john tyler zachary taylor and woodrow wilson speaker william rasmussen is the senior museum collections curator at the virginia museum of history and culture which hosted this event and provided the video then in an hour karen tumulty talks with c-span about her new biography the triumph of nancy reagan. good afternoon. i'm bill rasmussen senior museum collections curator at the virginia museum of history and culture and welcome to curators at work, which is a regular series where our curator share stories about working with our collections. it's it's part of this series as part of a vast library of online programs that we offer. under our virginia history and home initiatives if you if you're not aware of that you can go to our website and go to virginiahistory.org slash at home and then you can see all sorts of things that are

programs that are available to you and they're all free they include podcasts webinars virtual tours tours of and and hours of recorded lectures. and before we get started, we always like to thank our members because none of the work that we do would be possible without their support because remember we are we are not a state institution. we do not receive state operating support and so it's through private donations that we're able to preserve and share virginia's story and offer programs like this now if you have any questions or comments and i think this topic today may provoke some questions and comments you leave them in the comments bar and we'll do our best to discuss them as part of today's conversation. my subject is virginia and president. now that means i'm going to look at the eight.

virginia born presidents washington jefferson, madison monroe harrison, tyler taylor and wilson and look at some of their what they what they accomplish what they wanted to accomplish and show you some of the paraphernalia in our collection that dates back to their actual campaigns for office, but a part of that subject is a history of polarization. and presidential politics a subject that we know well today, but at big and it was extreme in 1790s and early 1800s. and and so all of a sudden that becomes very relevant today to look back and see what um what was going on then? when when we scheduled this this program, none of us ever dreamed? that the events of the past few weeks would happen. and because of them i've had to adjust my conclusion a little better.

i'm not as optimistic as i as i once was and i'm getting ahead of myself this all started because back in september. i was asked to write an article on virginia and presidential politics for our quarterly magazine. and here is the magazine that came out just before election and the story the story got the cover. even you see some of our objects. and that's the core of what i'm going to present to you today, but what i'm doing today is going to be better because i have an illustrated with paintings that were done at the period of the various presidency so you can see what they're what they actually looked like and get a better understanding of them. so i'm starting with this this quote by thomas jefferson, which really lays it on the lawn where he says nothing can be believed which is seen in a newspaper. nothing can now believe we've seen in the news very truth itself becomes suspicious being

put into that polluted vehicle. now i think today jefferson would include with the newspapers television particularly cable news broadcast and social media. now jefferson thought newspapers were essential as another famous quote he gave where he said that that you have to have newspapers to inform the public. there's nowhere. they're going to know what what's going on, but i i would rather have newspapers and no government than a government with no newspapers. so you've got to have them but they've got to be fair. they can't be partisan. so that's an early image of jefferson. i think i've got a blow up of him next we can see just as well here. it's a painting. it's the image of jefferson. did the john trumbull came up with when he was by 20 years younger than that quote. and and it's the image the tremble using this famous painting of the sounding the decoration of independence. so if you go to the next slide

in my colleague haley center is making this whole program. were oh, i'm sorry. i thought we had another one. that's fine. stay on this for a second soon after the revolutionary war on the creation of the united states american leaders realized that they differed in their visions of what the new nation should be southern agriculturalists like jefferson and madison envisioned rural settlements self-governed by responsible landowners nationalists like george washington now that we can go to the next image. that envisioned well, they learned while they're fighting the war that they have had to have a strong central government. or the new nation wasn't going to survive and then the third group was in the north there. of course, there are agriculturalists there too, but they're all so merges merchants and there were the beginning of industry. there were some industrialists and they all had a different

vision of what should happen. so that's the background behind the first two presidencies behind the presidencies to virginia presidencies. the presidency of jefferson. of washington and jefferson and those in washington was elected for two terms. he was united unanimously chosen by the electors. there are half dozen of them and the rest of them had less than half the number of votes that he had and the one that came in in second place is john adams. so he was the vice president. washington was the first and only president who didn't want to be president. he only did it because the nation desperately needed him. he was the only person that everybody trusted and respected and that was obvious. it's obvious why he had won the revolution against all odds and then he had relinquished his

