welcome to the maryland center

for history and culture. i'm critical, gene and president and ceo of the marilyn center for history and culture. i'd like to extend my my sincere thanks to all of you for being here tonight, especially and those elected officials that have been able to join us. thank you to the brewster family for being here tonight in this historic building, the kaiser building. and i just think this is such a fitting location for a book talk and to be amongst the amazing archival and other resources within our library that holds over 7 million records. it's there's much more below us. we are in a sacred space. this building holds collections that date back to the the

origins of our state and our organization has been here since 1844 and we've been collecting a really long time. so this space is typically reserved for research and active history making and interpretation, but i think it's wonderful that we're able to activate tonight for such an interesting and important conversation to. thank you to gary, especially former member of the maryland house of delegates and son of the late, senator daniel brewster for long term support of our institution, along with the opportunity to host this wonderful program tonight. thank you to john frisch, former maryland state house bureau chief of staff for the baltimore sun and author for your work on the significant national story and important marylander senator daniel brewster congratulate on your book, which amazon just named as one of their top 20 bestsellers in the congress

category. welcome to c-span you so much for being here with us tonight, documenting this event. and i have to acknowledge staff and trustees here with us tonight. thank you for your boundless creativity and ability to adapt to new challenges for those of you who may not know our campus under construction, you might have noticed out in the parking lot, but powered by the shaping the future of history campaign with major support capital funding from the state of maryland the first floor of our 1965 building is currently being renovated and transformed into an intentionally designed space for students and families, as well as an updated auditorium. so we needed to get a creative with where we could host this tonight. and i am very thankful our staff for bending and thinking outside the box and how we could equip our library. one of the gems on campus to be able host a program.

the new space will be open and ready for school groups in the fall of 2025. so we will be through some growing pains until that point. but are so excited to be able to share that transformation with you once it's until then, our programs will take place in other spaces on campus, like the library or the carey center, which is where you were earlier this evening. so thank you all for being flexible with us tonight and for activating this space. finally, i would like to thank charlie mitchell, our our chair, the publications committee and maryland center for and culture trustee for his willingness moderate this dynamic conversation, this. charlie mitchell is the prize winning author and editor of three books, the civil war and maryland reconsidered, which coauthored with jean maryland voices of civil war, which is a winner of the founders award from the american civil war museum and travels through

history in the mid atlantic. a for all ages winner of a lowell thomas gold award from the society of american travel writers. he was selected as a historian scholar in 2018 for his contributions to the history of baltimore and, maryland. charlie has published published widely on civil war era politics and slavery in maryland. much of his research has centered the impact of the civil war on civilians. his discussion he has discussed his works are maryland public television. c-span's american history tv and local npr radio programs. he has appeared at the annapolis book festival and the baltimore and the baltimore book festival from 1995 to 2001. as a travel writer for the baltimore sun, mitchell wrote stories historical sites in the mid-atlantic region that blended history and travel. in 2024, he authored a report for the saint paul school shows

the saint paul schools and old episcopal, old st paul's episcopal church. historical associations with slavery. charlie chairs the publications committee here at the marion center for history and culture where he serves as a trustee. and his book reviewer for the maryland historical magazine, which if you haven't picked up a copy. we have some we have some available if you're interested. but this is one of our major benefits to members of the maryland prevention culture. if you're not a member, you can chat with the front desk. would love to bring new people into our family. he serves on the advisory council of the national war museum in harrisburg, pennsylvania, and the board of the monarchist national battlefield foundation. he holds degrees from pennsylvania state university and the university of maryland. and with all of that, please welcome. thank you. katie. thank you very, katie.

and i'd like to add my welcome to everybody here tonight all of our guests and especially some old friends whom i haven't seen in a while. welcome also to our friends from c-span. she sends booktv after i introduce and gary and tell you a little bit more about them following our conversation will allow about 15 minutes for for after which there'll be a book signing downstairs for anyone who hasn't had a chance to get a copy of self-destruction, you will have ample opportunity after after this conversation. so gary brewster, after graduating from gilman in princeton under his law degree at the university of baltimore, clerked for the baltimore county circuit court and served as assistant state's attorney gary sawyer. also served on the staff of the united states senator charles mathias jr during the carter and reagan administrations. he subsequently was elected to the maryland house of delegates

and as a delegate the democratic national convention. in 1994. gary, the democratic nomination for maryland second congressional district. but the general election, he then became a baltimore county public school teacher where he taught olympian michael phelps government not swimming. i don't think and traveled to the olympics. the world championships for the phelps family as the tallest licensed jockey in america, gary rode four times in the world's oldest and toughest timber race. the maryland hooker winning the races on odor in 2017. gary was a member of the maryland aviation commission under governors o'malley and hogan. the baltimore tourism commission and was on the board of directors of the franklin square hospital, saint joseph's hospital foundation, the maryland center for history and culture, the gilman school, where he was president, alumni association. and for the past 38 years, the maryland state fair and agriculture society, serving as chairman for the past. serving as chairman for the past

six years until his retirement at the end of 2023. and i'm sure he's not really retired from there, but john w friess is the author of self-destruction the rise, fall and redemption of u.s. senator daniel brewster. this is john's fourth book. having previously coauthored the autobiography of former u.s. senator joseph de tydings and former governor harry hughes. having written a book on maryland's controversial land use policy known as smart growth. john graduate from the college of william and mary in virginia and was honorably as a first lieutenant in the us army in 71. john is former reporter at maryland statehouse bureau chief of the baltimore sun and united press international. he also covered the virginia assembly in richmond for upi and was editor, reporter and for the reston times, a weekly newspaper in fairfax. john later worked on staff of the governor of maryland at a university of maryland academic research center and, is director of the smart growth office in the u.s. environmental protection agency. in the obama administration,

