interesting you were talking about the move, the secular shift and when religion gets taken out what do we replace it with. if there is some necessary component in society that religion provides and once you get rid of religion it has to be replaced with something. how would you answer someone who suggested we replaced it with some sort of secular humanism where we as individuals hold the answers and can look nowhere to ours. >> that's the right response. and that is a response that russo and the romantics would love. i don't think it works. i mean, i don't think there is sufficient discipline in that substitute for to the truly

substitute for religion in our society. but that's the logical questions to ask. and i thought about that for a long time before i even posed to myself the question. what's wrong with this. what's wrong with this it's a big part of our tradition lifted and thrown owe veer board. what's the substitute. i can't find a substitute in my own mind that is a substitute. >> i think all too often today we hear about religion and its characterized, it's superstition, it's bigoted. but we're not talking, we're not having the discussion on you know, beneficial elements that it contains. >> we're not having a discussion what it means for our society. we're having a discussion between denominations and yes, you are exactly right.

and i think the latter is the discussion that we need to have particularly with the secularist is okay, you don't believe, i get. i understand it. i'm not going to try to convince you other wise but you can't take religion out of the equation and have the same thing. is that what you really want? they are going to say to me, you're wrong. that's not what religion is. which is why i said to you that they can be agnostic if they want but they can't not say that religion was not a huge and important building block, foundation, to our society. just can't say that. >> final words. >> i had most of the words of the day. you may sum up, sir. >> it would be impossible to sum up. there was so much pearl.

just a couple of takeaways. property rights are inflexible. and i think you would find that from all of our readings. >> definitely burke. >> payne as well and going back to blackstone. and our entire american legal tradition is an outgrowth of the english and based on blackstone as well going back even before. first to write it down and codify it and make sense out of it. >> he went back to -- >> yeah. >> william the first. and lastly, legal and political rights have to be recognized in tradition and that they are an outgrowth of the inherit rights given by god and discoverable through nature. i thank you so much for being here, i thank our guests for coming.

>> 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 and different topics and eras at the american history. to keep up with m earn history tv during the week or to send us questions and comments follow us on twitter. twitter.com/cspan history. >> each week american history tv's american artifacts takes viewers behind the scenes. earlier this year historian richard norton smith led a bus tour from asheville, north carolina to texas. one of the stops was the james k. polk ancestral home. the only surviving home except the white house in which the 11th president lived.

before serving as president polk served as speaker of the house of representatives and as governor of tennessee. he was president from 1845 to 1849, and died of cholera three months after leaving the presidency. john holtzzapple led this tour. >> come on in. we can open this other door. come on in. i think we can fit. i'll go ahead and get started. i know i was trying to introduce myself to all of you when you were getting here, if i missed any of you i'm john holtzzaple, director of the james polk home. the home was built by president polk's father samuel in 1816. i think one of the first brick residences in what was a frontier town of 300 people. it's kind of odd talking about tennessee as the west but it was

in the early 1800s. when this house was built columbia had dirt roads. someone else coming in? come right on in, ma'am. okay. there were dirt roads outside, there's a hog wallow in the center of town. just the fact you had a two-story brick house made at showplace. james polk was in college, university of north carolina. couple years later he graduated, came back to become a lawyer but wasn't ready. so moved in with mom and dad and brothers and sisters and live here on and off for about six years until he got married. in polk's life he lived in many house, born in north carolina, had other houses in tennessee, lived in several boarding houses in washington, d.c. but other than the white house this is the only one still standing. this is almost more of a poke museum that we gathered belongings and brought them all

together. we have furnishings from his years and the home in nashville where he retired and died which has been torn down. before we get into parlor, the president's father was a land surveyor and land speculator. it was the dealings with land that enabled him to build this brick house and send his son to college. early in his life james k. polk thought of land with opportunity and with prosperity and that would be a big theme. let's come into the parlor. the furnishings are mainly things from the white house years and from that home in nashville where the president retired and died. one of you pointed out the portraits behind you and asked are they both james k. polk, they are. george peter alexander who

painted a lot of the early 19th century presidents. i think as far as u.s. grant he painted. the one to the left was painted near the end of polk's first year in office. he was 49 when he was elected. the first man younger than 50 to become president. he is 50 in that portrait. he only painted the other portrait showing him less than three years later. look how the job has taken its toll. polk described it as labor and responsibility and it shows. a serious man i guess we'd say now a work-aholic. he did keep a diary during his white house years that does show some interesting insight into his character. he references the portrait to the left and complains that it took six sittings. polk said he would never again have his portrait painted.

we're assuming the other ones occurred during recesses. another insight into polk and his work, we have a description that after one white house dinner he and his company were entertained by a juggler. and in the diary he wrote that most of the people in the audience enjoy the performance, but he didn't find it very edifying. he called it time unprofitably spent. sarah's portrait to the left there, a companion painting of that younger image of polk. he was 28, she was 20 when they married. she's 42 years old in the portrait. gracious, elegant, also ahead of her time with her conspicuous political interests.