military power, which amazed the european observers. so he was he became at that point. he was the most renowned and respected man in the western world, so he had nothing to gain from being president and accepted position because he was desperately needed and no one else could be was so admired and what you're looking at now, is this incredible button in our collection? this is part of the allen freight collection dr. alan frey is lives in our in our part of the state lives here in richmond, and he put together an extraordinary collection of hundreds of political objects, and and he's given this collection to us and this is probably the most outstanding one of my point of view because it's so it celebrates his election. you see his initials in the center long live the president and those of those letters circling it are that are the initials of the 13 colonies and this button is is was the

equivalent of today's t-shirt or hat at people where to say to show they supported a particular candidate or that candidate was victorious. well political problems soon emerged during even during washington's first presidency. the prospect of a mercantile and industrial america was antithesis of thomas jefferson. the next slide we'll go back to to jefferson. um, he envisioned an agrarian society free from evils of urban life. although when he was in paris as ambassador, he certainly enjoyed the evils of urban life, but he was against that in america. and then there were the this there were people in the north who were were appalled at the slave supported society of the south and those those were federalists. and so in if i go to the next slide and the next in in george

washington's cabinet. he had two arch enemies thomas jefferson as secretary of state and alexander hamilton is secretary of treasury. jefferson was an obvious choice for secretary of state because he spent time abroad in in france hamilton was the obvious choice for the treasury because he was an absolute genius in terms of finances and jefferson wrote later about himself and hamilton. we were daily pitted in the cabinet like two --. they were always fighting one another and and jefferson tended to lose them to the point of 1793. he just retreated and left assigned and went back to monticello the form an opposition party and they're different visions of the federalists and jefferson and the southern agrarians. they flooded the newspapers when the issue of the debt crisis came up.

the nation was horribly in debt. um after the revolutionary war because in order for it to continue the states had to borrow money and the central government had to borrow money and they were hardly in debt. and and so they the congress turned to the new secretary of the treasury alexander hamilton you're looking at here. this also is a is a john trumbull image of him a john trumbull painting. and they turned to him to solve the problem and the way you paid off the loans was you had to get more loans and how in the world do you do that? well, you have to be able to convince the lenders which would be european investors like the dutch and individuals in america you convince them that you know what you're doing and hamilton was able to do that the other thing you have to do is you have to pay off all your debts because if you don't have a record for paying off your debts, then who's gonna lend you money. so hamilton said that's have to be paid off the state debts and the national debt. they all have to be paid off and

they all have to be done on the national level. if you don't you have states competing with the national government to pay off the debts, and then he said in order to pull all this off. i need a national bank. and that was what? how madison and jefferson didn't like it all so that's a the painting of madison is a is a thomas sully copy of after gilbert stewart stewart. both of these are in in our collection. and so jefferson and madison just did not want to surrender the state dutch that the treasury department because they said that would enormously strengthen federal power and and when we can state authority and to agrarians a central bank threatened to threaten to further development of a mercantile economy, it would enhance the reach of the federal government that weaken the power of rural america.

and if we go to the next slide up, we'll go back to george washington make the point that. he opposed political parties. and jefferson perform the political party and political parties their purposes to either achieve power or retain power washington wanted nothing to do with that. he wanted the the new nation to succeed. well the passage of panelists policy spawned in opposition party and jefferson and madison, they called that party the republicans because it was a republic that had been founded modern historians refer to them as democrat republicans, which is very confusing, but they wanted to make the point that that's it current republican party is not directly descended from this although if jefferson and madison came back today, and you told them they were democrat republicans. they wouldn't have knee what you're talking about. but they competed in the election of 1796, but lost john

adams won and then they but they were victorious in 1800. and each side starting in the 796 each side control a newspaper. and the newspaper was like today's. cable news stations facts were very important opinion was extremely important. they were unabashedly partisan. they could be scandalous and it didn't matter if they were erroneous as well. and in this this new political divide each side believed that the future of the country was at stake and that the opposing party was a mortal threat to the heritage heritage of the democracy. i i sound familiar. i i think i heard that a lot this fall this past fall. and this extreme polarization went for two centuries. i went on matched until our time until today where the exactly the same sorts of things are being said.