john is married to the children's book. priscilla cummings, who with us tonight. and they have two grown children. well and hannah, two grandsons and two cats who are not with us tonight. i assume so. so with that, i'd like to pitch it over to gary for a couple of words, and then we'll be back to and then we'll be we'll be off and running with these two guys. thank you very much, charlie. and thank all of you for coming. the maryland center for history and culture is a great institution, and we're so grateful, katie, that you and your team had us here for this event and they've just been a delight to work with all them, especially, you know, debbie, all of it is just at absolutely outstanding. and david and i could go on listing them all but you have put a great team and debbie thank you for everything you're doing. charlie you and neil kick this event off about a year and a half ago. and neil, i want to thank you for hosting an event where katie and i got to talk about it to make sure that that had happened. it was really wonderful. i also want to thank my assistant who helped john with

the research. shannon sheets is in the back there. shannon, thank you for you did to make this book a success. yeah. we also have some elected officials here and delegate julian councilman julian jones, who is four time chair of the county council, former baltimore county councilman john murphy. i see you back there, delegate michelle guyton, a. and someone who i served with on the house judiciary committee, delegate mary louise price. mary, mary louise, nice to see you as well. and you know, we're so grateful that all of you are here. and i also to thank my family for being here. they've been instrumental this. so in the front row here, next to priscilla john's wife, we have my my sister, danielle, my sister jenny lee, and my nephew. thank you all for being here.

finally, i want thank john frece john has spent spent years of his life full time researching and my father's life. and it wasn't it wasn't an easy task. my father's life was all over the place. and so john and priscilla, literally all over the world. so they went to ireland and research there. they went up to to new haven, connecticut to go through the library at yale. they went up to my father's prep school at st paul's in concord, new hampshire, an and the work that they put in was absolutely incredible. and john's written a great book, so i really you all enjoy it and on the last year on the campaign trail, even though i'm not in politics, i ran into judge mike barranco on wife kim everywhere and you were one of the first ones to tell me how much you enjoyed the book and you shared it. other members of the baltimore county bench and others in the bar association. so i want to thank you all for that to. but none of this would be

possible. john, you hadn't have done an incredible job writing daniel brewster story. so i want you to know how grateful the entire brewster family is to you, john. thank you. thank you all all. thanks gary. i'd like just to give a few brief reflections about the book and about how i got involved in this and why i'm sitting up here. i got reacquainted with gary a little over a year ago, actually, at a fundraiser at delegate michelle guyton house. and we enjoyed each other casually in high school and we had a mutual interest in marilyn and america, in american political history and of course, the brewster book project came up. and i was sort of intrigued and when gary told me about it, i thought, well, you know, it's i'm sure it's really nice. it's probably a wonderful of his father father's. and i remembered i had heard what it was in high school i remember brewster something ireland and that's about all i really remembered at that time and so so so gary sent me a copy

of the book and i read it. i read it. last fall, an airplane to paris and by the time we landed, i'd finished it kept me up on the plane. and what i found really was a very well researched and well-written account of a man who had it all. and one of the things really impressed me about the is how effectively john wove together the personal and professional lives of senator brewster really very seamlessly. so know when i got back from paris to talk to gary about it, i wrote an amazon review i don't do very often. i spent more time with gary, chatted with and the idea for this, of course, came up and i was asked if i'd be willing to moderate. i said, well, of course i would be happy to. so and so here we are. so, john, let me ask you, how did you come to write. story first?

let me before i answer your question, let me also add my thanks to everybody who came tonight and for everything at the center for history and culture that. you know, to have a beautiful place like this and have have us here is that's better. okay. i don't use things very often. i was working a book about former u.s. senator joe tydings, and tydings had a party up in hartford county. and i went to it and ran into a man i had known briefly when he was in the legislature, gary brewster. but we know each other really well. and gary sort cornered me in in his living room and said, well, not when i'm done the tydings book, but i considered a book about his father.

well, only thing i never knew. danny brewster. i never met him. and knew very little about him. the only i knew about him were what joe tydings said about him because he served in the senate at the same time, and joe had a way of how do i say this? joe had way of making sure that he really good. and so by comparison and it didn't look quite as good and i just thought there couldn't be a story there. but i told i, gary, that i'd consider it and. when i was done, the tydings book, i contacted and gary sent me maybe even before that sent me a copy of his senior thesis at princeton, which was what, 560 pages that he was. it was. and it was a recount. and his father's career. and it was only then that i realized all the ups, downs of

his father's life, or at least many of them and i think one of the first things i did is i wrote gary letter and i said, i'm interested doing this, but does your family really want to do this? you know, because i was worried that i'd launch into and they'd find out about it. and they said, no, no, no, no, no, you're not going to write about all that stuff. and gary, at least he told me he checked with the family and came back and said they're they're okay with you. it and so launched into it with the sort of the directive gary to write the on a story about his father. and that's what i tried to do. i would say one thing to since we're at the center for marilyn history and culture is that this book is about almost nothing. maryland history and culture, whether it's the horse culture of baltimore county or the

history of the different kinds elections, the civil rights battles, all of it, it's it's all kind of woven together there. and i think this is i feel really at home here talking about that because. i think it fits it fits your mandate. thank you. so i thought, what we would do is is kind of go this somewhat chronologically, really touch on, i think the high points some which are low points but the most important points i think in senator bruce's life and i think the first really probably begins with world war two, where after his freshman year, princeton, danny brewster left and enlisted in the marine corps. and i became the youngest combat officer in marine corps. do what were two if i'm if i'm correct about that and i'd like these guys to really tell the

