5g technology and the

56 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on