the in 1800 the presidential election pitted john adams again against jefferson. here's the an image of saint memon image of jefferson sharing a little bit older and i couldn't resist putting this portrait of john adams and by gilbert stuart and i say that because it's done much later. he's much older. it's 1826, but i think it's one of the most spectacular portraits ever painted so and bring that in there so you could see that because you really do get to understand john adams. so just imagine a little bit younger when the two of them are confronting one another in 1800. well, we have a remarkable letter in our collection. the 1800 election was was contested but one contested by adams because he only got some 60 some electrical votes and jefferson got 70 the number in the low 70s. did you ever since?

vice president mentioned running mate got the same number of votes and and each, he's the one who challenged jefferson we have this remarkable letter since it was it was todd aaron burr tried to to steal their election basically from jefferson and we have this extraordinary letter in our collection where jefferson is writing to his friend judge archibald stewart who lived in stanton and he's saying that the actions been thrown back to the house of representatives. they voted 25 times and they can't resolve it and and and it he doesn't know what's going to happen. and if we go to the next slide, we'll see aaron burr who also received the same number of votes that jefferson 73 and and he wanted to be president himself. on the on on the 36 ballot jefferson finally won and the reason he won. was it his arch enemy his arch

political opponent. alexander. hamilton will go back to the next slide. we'll see. him alexander hamilton did the right thing. he endorsed jefferson and he said we're totally opposed to every every political philosophy. but jefferson has has principles and i got to respect him for that. aaron burr has no principles hamilton wrote burr is for or against anything but as it suits his interest or ambition, that sounds familiar to today too. doesn't it? no, i think i heard last fall people saying that that he or she only makes decisions based on his or her interest or ambition. well, so that was that was an extraordinary period of american history that has become very relevant in our time. if we go on now to the to the next, virginia barn president.

it's james madison. um, he had been an archival of course of john adams. the united nine following his victory in 188 election a major newspaper. we got this in our collection the boston patriots you see there in the massachusetts of john adams. yes. the boston john adams is in quincy only a stones throw away and it published what he said an authentic sketch of his political life madison's political life that the editors anticipated would be quote acceptable to the public. as entitled biography of james madison and if you could yeah. well, i mean in the newspapers very easy to read it. so one wonders, you know how to why did people need to be reminded of james madison he had been in the public stage for 30 years. he'd been very prominent. he was a central player in the writing and ratification of the constitution and three decades of public service. he'd been active in congress is

jefferson secretary of state for eight years, it's street. it seems strange to us that he needed an introduction to the public that was given in this in this newspaper, but you know, the explanation is simple was the same phenomenon is true today people. just forget the public forgets. the next president virginia warren president is james monroe. this is a portrait in our collection. it's a copy after gilbert stewart by james mobile. we have we have these early copies of washington jefferson madison and monroe because this virginia started in 1850 didn't have portraits of them and there was this is a huge gap so they commissioned copies that were made in the 1850s. so this is one of those copies james monroe and it felt everything his turn in 1816 to run as to run for president he had he had had an illustrious

career before during in the revolution. he almost died from wounds in the revolution. he was a senator and representing virginia. he was a governor of virginia. he's a foreign minister secretary of state secretary of war and we have as extraordinary letter. that's the next image. that he wrote in 1829 about the louisiana purchase because he was involved in the louisiana purchase. he was that important to figure the jefferson sent him over to paris to negotiate that and this letter is written to a of the former secretary of war named george graham. he wrote in 1829 and he talks about the louisiana purchase and grant asked him and said, there's a new book that's been put out by a frenchman this frenchman named francois barbara who had been involved in the negotiations and he had stated some some facts about the negotiations that were wrong and the road explains in this letter what really happened, you know,