story but just i just wanted to say that the book opens with his world war two experiences on guam and okinawa and they are and it's amazing survived someone was looking after him severely many men in his in his unit were were wounded and killed and it was so compelling to me that i, i went i went running from maps of guam and okinawa because i wanted to see exactly kind of where he was and. also, i was i really knew was that these islands were strategic because they were they were going to enable the united states to launch land invasion of japan should that be necessary. and i think that's that's those are the strategic reasons behind the action of those islands. so anyway, i'd like maybe like you guys to talk some about his what were to so i knew less

about it than you did when i started this project i had to pull out a map and say where the hell is okinawa? and and i knew it was a battle in world war two. i didn't know i didn't know when it was or why it was, and i didn't know its size to the other side. i mean it was a bigger battle than d-day and one reason people don't know about the battle of okinawa or lasted for three months and one reason people don't know about it is the war two months later, the bombs were dropped in japan and, the atomic bombs and that ended the war. and people came home and they didn't want talk about the war and they didn't weren't interested in what all had happened. but. one of the one of the most influence or pieces of research i got was gary gave it to me very early on, was danny brewster's handwritten war diary

and. he talked about himself about what it was like as a 20 year old and what he sort of thought his future would hold. he talked a good bit about a love affair. he had with the young woman, a man bullet that had just collapsed and and he talked about the savagery of war in very matter of fact terms. i mean, you know, he talked about platoon sergeant getting well he's talking to his platoon sergeant who he was very close with, getting a mortar or or essentially landed on his shoulder and blew his head off right in front it and. one off and i am ask, what are some of the lessons from this book and one lesson from this book, one of several, but one is

that i think the of war particularly that kind of brutal savage awful war. uh six with you for your entire life and it has effects on you that you probably you the person who had experienced it probably don't even recognize yourself. yeah, i think i even want to set the stage just a little bit earlier. my father's mother grew up at wickliffe which they modeled after warwick castle, known as mary school, and it was the largest home in the mid-atlantic with 65 rooms, 17 bedrooms, each with its own. and his father grew up right around the corner at what was then called scrubby manor, but now gramercy bed and breakfast so my father's mother and father would ride back and forth horseback on green spring valley road and grew up and wonderful, wonderful circumstances horse, country wealth, privilege,

opportunity, everything. and he was a direct descendant of benjamin franklin, his great grandfather was attorney general of the united states. he had everything going for him. anyone could want. so the japanese bombed harbor. he volunteers becomes the youngest combat marine officer and he goes over. and just to follow up on some of the carnage, so you get an idea of what it was like first on guam, he's asleep in his foxhole and he hears a noise and he looks up and he sees a japanese soldier jumping on top of him with a knife stabbing him. he throws up his forearm and for the rest of his life he had three scars on his forearm. that knife went right through to the bone then. then he's on to okinawa. he's leading his men into battle, into a ravine, and it was a trap. the pillboxes opened up with fire. everyone's getting shot in that three month battle for okinawa my father was wounded. seven times on the occasion when his platoon sergeant doyle had his head blown off in front him, the shrapnel went through both

of my father's legs blowing on 20 feet backwards. he was also crossing a river held rifle above his head and is shot in the finger in the ravine. he's shot in the neck and the foot. and finally he was shot in the head. if saw downstairs the display in the silver room, you can see that his marine helmet, the bullet went in the back. small hole splintered as it came out the front and its face was covered with as a result of that, when you've been shot at had grenades thrown at you had holes put through your legs, been stabbed in a foxhole, you're going to have repercussions. and my father did throughout the rest of his life on occasion wake up screaming in the middle of the night. so it certainly did impact him and it's perfectly understandable, i think, having been through all that, you know, the horror of that and think i think the term at that time

maybe was combat fatigue. and i think there were one it was called shell shock. but of course, now we know it, ptsd. and who wouldn't have having gone through all that? so it's just really extraordinary. so i thought maybe we can move on to his legislative career, which began in the maryland house delegates and then house representatives in the congress. and then, of course a six year term as u.s., as a u.s. senator. and i think there are many highlights and some lowlights in that in that career. and, you know, it like to have you guys talk about as well. well, daniel brewster became known as the golden boy of maryland politics because. he just sought through the ranks of of of different levels of maryland politics. i think he was part of a post world war two generation that went to the maryland general and i as a reporter, i covered the maryland general assembly for a lot of years.

and there were some parties and. but i think this generation that had just come back from war probably partied harder, harder. they they were just so -- glad to be home and an alive and they they were trying to pursue their ambition to do something for their country. and they they elected, you know, from all over the state and came into annapolis and there are stories and their stories in the books. but gary may want to tell someone, but of his of doing some real funny sort of shenanigans, because every young and and strong and but if it seemed like step was just preordained him he moved almost flawlessly from house of

delegates to the congress to two terms i think in the congress right and then and then into the senate. it was just moving right on up. yeah, just a follow up on that is pretty remarkable. he was elected to the house of delegates in his twenties. u.s. house in his thirties, and he was a united states senator in his thirties, which is remarkable and another thing that if you told what i'm about to tell you, they wouldn't believe you. so his first hire was his receptionist nancy dallas andrew pelosi. so nancy dallas andrew pelosi's first job out of college college graduate was to be my father's receptionist and one of her jobs was giving tours. the capitol that she would later preside over his other hire right. who had actually worked for him when he was in the house of representatives and then worked for his campaign for the us senate was steny hoyer and steny hoyer went on to be majority leader. so many years you had the two most powerful people in congress, nancy pelosi, you

