so let's finish up for today. i'll see everybody on wednesday for the discussion of the richard john monogram. thank you for coming. >> this monday watch american history tv in prime time on c-span3 with a look at the 34th president, dwight david eisenhower. at 8:00 p.m. arc i tekt frank gehry, following that is the president's granddaughter susan eisenhower expressing opposition to the eisenhower memorial. at 10:30 p.m. an archival film about president eisenhower produced by the u.s. army. lectures in history airs each saturday at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern. and sundays at 1:00 p.m. we feature classroom lectures

from across the country on different topics and eras of american history. to keep up with american history tv during the week or send us questions and comments follow us on twitter. we're at twitter.com/cspanhistory. >> in may of 2011, historian richard norton smith led a 10-day bus tour from asheville, north carolina to austin, texas, the group stopped at several presidential and historic sites along the route. one of the stops was the andrew johnson homestead in greenville, tennessee. a site owned and operated by the national park service. johnson served as vice president under president lincoln. and succeeded him when lincoln was assassinated. here's park guide daniel luther portraying president johnson and telling the story how andrew johnson met abraham lincoln. >> in 1847, i went into the 30th congress for my third term representing the people of the first district, and while i was

there i met an extremely tall raw-boned young man representing the prairie state of illinois. and his name was abraham lincoln. and we fell into conversation and i introduced myself and told him that i was from northeast tennessee and he replied that he had relatives in northeast tennessee and perhaps i knew some of them. he identified his great uncle isaac as having owned a farm. at which his father thomas lincoln has something of a hired hand in the 1790s. and he also identified another great uncle, a gentleman named mortgage i kye, who lived in the town of greenville. to which i replied greenville is my hometown. and your great uncle mordecai performed the wedding ceremony for me and my wife in 1827. as well as mordecai and i served on the town council together in 1829, and i reassured mr. lincoln that he was in good hands in terms of politics that

his great uncle had gained a great many more votes than i had. but like many young men who came into congress at the time, we went in there with goals. and each of us had a cherished goal that we wanted to achieve in that congress. mine was the introduction of the homestead bill. for mr. lincoln, it was the introduction of legislation which would have provided for compensated emancipation of slaves in the district of columbia. and like other young men who go into congress we found out it's not so easy to get your cherished goals accomplished so we left that session of congress without those bills passed. i would serve two more terms. mr. lincoln, that would be his only term in the house of representatives. at the beginning of the fourth term i bought the house that you have just seen. but it is irony, those of us who lived through our late unhappy struggle, often felt that we were caught up in the hands of

fate. and as fate would have it, each of us, abraham lincoln and myself, were 15 years in the future able to help the other achieve that earlier cherished goal. for my part, abraham lincoln signeded the homestead bill into law in 1862. in 1864, i helped mr. lincoln gain at least one state into the column of abolition, emancipation, that is the state of tennessee that you're visiting today. you heard some of these words earlier, so i'm going to give you just a short excerpt. in october of 1864, word got out that i as military governor was about to issue a proclamation of emancipation for the slaves in tennessee. and this created a large gathering at the state capital and i stepped out to address them. and used some of the following words. colored people of nashville, you have all heard of the

president's proclamation by which he proclaims that a large portion of the slaves in the states still in rebellion have been declared henceforth and forever free. for reasons which seemed wise to the president, this proclamation did not apply to you. or to your native state. consequently, many of you were left in bondage, the fetters still galled your limbs. gradually this iniquity is going away but the time has come for the last vestiges to be removed, therefore i, without reference to the president or any other person, have a proclamation to make, and standing here on the steps of the capitol, with the past history of the state to witness, its present condition to guide, its future to encourage me, i andrew johnson, do hereby proclaim freedom, full broad and unconditional to every

man in tennessee. those were words some four months later we backed them up with action. the convention i called to re-create a loyal state government to the union, also enacted an amendment to the tennessee state constitution, ending forever slavery in this state, which became part of our constitution with a popular vote of the people on february 22, 1865. shortly after that i went back to washington to take the seat as vice president. the second highest office in the gift of a free people. five weeks later the war was over. and one of its final casualties our president. and with his death the burden he had borne for four years fell upon my shoulders. sorrowful times, discouraging times. yet as i spoke to the gathering of the cabinet that came to my