these these these early founding fathers. it's it's turning the head such good handwriting and actually read what the what they wrote and he explained that he was sent there with the message from jefferson that you have 10 million dollars to purchase new orleans and everything east of new orleans and when he got are francois morbois said to him or it is the author of the napoleon's going to give you 10 million dollars for 10 million dollars. he wants 10 million dollars and you can get new orleans everything east of new orleans and everything west of new orleans. and so so i suppose monroe had to keep a straight face to say well, okay, okay, we'll do that and and so he played a key role in in that enormously important episode of american history. if we go on to the next president, well, the next one is william henry harrison. this is a fascinating port a very interesting portrait by bass. otis that has done in 1841 and

he and and and and one of his successors zachary taylor. it spent very little time in virginia. they were born in virginia and then moved west and and and made their fame there harrison served in the army in the northwest territory and he became governor of the indiana territory. and in the election of 1840 he was a wig and his opponents. the democrats made fun of him said he was just a common man. he was happy to to sit in a log cabin and drank hard solder. cider and the wigs and harrisonville as they were to take that they're gonna take that gift and run with it. and so they came up with the slogan of typically new and tyler too. typically new was the famous victory by harrison over the indians in 1811 and tyler refers to his running mate, john tyler and so on this that wall hanging

you see the the log cabin and you see it also and that incredible phase on the left that has a as on the top of the part in the top you see the circular depiction of william henry harrison so that i was quite an extraordinary example of presidential paraphernalia. so, you know we've seen that in our own day jimmy carter in 1976 ran as the common man bernie sanders depicted himself that way in 2016-2020. and of course the one that really pulled it off to the greatest bit of exaggeration was thomas jefferson who won the vote in the confidence of the common man said, he was a common man dressed just dressed down and when he was in the white house and so on and of course he was he was every bit on risk of christ. well harrison lived was survived

only 31 days in office. he gave a an argue address. it was weeks. there was hours long. he got very ill after that and then they were there was a polluted water in washington at the time the groundwater had inadequate sewage and and this was a problem. so any number of perhaps both of those facts contributed to his early death. and so john tyler becomes president. so if we go to the next slide we see an image here. this is a stunning picture by gpa healy george washington peter alexander. healy was a very good portraits and i think this conveys that john tyler had a presence presence to him. and he is he was maligned a lot at the time. it was an accident and became president because the death of harrison and so he is he was referred to by his opponents as his accident scene. it wasn't fair. he'd enjoyed along and

successful little career. it served as a virginia legislator had been a governor had been a us representative been a senator. he greatly admired jefferson. and he tried to emulate jefferson and part of the reason was that. his father was thomas jefferson's roommate in college at wayman mary and a personal friend. and so he endorsed jefferson's concepts of states' rights of limited federal government the virtue of agrarian life in the very bottom of this slide. it's only image ahead of it is a coin that is that that celebrates john tyler as and it's it's like the washington campaign button that we looked at and so we tried to match jefferson in every way and he just about did it even in the terms of territor early expansion because he provoked a war with mexico it resulted in the acquisition of land

encompassing modern-day, texas, new mexico, arizona, california and that was a that was that was comparable to louisiana purchase this this this jug in the in the middle is actually a a a it was it was made for the campaign of the next president zachary taylor on the front that you're seeing here and mentions andrew jackson on the other side that you don't see it mentions zachary taylor and the point is that in in this campaign object. was that that zachary taylor was a great general just like alex andrew jackson was they both had, you know, extremely important victories. so if we go to the next image we can see what what zachary taylor looked like this is a painting that's on on lawn to us from helen. marie. taylor is actually stunning portrait james reid lambdem and you get from this a sense of of