know, two heartbeats away from the president. he is speaker of the house and steny hoyer as majority. and they were on my dad's staff together at the same time. and they, you know, for decades to come, became great rivals. but friends and they were both very loyal and supportive of him. and he able to get a lot of legislation accomplished. and i know we'll talk in a minute. and john and charlie and i'll all have something to say about his his 64 presidential primary run. but on the legislative front, i want to just mention two things. assateague island was slated for development. it was going to be like ocean city and it was danny brewster's bill sb 20 that he was the sole sponsor of. and he got many of his colleagues in the us senate to co-sponsor that. that created the assateague island national seashore, had not been for danny brewster and that bill, assateague island would have looked like ocean. so that was quite an

accomplishment he was very proud of. and then he was also chairman of a commerce subcommittee that passed the country's first endangered species act before the one that we know today became, in effect. so from saving assateague to chairing the subcommittee that the commerce that passed the first endangered species act, there were a lot of legislative accomplishments that he was very proud of. so one thing i will say is that i'm sure if this rule was down when he was in the house or the senate, but he had a rule about which was conveyed to his staff, which was if you can't eat it or drink it in one day, don't take it, which sounds like very good advice. and i think i think that that little adage, i think would become relevant to some of the things that we'll be about. so one of the most probably the most interesting and somewhat complicated issue during your father's senate career of course was his running as a favorite son in the 1964 primaries against george wallace, which he

did as a great favorite. lbj, with whom he was very close. and that's quite a story. and i think, i think i understand it, but i think the best if maybe you guys could unpack it for us and tell us exactly what happened. well. in those days, president johnson said, well, let me back up. i'm sorry president johnson had just become president with the assassination of kennedy. i'm sorry. i'm not very good with this president. president johnson had just become president. but the assassination of president kennedy and he he thought it was a little unseemly for him to seeking higher office right away. he wanted be the president. it was never a question of that. but, i mean, in in his own right. but he didn't want his on the ballot. so in the there were only a few

primaries in those days not like there are today. and he asked in the states where there were primaries, if a favorite son could stand in for him, if the favorite son won, the favorite son would then say, oh, all of my delegates will go for lyndon johnson. and when it came to maryland, he asked danny bruce to do it. but at the time, i don't the surprise that george wallace, the segregationist. governor of alabama, came in and ran in that primary and suddenly it was brewster versus wallace at a time when the civil rights bill was pending in the congress and and initially think danny thought danny had always been in support of civil rights, but

after world war two, when he saw african-americans fighting side by side with him, he came and they were being treated like they were being treated with segregation before the war. he just thought that was really wrong. and he he had he a history of this. and he just thought that the maryland people would obviously vote against. wallace well, he was shot right at the treatment he got he was spat upon. he was booed by his wife was threatened. her life was they had to have police outside where gary was growing up. it was a bitter, bitter nasty race. but ultimately, danny brewster won that race and he won by ten percentage points. but a lot of people lived through it. thought still think that danny didn't win that race because the

initial expectation was that he would swamp wallace and ten percentage points i guess didn't feel like enough. did you want to add? yeah. so just to add on to that, keep in mind that in 1964, as john indicated, civil rights act of 64, arguably the most significant legislation in our nation's history, is being filibustered in the united states senate. that filibuster went on for 75 days and there have been 11 attempts in our nation's to break a civil rights filibuster. not one of them was ever broken. and wallace enters these with the sole intent of holding up the civil rights act 1964. and so president johnson did ask my father to enter that presidential to run against alabama governor george wallace. well, that was last of the primaries. wallace had been in some northern ones, but maryland was, the only one below the mason-dixon line. and the country was worried the

white house was worried it was going to be tougher and closer than they perhaps. so a lot of my father's colleagues came into maryland and the kennedy family is john had just lost president kennedy and they thought it was so important the kennedy family made the decision that for their first campaign appearance since president kennedy's assassination, they were going to come into maryland and campaign for danny brewster against george wallace. and it's short. i just want to read you the statement that senator ted kennedy made on television. and, by the way, this race was covered on, national television. george and danny brewster debated on the leading talk show at the time, issues and answers on abc news howard smith moderating. he was the moderator for the first kennedy-nixon debate and for the night of the election. walter cronkite moved cbs national news new york down to the old southern in baltimore and reported by precinct results

to the nation on the brewster wallace campaign. but one of the pivotal points was when kennedy family decided to engage in maryland on this very issue so soon after president kennedy's assassination. here's what senator ted kennedy said on that occasion, i appreciate this opportunity to speak to the people of maryland. and i would like to thank all of who are watching for the many messages of sympathy you've sent since last november to mrs. kennedy and her children. and for the prayers you have offered in their behalf, i hope all maryland democrats who voted for my brother in 60 will vote for senator brewster in this primary. the lesson should be that we should not hate but love one another. as the bible preaches, and that we should cast our vote and use our powers to create conditions of oppression that lead to violence, but a climate of

freedom that to peace it is in that spirit and that of your own great tradition in maryland that i hope the democrats of maryland will vote on may 19th for senator brewster. that was the kennedys family's first campaign appearance. they came here to maryland. senator brewster did win, and within 24 hours of maryland, within 24 hours of marylanders voting for brewster over wallace, the leadership of the u.s. senate got together. the senate republican leader everett dirksen got together with the democratic floor leader hubert humphrey. senator dirksen said, senator humphrey, the republicans will join the northern democrats and then you will have the votes necessary to break that filibuster. the filibuster. the deal was struck that night to break it within 24 hours of maryland's decision to reject wallace and a few weeks, the