rooms at the kirkwood hotel the morning of april 15th, i told them that i had hope, i had hope that our government having enpresent trials would settle on policies more konsnant with the great principles of free government than it had heretofor. and i believed this nation would come together and would move forward and i had good strong reason for my hope. i had faith in the union. i had faith, abiding faith, in the constitution. and above all else, i had faith in the people. thank you for your kind attention. [ applause ] >> sir. >> there's a bit of a controversy among us, 150 years later, over you and the part you

played in the decision, inof th conspirators. in particular the decision, the unprecedented decision on the part of the federal government to execute a woman. could you tell us how that came about? >> yes, sir. i will tell you and i'm aware of the controversy, and i'm aware there are a number of different sides to it, that in my view, mrs. serat was guilty. i believed she was the person who kept the nest that hatched the egg. however t controversy arises over this. having been convicted by military tribunal and sentenced to death by that same tribunal, five of the nine judges on the tribunal recommended clemency for mrs. serat. that her death sentence be commuted to life in prison. i was unaware of that commutation recommendation. i was freshly into my office, i was allowing myself to be guided

by the cabinet and the other officers who had been present. and when judge advocate holt brought me the papers including the death warrant i signed emthis. two years later, 1867, this is when the secession sorry, the impeachment crisis was emerging, the newspapers began printing the awareness that a recommendation of clemency had been made. and that i had ignored it. and i sent to the war department requesting to see those documents. and when i did see them it appeared to me that the clemenc there, had been torn out and reattached. and i thought only two men could have done such a thing. one of them, joseph holt, judge advocate general who had been responsible for the trial but the other was his superior, edwin stanton. so, programs i will leave it this way. the next day after i saw those

documents from the war department, i sent a short note to secretary stanton which read, dear sir, public considerations of high character constrain me to inform you that your resignation as secretary of war will be accepted. may i tell you what he said in response? dear sir, public considerations of a high character constrain me to inform you that i will not resign the office until congress comes back into session. knowing at the time he believed that he was already protected by the tenure of office law. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. indeed. all right. >> for more information about the andrew johnson national historic site visit their website at nps.gov. and to learn more about tours with historian and author richard norton smith, go to

presidents and patriots.com. you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> all weekend long american history tv joins our comcast of central arkansas cable partners in little rock, to showcase its history and literary culture. founded in 1836, little rock has a population of about 200,000 people, and gets its name from a rock formation on the banks of the arkansas river. you're watching american history tv on c-span3. >> we're standing in one of our newest exhibits called a splendid little war. the spanish american war and arkansas. it's really one of the conflicts in our state and i think our nation's history that has been overlooked when you look at the military history of our country. we opened this exhibit a couple months ago and excited about the artifacts we have on display and

the chance to tell the visitors the role our state and the impact that this splendid conflict had on the development of our country and our state. while a lot of people overlook the importance of the war somehow we focus our attention on the civil war and then fast forward to world war i, and there are several conflicts during this period of time i think are very important and the spanish american war is one of them. for us it represented for us in the south, it represented the first major conflict post-civil war. and for southerners it was the chance for southerners and northerners to come together as americans, for the first time after the war, it was a chance for all of us to come together as a nation, as americans, to fight against a common enemy. it was also the chance for african-americans, many of them for the first time, to enter the military and to show that as former slaves or descendents they, too, could fight to defend

this country. so from that perspective if no other, the opportunity that it provided to unify northerners and southerners i think is very important for us to look at. as with any conflict there is not really a particular cause, there are several causes but you can go back to the way spain was treating its colonial empire. cuba in the late 1890s was about the last vestiges of spain's once vaunt eed colonial empire. cuba was a profitable colony with the sugar cane that was produced there. investment in cuba. because of the unrest in cuba from insurgents who had been striving for independence from spain for some time, america's economic interest in cuba were threatened so there was the sincere interest and desire by business people in our country to see stability in cuba.