as first lady any involvement was behind the scenes but folks in washington knew she was interested in politics and was adept and knowledgeable about politics, too. james k. polk didn't have many close friends. but sarah very much a sounding board, she would be one during the white house ears, i guess now we'll say reach across the political aisle to james k. polk was a democrat but there are complimentary things by sarah by john quincy adams and henry clay who didn't get along well with her husband. she was a gracious, elegant first lady. mr. smith had mentioned the sumptuous furnishings. sarah surprised folks that this wife of a democrat would have an interest in fashion and fine european imports.

french gowns and elegant gown. one of you commented on her size, 5'2", very petite, wore a size 3 shoe, obviously a small waist. but it's sarah's sense of style reflected in the furnishings. the french vases, chandeliers. i mentioned this table, a gift right at the end of his presidency, from a friend, a diplomat in after friday california the egyptian marble with eagle and 30 stars for 30 states. if you look, and a list of when states come into the union you'll notice texas, iowa and wisconsin. florida came in the day before he became president but polk added territory in the west that would become states.

now most of present day new mexico, western colorado and all of utah, yef, washington. all of that came into the country. united states truly became a continental nation for the first time during his presidency. >> we focus on james k. polk as president but he had a full career, he was a practicing attorney, he was a tennessee state legislature. seven-term u.s. congressman, final two perms as speaker of the house. only speaker to become president. these were painted while he was a congressman and by an artist whose name you might have heard yesterday. it was a raffle e.w. earl. you're familiar with american, this was a new england painter, this is his son, who married andrew i think one of jackson's

pieces and became part of andrew jackson's inner circle and went to washington and came back with jackson. in fact, earl was buried on the grounds. it would behoove a young congressman to have your portrait painted. and james did just that. and earl painted the pictures of jane and sarah. jane knox polk. his middle name was another family name. she was a descendant of the brother of the scottish reformer john knox. that serious tradition here, actually a family of devout women, less devout men. the mother sort of set the tone here. difficult times for her that she lived into her 70s. but outlived her husband and seven of her ten children including games. live to see her son become president, here in house after

leaving the white house and coming back to tennessee. she's one of only three president's mothers to outlive their president sons. the others were mothers whose sons were assassinated. president kennedy's and president garfield's mother were alive. jane polk the only to see her son finish as full term president. you notice the high ceilings, high windows, good cross ventilation. this house built in terms of hot, muggy tennessee summers. hope for a good breeze. kitchen a separate building you'll get to see later. we can go upstairs. when james k. polk lived here with all of these up stairs rooms were bedrooms. we had surviving furnishings. we -- she lived 42 more years, to be 87, a proper victorian

widow. she was in mourning the whole time. shows her 30 years after james dies. for me and most it look like she's back from the funeral with the veil behind her head. still an elegant lady. we have fashion items. the cape, all white but all appropriate for a widow. she really spent a lot of her widowed years trying to preserve her husband's legacy, already worried that he was being a forgotten president. and certainly after the civil war that was a real concern for her. she did save all of his belongings. made a conscious effort to do

that and it's become a treasure trove. most of polk's papers are at the library of congress. this is before the presidential library but we have the largest connection here. thanks to sarah polk and her great-great niece the founder of the james k. polk memorial, the group that operates this side. we can head down the hall into the officer's study. just ask a question here about the painted window shade. an old inventory of the popes' belongs, this a painted shade. a local artist painted an oregon city. sort to have is a load polk. they were in style but weren't durable. you can imagine hanging in sun they would fade and get brittle. and it wouldn't last very long. we cheated a little bit with some museum tricks here. we have ultraviolet filters,

this has lasts over 20 years. a local artist painted that for us. the upstairs rooms were bedroom but we had furniture from james polk's law office. no longer standing. but just to show you some of the furnishings, the day bed he had with him in the white house, the writing chair, the secretary, the book case from the law office. many of the books too. a jackson biography have been rebound but the books are original. as was the book case. downstairs i mentioned the father was a land surveyor and what a lucrative job that was. there was a down side of being a surveyor that the father was often dragged into court over boundary disputes so he was thrilled that his rather sickly

son james had become a lawyer. the father has a law office built for him, bought james law books and a lot of the furniture. and like the book case. very first week on the job, jane james k. polk had a chance to reward his father. his father was arrested for downtown fighting, listed as a fray. and james k. polk got him off the hook with a $1 fine plus court costs which i think is pretty good for one of his first bases there. to come ahead, careful, the door sills stick up. i know it gets confusing when i point out sarah's things in that she never lived in this house. the james k. polk was here up until his marriage. other than the white house there is no home standing. >> significance to the jewelry? >> actually belonged to sarah.

just we have only a few pieces here. we know from accounts she had a fondness for i guess what they call organic jewelry, it's stones, coral, things like that. not necessarily fine gems. costume jewelry never the less. portrait of sarah over the fireplace, less than a year she died. here she is as a new widow with 42 years ahead of her. i did mention the fact they are -- she was living in nashville in the 1860s during the civil war, that was a tricky situation for a native southerner living in the capitol city. on the other hand sarah's former first lady of the union, many ever her best friends in the federal government in washington, her brother-in-law,

the president's youngest brother was a unionist here in tennessee. then of course sarah very protective and his biggest legacy was extending the union to the pacific ocean. sarah remained in neutral, entertained politicians from both sides. and she sympathize with one side or the other she was smart enough to keep to the herself. after her death friends of hers, ansen and fanny nelson wrote a biography based on her own reminiscences called memorials of sarah childress polk. they speculate sarah did feel an emotional and sentimental attachment to the south but a sense of duty to the union. but then again she was recognized and respected by both sides.