filibuster was broken. after 75 days and and then within weeks, president johnson signed the civil rights act of 1964 into law because of the courageous stand that the people the state of maryland took in that race. thank you, gary. well, well said. yeah, it when you read the book, you see that senator boucher ran into this reservoir of racism in maryland. i think that caught him in a lot of others by surprise. and there are a number of really nasty and threatening letters that are that are in the brewster archives that john included in the book to try to portray just how ugly the situation was. and i think because brewster i think all people alice by ten points which is a pretty significant wallace had not done as well against favorite sons of wisconsin indiana. so the impression was that brewster really hadn't really done very well. and some people thought he lost i think. yeah. so, so anyway so that's that's

just a, i think, you know, a real a, real shame and and i think certainly your father took a huge risk and it was not good for his career. i think ultimately for having made that move. one one thing i'd to add, charlie, is that i that chapter in the book about that race, i called the turning point and it was a turning point for danny personally, i think because i think the reaction he got really shocked him and and made him question what was what was going on in the country, made him question his own value as a as a leader. and i think he even considered briefly, maybe, maybe he should consider leaving politics one of the things that will probably talk about is, is there any ended up as an alcoholic? and i think what happened to him in that race really contributed

to that. i think the last thing, i guess i would say on this is that while this apparently after the maryland primary, he regretted that he hadn't run in more northern states as a against, you know, favorite sons. so so you mentioned alcoholism and his issues with alcohol and that, of course, sadly figures very prominently in his life. and i understand that there's a real family history. i guess his father and other members of your family had struggled with alcohol ism and, of course, as as we know, he eventually became quite an effective advocate for for programs dealing with alcoholism and was a real leader in the state. but, you know, maybe you could talk a little bit about his struggles with alcohol and i guess maybe that was part of the perfect storm. one element of the perfect storm that ultimately brought him. no, i there are there are many

people i know more about alcoholism than i probably do. but i think that i think that a problem like that doesn't happen to you overnight. it's it's slow and grows and then suddenly you're you're drinking too much. but he had you you could see the reasons why he possibly was drinking. there was some family there. there was. the the reactions he must have had internally to the war, to what to him and what he saw in the war. and then he was in a profession, politics, where drinking is part of part of what goes on. i mean, i know there's some elected officials here tonight and they they probably don't know what i'm talking about. but there are it was my experience watching politics

that there were a lot of was a lot of drinking, a lot of partying going on. and i know i remember doing a when i was doing the joe tydings book, i had joe tydings talking about going to certain senators office and was a full bar in the in the senators office. and it it is a way of life and it it can it can get someone before you they know it. but then when you have the the pressures or something like the wallace campaign, i think it worse. yeah. yeah my my father had a disease alcoholism and it really took a devastating toll on him and talking about origins is think about this those beautiful in the states i talked about where my father's life started he's living in one of those he's the oldest of five kids. the oldest of five is ten years old. and his father dies of alcoholism.

so he becomes the man of house at age ten. that's an enormous burden to inherit at such a young age. and then the experiences in the war, the wallace campaign that family tendency towards drinking increased and exacerbated. and it was tough battle for him to beat you know, i had lunch with. steny hoyer, a former majority just a few weeks ago in washington d.c. with a bunch of his colleagues on capitol hill and steny stood up and said he wanted to say something about brewster. and one of the things that steny said was danny brewster was not a bad person. he had a bad disease. and it was my honor to for him for those five years on capitol hill. i did. but i'd like to tell you all this, i say for sure that danny brewster would have president, but i can tell you danny brewster could have been president. and the devastation alcohol was

was just tragic in many ways. it's a tragedy. what what happened, because all of us tend to think what could have been but his his road life didn't didn't end up the way he thought it would but he found a way to help people throughout that. for example, after the political career ended. he chaired the governor's commission on alcoholism and he chaired the governor's commission on aids. he chaired the governor's korean war memorial commission. he served on the baltimore port commission. he got put on the board of the national parks because of his what he did, parasitic. he got put on the board in an as a former members of congress, he didn't think that he would be welcome because of all the trouble that he'd been through. he was welcomed back with open arms. so even when life didn't turn out as he had planned, thought or, wanted, he found every

opportunity to continue to be of service. well, this is why the last line on my amazon review just reads i wished i'd known him because that's really the way i felt after i finished book. so man, i wished i'd known so so gary, you had told me that that that about father's legal troubles and of course, and i'd read read about those in the book and you would mention that nixon on the nixon tapes you can hear him talking to chuck colson about how to get brewster and some of these other democratic senators been allegedly taking bribes from the speaker mail catalog company in order to keep postal rates low. and i listen to the i listen to the tapes. and i and you also mentioned that the trump mutiny decision from, the supreme court mentioned the brewster decision. and so i didn't read that decision, skimmed it, kept looking for brewster. i didn't actually find it, but i'm sure it was there somewhere. it's there, yeah, sure it is.

so and it just seemed to me that your father really kind of ran into a perfect storm during his senate career with the drinking. the primary of against wallace. i know he was closely allied allied with lbj on vietnam there was intraparty friction and then he turned on lbj i guess on vietnam when he realized that you maybe this wasn't such a good idea. a formidable opponent emerges in the person of charles mathias. charles mac mathias, one of his best friends, and then as chief of staff, is stealing from him. all these things are happening. and i do have to say that one of the things that really impressed me about the book and about senator brewster is that he never seemed to blame anybody but himself for his problems. i never read anything in the book where he was blaming somebody else, even the guy who was stealing from. so anyway, that was that impressed me. but maybe you guys could talk a little bit about, about the, you know, the legal challenges that he faced. well, there's another tragedy.