this man and one of the reasons he was he was so successful is called old rough and ready. his father had been it fought in the revolutionary war and as a payment he was given land in kentucky and the family moved to kentucky when zachary taylor was an infant so he did not spend much time in virginia. he had a distinguished 40 year middle military career. it propelled him to high command in the mexican war and he was the general who won the mexican war. he died only 16 months into his presidency possibly from some from gastroenteritis some sort of stomach bars. so people are historians it speculated that it was the polluted water ground water in washington near the house that that killed him. we can only imagine what might have happened had he lived

because he was a and there's a coin that that shows him another object. he he was a slaveholder, but he opposed the expansion of slavery. he said made no sense to carried into the into the in the far south west. and he might very well have been effective effective in opposing the secession movement of the 1850s because he wasn't going to put up with with nonsense. he's like andrew jackson in that sense when when there was a threat in 1832 of secession by south carolina. i told him you know, you try that outcome down there myself and put an end to that so i could tell was the same sort of person we can only imagine what might have happened had he had he lived. we can we can think today of this with a parallels to that water. what would have happened if john kennedy had not been assassinated. what would have how would the but vietnam war and how the civil rights movement unfolded. there's never know that never

answer those questions. and so the final president we virginia born president. is woodrow wilson? and here's a the only image i have of that. sheet music that you see there in in the center. when i saw that that we had this in our collection of so anxious to to to read the lyrics because he's known as a progressive and there's the title of the march progressive and i was greatly disappointed to get the sheep is going to open it up and find there are no words to it, but it must must a sprightly song. but and not obviously the title refers to his reputation is a progressive, of course progressive today would have nothing to do with him. they wouldn't want to be in any way associated with him because he was progressive in a lot of ways but not in the least in terms of racial justice. he simply was he was a racist.

he he at the at the time he was greatly respected because he bought reformed to a lot of endeavors. he brought it to banking he brought it to trade he ended unfair business practices such as trusts. he improve the handling of farm loans and it's the text structure. so a lot of advances but a little in terms of a social justice he also remains a hero of progressive internationalists because he was a pioneer of american interventionism. he articulated the this foreign policy that america's goal in our responsibility is to make the world safe for democracy and america stayed with that with that directive through much of the century and it's and until it's prevailed until the 21st

century when american failures in the middle east have caused us to to rethink and realize that not all the world wants a democracy and even if they do we can't always pull it off and enable and enable that to happen. that all goes back to wilson it was it was reinforced by truman and the 50s. i'm sorry forgot i had the portrait of wilson. it's it's it's fascinating portrait. it's by a man named frank graham kutz done in 1936 12 years after he was after he died. i say obviously did that from a photograph. i never even heard of frank green coote and it turns out he's very interesting to us because he's born his hand. he went to the university of virginia. he was actually quite successful in his time as a as an illustrator and also for doing important portraits like this

one. so let's get brings me the conclusion that that that i wrote back in september and i cited there his famous letter in our collection the jefferson wrote in in 1814 into his friend walter jones and jones had asked him. what was george washington really like and this is you know, this is 15 years after washington had died. it's jefferson's presidency is has been been over for six years. and the suggestion from this letter, is that the polarization gets is forgotten. it's forgiven and forgotten soon jefferson. jefferson had feuded so much with washington. they had totally different views on so many things but in this letter he says washington quote was indeed in every sense of the words. it was a good and a great man. you have to say that about washington, how can you not say

it and he said we were need disappointed with him on his ratification of the british treaty. he's talking about the jay treaty that favored france the disfavored france and and favorite england boston football that policy but his friends and england were trying to destroy one. another america was going to be caught right in the middle of it and washington's determination was to keep america out of the war in any way and since the british had the greatest navy he made a treaty with with britain. and so jefferson says we were indeed dissatisfied with him. on his ratification of the j treaty, but this was short-lived and i am convinced. he is more deeply seated in his love and gratitude. of the republicans then and then in the homage of the federal monarchists for he was no monarchist jefferson and the republicans were so fearful that washington and hammered to hamilton.