>> how did she support herself? >> very good question. challenging times for her. she did have other family members who helped her out. in fact, during her widow years she sort of unofficially adopted a great niece whose mother died and the father of that girl was still living so he might have provided some financial support too. but sometime after president garfield's assassination in the early 1880s when congress was >> mrs. lincoln had lived a long time and the second had been quite young when she married and had a long widow hood and mrs. pope was another one. and sarah did receive some federal money, almost like a pension right near the end of her life. she was a widow from 1849 to

1891. it was in the 1980s she did receive some government support. i don't have a definite answer, but we speculate that other family members were helping her. she's too discrete to mention finances. >> she lived fairly well, probably not -- >> yeah, she was respected former first lady. she was given the first telephone in nashville. and the question always goes after that, well, who did she call? but it was apparently the first of several ones being installed, but the honor of being the very first one. unusual honor and not mechanical enough to explain how this worked. but somehow sitting in her parlor in nashville, a telegraph device, she was able to push a button that turned on all of the electric lights at a world's fair in cincinnati in 1888.

she got a telegraph message from cincinnati. these lights came on and how what a thrilling moment it was. so sarah as this long-living widowed first lady was -- did receive these gestures of respect. later presidents coming through nashville, paid courtesy calls to sarah polk at polk place at nashville home. okay? lest step out into the hallway. a portrait of folks from sarah's family. one of you had asked right here asked about this very unusual portrait over the stairway. the spanish conquerers of the s aztecs in mexico. during polk's presidency, the country was involved in a controversial war against mexico. when the united states annexed texas, we accepted the claim that the border was the rio grande.

the traditional border was not only more than 100 miles north but didn't extend as far west. the rio grand is six times longer than the oasis. if you trace it from the gulf of mexico and it sort of goes into central texas and north through what's new mexico and into colorado. the war ended with the u.s. army marching to mexico city, but following the same route that cortez had used 300 years earlier. apparently the army and american public was conscious of that. there was a best-selling book. the history of the spanish conquest of mexico. right inside the cover. had this image of cortez. the originals hanging in a hospital in mexico city. the general william worth who

sent polk a copy of this cortez painting to the white house. sarah polk actually had it in her parlor all 42 years of her widow hood. called to mind the expansion in the southwest. i should also mention the timing, the treaty ending the war signed in 1848. so really salt in mexico's wounds. and polk's address, he confirmed rumors about gold in california. about gold in california. there had been a lot of rumors hitting the east coast. he mentioned that they are true and that nuggets of gold had been sent to the u.s. state department. he gave validity to these

rumors. he died in 1849, the year the california gold rush was in full swing. polk would have been sort of irked at his successor, zachary taylor. tension between the two. taylor was a leading military commander along with winfield scott. both taylor and scott were whigs. polk seemed to be muttering he was making heroes out of two whigs that had run for president. polk didn't run for re-election. he didn't run against taylor but was a kind of uncomfortable carriage ride to taylor's inauguration. taylor said something to the effect to polk that maybe it is good that california and oregon are territories. he doubted they would become state, because they are so far away. that irked polk and called taylor a well-meaning old man.

he thought that taylor lacked vision for the continental united states. sure enough, california would become a state thanks to the gold rush in 1850 a year after he died. >> was there speculation as to why he chose not to run? >> when he was nominated in 1844, it was a strange situation that he wasn't even running. the main democratic candidate leading up to the convention was mark van buren who had lost running for election from 1840 but was trying to regain the presidency again. he seemed to be main democratic candidate. shortly before the democratic convention in 1844, van buren stated his opposition to the needed annexation of texas. that opened the challenge to van buren. former military hero, louis cass challenged van buren at the

democratic convention. the rules of the convention said you needed two-thirds the delegate votes to win. he went ballot after ballot an neither cass nor van buren could get the nomination. the democrats were pretty much looking for a compromise candidate. polk had friends who were whispering his name as a possible vice presidential candidate. pope was a good friend of van buren and had been a van buren loyalist. he agreed with cass on texas annexation. maybe polk saw himself as an ideal vice president to help unite the party. here, when it looked like neither of the gentlemen were going to get the nomination, suddenly, polk was mentioned as a possible presidential nominee from the very beginning. he said he would serve just one term.

sure enough, in 1848, the democratic nominee was louis cass. mark van buren ran as a third-party candidate and neither of them won. >> thank you so much for including us in the tour. wonderful having you here. for more information visit the website at jameskpolk.com. for more information about american history tv, go to c-span.org/history. as congress continues its guarded by statesmen and generals on horseback, this bronze rendition of albert einstein stands out. perhaps because there's little of the monumental about this washington monument even if it does stand 12 feet and weigh 4 tons. robert burks whose distinctive style led some