so so my father strengthened much and he has to turn his his administrative assistant chief of staff has a heart attack. so he has to let the next guy in line take over as chief of staff and he thought this guy was you pretty, pretty good stuff. it's said he'd been on the olympic basketball team turned out not to be true but back then you didn't have computers and google. so my father had hired him to be the chief staff, my father's drink and more and more back then. keep in mind. this is right before watergate breaks open. so there are no watergate rolls on on campaign finances and committees and all that. and you could do essentially essentially what you wanted. so sullivan was the guy whose name he was put in charge of collecting the campaign contributions, and he got caught pocketing them. so the federal government, the fbi, catches him stealing campaign contributions, them in his pocket. so they say they're going to prosecute him. he says, wait a minute, don't prosecute me. i gave the money to danny brewster. and they go, really?

and he says, yeah, yeah. brewster took it. so there is very ambitious prosecutor, a us who decided that this is a good way to make a name for himself and and he ultimately ended up running for for office and the danny brewster cases, the case that he used. so my father gets indicted for a jury of 12 after many years, finds him unanimously not guilty of bribery, not guilty. however there was a lesser charge that was thrown in. and after six years of litigation my father paid a $10,000 fine for accepting an campaign contribution, unlawful gratuity without corrupt. which is why the supreme court of maryland, said brewster, keeps his law license because there was no corruption. so after the six years of hell, he ends up paying a $10,000 fine and no corruption. but in that case is about halfway through. it went to the us supreme twice

and and it's about halfway through and we listen to the nixon recordings and you hear president nixon tell chuck colson that danny brewster case, maryland's u.s. senator danny brewster, let's go after him. find out who the other democratic senators are that took those campaign contributions since. and chuck colson said, well, mr. president, there were republican senators that took those contributions to and also voted on that bill. and nixon says, i don't give s h about the republicans, don't get the democrats, because what want to do is we them want to put the pressure on the chairman of the senate committee, sam ervin, to get him to back off of the watergate investigation and the way we're going to get them to do is to go after these democratic u.s. and lay them out the way brewster's been laid out, the way brewster's taking the hit and he orders think about this in this day and age, think about this. it's on the tape. i've heard it. president nixon in the oval office orders colson to get the

attorney, the justice department and the fbi to go democratic. united states senators and did. and you know what? the real tragedy this is on this particular legal after the brewster cases over the six years of hell that he went through sullivan his only accuser. i out of gilman school to go live in a hotel washington so i could be there trial all every day for weeks on end. sullivan was the only witness that testified against my father. two years after the cases over sullivan, his court stealing money from a subsequent job his prosecuted, he pleads guilty and. he goes to jail for two years now. we don't need judge branco to tell us if your only witness has been convicted and pled guilty to stealing money, going to

jail, if had happened two years earlier, there never have been a danny brewster case. so it's just one more tragedy that and this this patriot's life, everything. when i think of of danny's legal problems, one of the images that comes to mind for me for me and from the book to is he had lost reelection. and in november 1968 and he, his second wife and bullet were estranged. but anne owned a stud farm, horse farm in county kildare, just west of dublin. and so and after he she wanted to be married to a u.s. senator and when he wasn't a u.s. senator, she got out of there and she went back to ireland.

i mean, she was a very successful trainer there. but but nonetheless she went back and danny tried to get a couple of jobs, didn't. and by the time he to ireland, he was drinking very heavily and heavily that he wasn't there, i don't know, a week or under a week. and she had him essentially committed to a. asylum of some sort to treat him for his alcoholism. was that acute? and then the doctors there actually made it worse. that's the way they treated it. but was in the hospitals, various hospitals in ireland for seven months and that's a long time. and he was essentially by himself and didn't spend any time seeing him, his family wasn't there. he was it was it was just horrible. and and while he's there trying to recover from this in the in

hospitals in ireland, he gets word that in maryland they've indicted him and it's like could anything get worse and. he while he was still in the in the hospital he tried to remember everything every dealings he had with jack and you know, he had been drinking in those days. and he couldn't remember but so much so it was it was really very sad situation. so i think maybe we have five more minutes and then we'll do some q&a. i a quote from the washington post from august 78. i think it was in your thesis gary which really i very poignant senator bruce brewster was asked if he missed the senate by the reporter and he said no i think about it some times i remember it all right but i don't miss it. life goes on.

as a young man i was ever thinking of tomorrow it was my defeat, an illness i thought only of the past. ideally in turn, to an ambition which turned into alcoholism alcoholism really very sort of self-aware. and so maybe maybe to finish gary, maybe you could talk a little better or maybe both of you quickly about his his final years with his third marriage and family and his his productive years. we talked about some of his public service, his life as a as a as a farmer. and maybe. i'd also love to hear you comment maybe a little bit about how you were able to be sort of your father, given all of his troubles and given by his own admission that he was absent for much of your growing up. well, my father didn't a perfect life and. he was not a perfect person.

and he made a of mistakes which he readily acknowledged. and he spent the rest of his life trying to make amends for those mistakes. and trying to be helpful to others in any way that he could. his marriage to my mother didn't work out his second marriage to and didn't work out. finally, after several attempts at rehabilitation, he was at hidden brook and hartford county for his second or third 30 day inpatient treatment program, and he meets a very attractive blond on kitchen duty and in treatment. you're not meant to socialize. well they didn't follow that rule very well so brewster and judy got got together and fell in love and they both helped each other and each other through. their recovery for. the rest of my father's, they

were married for 35 years, very. daniel is the oldest of those three children from that marriage. and jenny lee, both of them are in front row here, has a twin brother, dana, who flew down from with his wife to deliver our father's marine corps helmet to make sure it was here for this event tonight. so so he lived a very happy life of service. he loved farming he loved horses. but most of all, he loved his family. and as i said, he continued to be service. and i just want to finish with one quick story. you mentioned mac mathias and. mac mathias defeated my father for reelection. they were best friends. so during law school they were classmates at university of maryland magnetized lived with my father in his house during law school. my father was an usher and mac mathias as wedding mac mathias as my my brother's godfather