there were also a lot of awe trosties to try to quell the rebellious factions, the insurgents, and so these factors all combined to provide i think what was the seed for the conflict. then you can't really underestimate the role of journalism. the yellow journalism as it's called. particularly the two newspapers controlled. they really drove a lot of the public's perception of the conflict. you have to remember back at that time most people got their current events from the newspapers. and so these two business newspaper owners, they really had a vested interest in fanning the flames of interest in going to war. and they really sensationalized a lot of the awe strosties reported to be committed. there was also a movement in this country led by

undersecretary of the navy theodore roosevelt to take our country to war. they really felt like america needed to exert its role in this region of the country since cuba was only 90 miles from our country, so there was combination of the atrocities committed by spain and cuba, the impacts of the yellow journalism, the impact of the jingowits trying to take our country into conflict and you have to remember at this time our country's president was president mckinley, who had actually served in the civil war. and he knew and he was reluctant to take our country to war. you have these youngsters as they were called like theodore roosevelt who were adamant to go to war. i think it showed the conflict between some of the old military minds and some of the new military minds, and it

ultimately led with the sinking of the maine, and the havana harbor as the catalyst that brought all of these forces together that ultimately led to us declaring war on spain. war is declared in april 1898, the peace was not signed until december but there were ten weeks of warfare. one of the interesting aspects is that its cause was the atrocities in cuba, and yet it spanned halfway around the world to the philippines, when the united states entered into the war we did not have any colonial possessions, yet after the war we picked up guam, puerto rico, the philippines, there were people who said we had designs on cuba. we did not, in fact, colonize cuba. they became an independent country. but another important i think aspect of the spanish american war is that it really thrust our

country onto the world stage as a colonial empire. arkansas' role was in a non-military manner if you will. we raised 2,000 troops. i'm standing in front of the beautiful restored regimental flag from the second arkansas u.s. volunteers. however, few arkansans actually fought in the conflict. mainly because the war only lasted ten weeks. our two regiments were sent to training camps in georgia and alabama, and as they were getting ready to go to fight in cuba, basically the fighting was over. we like other states were wanting to see the war happen. i think for arkansas, again as a former confederate state, on the losing side of the civil war, i think for arkansans it gave us an opportunity to prove our

loyalty again. the second regiment, i believe the statistic is that 94% of the men in this regiment were descendents of confederate soldiers, so for us it provided the opportunity to prove that we could be loyal americans again. i think for us that was important. as far as the actual fighting as i said, we didn't experience that fighting here. but the chance that it provided us to prove that we were supportive of america's interests and not just arkansas' interest, i think it was very important. >> all weekend long american history tv is featuring little rock, arkansas. learn more and find out where c-span's local content vehicles are going next online at c-span.org/local content. you're watching american history tv, all weekend every weekend,

on c-span3. >> so here we are at the marvel house, the summer home, the summer cottage of william and alva vanderbilt. it was built between 1889 and 1892. this was the first real mansion on bell view avenue in newport, rhode island. and it was built by richard morris hunt, the architect, the same architect who built the breakers several years later. he was the most prestigious well recognized well-respected architect really in the world. he had studied in paris, the first american to do so, and he was much sought after. this house was built really by alva vanderbilt with richard hunt. it was a 39th birthday president from her husband william, to her, and alva was a great frank

0 file. she lived in paris. right during the civil war. she came from mobile, and living in paris she became quite the francophile and well-informed about french art and architecture. she had a hand in what this building was going to look like and how it would be decorated. it is very much in the french style, designed to be a fak sim milly of this building. we will see that many of remembrances come floo play. we are in the gold room of the marble house. this is the room for entertaining. this is the ballroom if you will. everything is guilded. the most important part of this

room is the major restoration effort that the preservation society undertook to replace the upholstery on the fabric and the furniture and to replace these curtains. the interesting story about this fabric is that it was made in france with the same loom with the same design which was used to create the textiles. it is an extraordinary stroke of luck that we were able to use exactly the same weaving techniques to create what had been here in the 1890s when the room was first pulled together by alvary vanderbilt. the thing i think that is ex troer about these curtains is