wanted to have a king in america so that they were sort of obsessed about this fear of monarchists. well, i i this this letter to walter jones it just goes on and on about washington where he says he just says one thing and they some contradict himself and you know, for example, he would say in one paragraph his mind was his mind was great and powerful. without being in the very first order. it's penetration was strong though. not as acute. is that of a newton bacon or lock and sort of by implication me is washed a judge jefferson was the great intellectual too. no judgment was ever sounder, but it was slow in operation is slow and operation maturity conclusion. he planned his battles judiciously, but if deranged during the course of the of the action he was slow to readjust, but he was incapable of fear the strongest feature in his character was prudence. he was in every sense of the

word. there was a good and a great man is his temper was naturally irritable in high tone, but he had the firm and habitual descendancy over it. however, if it broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wreath. well, jefferson was a visionary of washington was not so you can imagine wearing his temper. changed it at times regarding regarding jefferson. so it goes on and on for like four pages like that and by the way, you can easily read this letter if you've just google if you can remember walter jones, he's the one that jefferson wrote it to in the year 1814. just google those two facts. you can read the whole letter. it's in our collection and i have not paid much attention to the first page in the past because the next four pages or so powerful by washington, but in the first page he goes on in length again about the newspapers.

and he writes the wall to jones. it says i deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity the vulgarity the mendacious spirit of those who write for them these or doers. i looked that one up dumb as there were what the word means a rapidly depraving the public taste and lessening. it's relish for sound food as vehicles of information. they are becoming useless forfeiting all truth all title to belief. and this is as in a great degree been produced by the violence and malignancy of party spirit by the partisanship. so there we are thinking we're back to to today and to the partisanship that we face face today. so at this point if i've opened this to any comments if anyone would like to to to react to to

the the past history and its relevance. today because your opinion about today is everybody as good as mine. i'm less optimistic and i was back in september. hey there bill. so while we wait for folks to submit any comments that they have you mentioned earlier that part of the collections that we saw today were from the fray collection. can you tell us a little bit more about that collection? well, it's a vast collection. it's several hundred items. i i have not gone through all of it is something i look forward to to viewing but it's full of all sorts of paraphernalia and and our photographer. i mentioned the i mentioned the the magazine our photographer laid out a number of things in

this shot just to let you to give you an indication that's a collection includes all that all sorts of things lots of campaign buttons, of course, but a fan ribbon and and so it's a various sheet music very objects. so it's an extraordinary collection. that we have wonderful, so we actually do have one question. we have a viewer who wants to know, you know, the common has been made that the election of 1800 was just incredibly brutal, right? and so the question is do you think washington if you were alive could have changed that? oh, no, that's a great question. he certainly would have done everything he could do to to change it and his farewell addressed just the in 7099 he warns about about the political parties and the partisanship and

he was greatly frustrated and during his two campaigns for almost eight years. it was two campaigns. he was faced. he was faced with this this vitriol god learned back and forth between jefferson and hamilton and he was greatly discouraged by that and he couldn't stop it. he might have been successful in 1800 to have tampering it down a little bit. but that's another one of these questions we can. we can only guess. alright so so far. i'm not seeing too many other questions come in yet. i will let everyone know you continue to submit comment as an questions in the sections of our facebook and youtube pages. so if we if you see this when we're not live, you're welcome to submit comments and questions there and we will try and get back to you. um, we do have one question of

one other question for you bill. why are you less optimistic now than in september? well, i focus apartisanship just seems to have gotten so much worse. i mean who not? no sane person could have imagined that the capital would have been stormed on january 6th and that the violence that we saw. most of the summer and in in seattle and portland and minneapolis and denver that what it picked up against two nights ago. hopefully hopefully that'll end. i i didn't hear anything on the news today about it happening last night. but you know if our leaders are less interested in reconciliation and more interested in retribution.

then the partisanship in isn't going to go away. so i've just you know, i have my fingers crossed that that it will. i think i imagine i'm joined many many people and saying i'm exhausted with all the all this discord and we've had to listen to for months or years now. here each week american history

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