father. they served in the legislature on the judiciary committee in the us house, in the us senate and magna us. after my father's problems continued to increase, went to daniel brewster his best friend, and said, danny somebody is going to beat you. it might as well be me and they continued a very friendly campaign. they had great admiration and for each other after mathias defeated my father, i went work for him with my father's blessing. after i graduated from college and. this is the story and think about we are today politically in this country. my father lost he'd been to federal court. he was embarrassed he'd lost his reputation and mac mathias on the next democratic inauguration, which was jimmy carter in 1976, senator calls up his old danny brewster, who's down and out. he says, danny, i want you to

come back to washington. i want you to come back to the us senate. i want you to march in with me side by side with the entire united states senate to president carter's inauguration. and my father said, oh mac, you're very kind, but nobody's to want to see me after what i've done i won't be well-received. and mac mathias said, danny, you're wrong. want you to come. i'm asking you as a personal to come. and my father went in spite of everything he'd through. and mac mathias walked, republican walked, is defeated. opponent side by side down aisle for jimmy carter's inaugural session. you don't see that today and it's too bad really should thank you gary what a fitting anecdote to end this discussion about a really mark the life of senator brewster so i'd like to thank you gary and thank you, john, for participating in this conversation. and i'd like to thank the again

the marion center for history and culture katie caljean and debbie orloff and the other staff for allowing us to be in this spectacular space. one of the most beautiful spaces in the area. and with that, we'd like to open the floor up to any questions that you all might have. and there's a microphone floating around. oh, oh, as a roundtable reporter reporter. this was an incredibly enlightening conversation. i i never get to ask sources this so so to senator brewster is it's a two parter to senator some what what has it been like to have such an intimate deep into your familial history particularly parts that that are

so rosy and to to john, what is it like to so intimately know the character and history of a person that you'll never meet. well, excellent question. and you for your your coverage and everything you do. one of the we've talked about many tragic days of my father's life, and one of them is when get in trouble, people remember the trouble. oh, that's guy that drank too much. oh, that's the guy that had the legal. that's what they remember and i always thought that that was very unfair because my father did so much, you know, saving acetic island creating a national seashore that lasts in perpetuity, being the only marylander in the history of our state to win a presidential primary, to have an instrumental role in.

the passage of the civil rights act of 1964. there are starting the careers of speaker of the house nancy pelosi and majority leader steny hoyer. i could go on, but all those wonderful things got washed away by his troubles. so perhaps that's one of the reasons why i myself ran for the house of delegates. you know, that i wanted to to make my father proud. and i wanted the people of maryland to know what a good man he was. and when john and i first started talking about this book, i said, john, my father's story needs to be told. and, you know, we want we want it all told the good, the bad and the ugly. none of us perfect. we don't lead perfect lives. and as i said earlier, my father readily admitted his mistakes. so the thing i'm eternally grateful for is that john frece wrote a book about my father that's meticulously researched, that provides not only great maryland history, but great

national history. and so that story needed to be told. and i'm grateful to john for telling it. thank you. thank you very. the only thing i would add to that is as you do, the reason this is a man i never knew. but after you spend so much time research showing his life and talking to his family and talking to his friends and talking to his associates, you get to the point where you almost feel like you do know him. i feel like i know him. i knew him and when i would uncover a little that didn't him in the best light, it made me a little sad. but it was part of his real story and it didn't do anybody any good for me to hide. and so to the i could put it in can't next i tried to write what

really what he was really going through. i this is a political biography. it's really the story of one man's life and how he had terrific highs and terrific lows and then recovered it. i think one of the real lessons of this book is that you can have some of the worst things that life can throw at you and think of what happened to him. okinawa. but i think of his of his bonds with, alcoholism. think of of being spied upon in the race against. wallace thank. and yet come out it at the end of with your self-respect of with people who again admire who recognize that you're just human like everybody else and and they're forgiving. i mean, the people who i used to

say that gary is like whack a mole with the people who are saying, oh, danny brucia was convicted, say, in newspapers or somewhere, danny bruce was convicted of bribery. no, he wasn't. and and gary goes him every time because it wasn't true. but but it's that that incorrect memory carries on and it's repeated and. it's it's it's damaging. so i tried to tell the truth. sometimes the truth was not. pretty. i see j. griswold raising his hand, chairman emeritus, the maryland center for history and culture and chairman of about everything else else. i raised. i didn't know danny brewster and hell of a guy and i always and i

think it was thomas jefferson said there's nothing so tasty as a morsel of real history. and this is real history. i mean and all dimensions and think it's a wonderful piece of work. i think jefferson also said ambivalence is an sign of wisdom. and i'm sure he was ambivalent about. a lot of stuff i never really talked to him about it, but just out of curiosity, because he and and i've told you about that 64 or 65 period of and he was he was very. much saying to johnson you got to throw a lot of troops it right wasn't that and johnson was probably listening to it i

suspect and did he ever talk about that much and is is he was he ambivalent at the time or not you see all these things now this watch addicted to amazon prime and you watch these things it was a was a movie that about the pentagon papers and yeah know various stuff and these documentaries i'm fascinated by that piece what what is that piece of real history so so good question jay and in mind that danny brewster was a combat marine and he fought for his country, and he thought when you fought in a war, you fight it to win it. and you don't fight it with one hand tied behind your back. so it wasn't my father's decision to enter vietnam, but he was in the senate. we were in vietnam, and he saw