the stonework along the edges, not real diamonds but look like diamonds. this is velvet on velvet, burned into place. beautiful. beautiful. very big effort on the part of the preservation society to undertake this restoration project. i'm telling you this because we are an organization that is designed to create an atmosphere that gives you the visitor a chance to understand what life was like in the 1890s in guilded age america but our joss also includes that of restoring our buildings, taking care of them, preserving them and then restoring the collections within the buildings. so we are trying to bring back all of the newport houses to their former glory so that

americans and visitors from around the world really get a sense of what this era of american history, a very important part of our country and its changes, what it was all about. we are in the gothic room of marble house and there are lots of interesting stories about this particular room. the first is that alva vanderbilt's daughter was consuelo and she went on, as she grew up to be engaged and married to the duke of marlboro. it is said that he proposed to her in this room. it was a dollar bride that she brought to the table so that the duke could use the money to

restore his property in england castle. in the same turn, consuelo gained a title and she and the duke of marlboro were married for a good long period of time about you in the end, their marriage was annulled, even after children. she did a very good job as the dutchess. however, it was never meant to be. consuelo vanderbilt desperately wanted to marry another young man, warren, rutherford. her mother, however wanted her daughter to be married into royalty. through a lot of makin nations, she made sure that the duke of marlboro and her daughter, consuelo, would be matched up. alva was a very interesting character. as i mentioned before, she grew up in the south during the civil war her family moved to france to get away from all of the warfare in the south.

so she grew up with sentiment for france and married william vanderbilt. he was one of the richest men in the world. she did very well for herself. she forces her daughter to mary the duke of marlboro and later, when the divorce proceedings were going forward. alva stepped forward and said i am responsible for the marriage of my daughter. please, judge, please, let this marriage come to an end. alva vander bill divorced william soon after finishes this house and went on to become one of the country's foremost

sufferests. she fought for women to vote. she would gather thousands of women together and there would be speeches and she spent a lot of her money on the cause. working with other women to get the right for women to vote. women got the right to vote in 1920. and we celebrated the 90th anniversary of that just last year. so very interesting characters. alva herself and consuelo. i mentioned before that alva was an experienced, thoughtful architect as well as collector. this particular room, she working with decorators was able to bring in hundreds of pieces of objects which for the preservation society were sold to john and mabel ringling. they were renaissance and gothic in nature. thus, the gothic room. the america's cup races are coming up. the trials next summer in

newport and in other sailing capitals around the work. very sad for newporters and actually the united states. the america's cup was lost in 1983 and the cup was handed from the american team to the australians right here. so next summer in june, the trials women come back to newport. it will be the first time in 20 plus jeers. we are very excited that newport will gain it's reputation for being the best sight in the world. one of the people who made that reputation occur was harold vanderbilt, having been a skipper of an american cup yacht, having won over the years. he is the son of alva and william k. vander birth.

this is consuelo's bedroom. here is this young woman who is crazy about another man, not the duke of marlboro. her mother has just what many believe has faked a heart attack. her mother's friend has said consuelo you need to do something to help get your mother back in good health. the only thing that is going to get her back into good health is agreeing to marry the duke of marlboro. her friends cannot get in to see her. there are all of her letters that she writes to friends outside are not getting delivered. her father is traveling, so she has no one to talk to. her brothers are too young to appreciate or understand what it is like to be forced into a

plarn marriage. so i think that this bedroom must have been a place where she did a lot of soul-searching and a lot of misery-keeping, if you will, trying to reconcile in her mind what her mother wanted for her and for the family and what she wanted. as we know from history, she agreed the duke of marlboro would be a good husband. so she went on to accept his marriage proposal but a very, very interesting life she led. part of it was lived out in this room. this was the site of all of those women's rallies that alva herself organized. can you imagine a dios here with thousands of women chanting votes for women and alva made it part of her custom to hand out pieces of china that had written on it votes for women.