troops being killed over there and he didn't like it. and so he actually went over vietnam as a colonel, the united states marine corps, and he went to the front lines. he had to do two weeks of active duty. so he went over to vietnam and the heart of the war in 1965 as a colonel in the marine corps, where he's actually there's video of him firing artillery. and he came he was also on the us senate armed services committee. so it was really wearing two hats over there. and he came back, went to the white house. there's a picture of him with general westmoreland and with johnson telling him what saw in vietnam. and he supported the president. lbj was committed to the war my father is a gung ho marine. we've got to give our boys over there everything that they need or else bring them home. but if we're going to have them there and the johnson administration made that decision, he said we have to give them what they. so he did support the vietnam war too long. and when his career was over and

he had the opportunity reflect back on the entirety his life and his entire political career. he said unequivocally the greatest mistake that he ever made in his entire political life was supporting the vietnam. he said, we had no business over there. he said he wished he'd asked probing questions. he did. when the gulf of tonkin resolution came, which authorized the the use of massive armies and troops from the us. my father did take the senate floor and he asked the chairman, bill fulbright, is there anything in gulf of tonkin resolution that will authorize the president of the united states have a blank check to send troops to vietnam? and the chairman, chairman fulbright, said, said, no, that's not contemplated. what contemplated is that it will intimidate the enemy by giving this authority so that they'll surrender. well, it didn't intimidate them. they didn't surrender. and my father, to the day he

died i regretted his support for the vietnam. a great story. and the 83 year old i'm going to go home and go to bed. thank you very much. thank you, jane. microphones over. i'm sure it's great legal problem for you. think if he had hired edward bennett williams at the beginning of the trouble that the disposition would have been different and the outcome would have been different so. thank you, kevin. edward bennett williams, one of the best criminal defense attorneys in our nation's history. and my father, unfortunately did not hire him at the outset. he did hire him at the end when edward bennett williams closed out the case and successfully so

during the trial just won. one quick story that that us attorney, he came to my dad's lawyers then at the time norman ramsey, tommy baxter, tom caskey and all met with the u.s. attorney and they said to him when he said they were going to indict danny brewster and, they said, well, he's not guilty of this. danny brewster will take a lie detector test. danny brewster take a lie detector test. if you have sullivan, take one. the us attorney said, now we're not going to do that. i think that probably tells you everything you need to know. but yes, if he'd hired bennett williams at the outset, we might have done better. to prove to you. could you tell us a little more more? the civil rights act in 1964 and the voting rights in 1965, and how polly in the senate,

maryland, acted and while he was working on that, how did his colleague in the senate vote on those bills? and. yeah, good question. i'm glad you brought that up. think about this danny brewster was the only united senator said, oh, sorry danny brewster is the only democratic united states senator south of the mason-dixon line that co-sponsor the civil rights act of 64, the voting act of 65, the fair housing act of 68. there were some back then that did support civil rights. but the democratic senators in the south, they were dixiecrats. they led the filibuster or the richard russell's and, the strom thurmond's. and then talmadge and all of those they're the ones that the southern democrats they after the civil rights act of 64 passed, they eventually flipped over and became republicans. so with regard to maryland, at

the the civil rights act of 64, danny brewster, the democratic u.s. senator from maryland, co-sponsor, did the other u.s. senator, then was a republican. jaqueline bell senior, and he supported civil rights to some maryland can be proud that it's two u.s. senators in 64. both voted the civil rights act of 64. then joe tydings comes in and 65 and in 65 for the voting rights act of 65. again, maryland can be proud both of their u.s. senators danny brewster and joe tydings supported the voting rights act of 65. russia has. a question about civil rights for if my grandfather did not get involved that would that be all with the civil rights act of 64 be passed if he was not involved. well russia that that's a very

good question what i can you is that never before in our nation's history had a filibuster been broken on civil rights. and after your grandfather beat governor wallace, the deal was struck within 24 hours to overcome that filibuster. and brewster did defeat. and that was what what was the impetus that for the breaking of the filibuster and the passage? so perhaps else could have done it. but president johnson asked your grandfather to take on that role, to run in that democratic presidential, because in every single election he'd been the leading vote getter and the vote getter had another candidate been in there, who knows if, they would have succeeded or not. but thank you. your question. i would just add, i think that had he lost that race against wallace, that probably have been the end of the civil rights of 64. absolutely absolutely. i don't really have a question. i, i have the privilege.

to carry so. gary, you and i have known each other for a while, but in the sat in the house of delegates and i know you as man of courage and a personal take risks. i just want to thank you for taking the risk of telling this story. john. he could have without you, but as a team, you really given maryland a gift. this book needs to be understood by more than just the people in this room. i'm glad that c-span is here. i this is shown in a number of other places, including schools, and i congratulate you the risks you took, the courage you show in and in getting this started and thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank. mary mary louise, i've got to

respond. there's a point of personal privilege. so, ladies and gentlemen, this is delegate, mary louise price, who is one of the leaders on the house judiciary committee and i had the honor to serve with in annapolis. and i want to talk some courage that you and i face together the to ban assault weapons in maryland in the 1990s came before our committee the house judiciary committee. i central and northern baltimore something that delegate michel who was here is well aware of that central and northern baltimore county delegate mary louise price represented harford county. i'm very very gun toting harford the entire bill in the state of maryland as, a national forerunner to banning weapons, needed two more votes and we represented tough districts. and mary louise and i talked about it and the the baltimore

sun ran articles on it. how brewster and pryce vote. and we both decided at our own political peril, courage would do you. mary louise from harford county, we both voted gave final two votes needed to the assault weapons ban in maryland. and that was because of your courage. i thank you you. so i think that exchange is the perfect exchange on which we should end. i want to thank you all again. hope you will adjourn downstairs to the lobby and buy books. buy a book. john will. happily inscribe it for you and. you may not purchase any other book, including one of mine, until you've bought john's. so thank you very much. thank all very much. we appreciate your coming.