lautenburg. honoring journalists. >> carlisle scott harrison bass worn -- caroline scott harrison was born when she met benjamin harrison. she grew into an accomplished artist, interested in women's issues. although the harrison presidency has been rated as fairly unsuccessful by some historians, those who tracked first ladies considered carolina harrison as one of the more underrated to serve in this role. we'll learn why in this segment of "first ladies: influence and image" and here to tell us more about the story of carolina harrison, our two guests who know the office well. edie, thanks for coming back.

and bill, white house historian, has spent his professional career understanding the history of that building. bill and edie are both members of c-span sass -- c-span's academic advisory committee for this series. we're going to start with an illustration tonight. like to -- the white house itself is one of the most iconic buildings in the world. i think -- >> certainly, yeah. >> is -- if caroline harrison had had her way, it would like different today. we have her designs for the white house that we'd like to show people at home right now. what were her plans? what was she trying to do with this big expansion of the white house? >> well, it was a time of big spending in his administration. the government was spending a lot of money. and she got into it by wanting to create a house, they were crammed in this house. they only lived upstairs. you see, to understand it, on the picture, the middle of the upper picture, the columns and just the four windows to each

side of it, the office was on the left. the east room wrast was just below that and the other public rooms on the ground floor, then the other end, the west end, or the right side, was the family quarters which was seven rooms and a bath and a half and she wanted something big to live in. but something also to entertain in because the harrisons entertained all the time. and so she had this plan done which you see here. you're looking at the south, of the back part of the white house with the round porch, where president truman later built a balcony. the center part is the old white house building that was finished in the 18th century and the white house is on a bank. that's 17 feet from -- on one side it's one story -- two-story house. it's a three-story house on the walkout on the back. about 17 feet, i guess. and so what you see here was a quad rangel with the green houses that they had had, which were really specimen conservetories up.

see that's dropped. so the windows would still have the beautiful view of the potomac. it would not have been anence closed area -- an enclosed area. on the right sood was to be, as i recall, the national gallery or the national museum. it was not washington one. and then there were other public rooms on the other side. the second floor then had guest room, family quarters and such as that to make it a much more livable house, as well as the office. >> looks a bit like some of the grand houses of europe. this is going to brand the other traditionalists, but are you happy she wasn't success snfl >> yes, i am. from our point of view. it was basically theodore roosevelt who insisted it be restored. >> edie, what's interesting about the story is this woman came into the white house not being seen as political but she had an innate sense of how the lobby was. she was successful in getting it past the senate. tell the story of how she put together that winning coalition

for the senate. >> well, she went about lobbying through her entertaining in the first place. but she also called in the press and showed them the plans and got them to sign on that this was really a good idea. and of course they were in the white house at the centennial of the presidency. so she thought this would be a wonderful plan. as a memorial for the 100th anniversary, the nation had grown in land and in power and she wanted a residence that reflected the global power of the united states. so this was a perfect opportunity. so she called in the press, she got a lot of major people in washington interested. she lobbied the senate. she lobbied the house. and i will let bill tell why it failed. >> before we do that, she also enlisted the help of a former

first lady. >> harriette lane. she brought her in and she also used the name of george washington and how this would be, you know, a fitting memorial and so forth. >> he had built the house. she was just making it work. >> right. >> and hadn't washington also envisioned that it could have been added on? >> he did. in years to come. >> so, she won the senate but in the house she ran into a formidable foe which was the speaker reid. >> speaker tom reed from maine. he was a great adversary of benjamin harrison. they fought a lot over bills. and someone from california was mrs. harrison's great ally. and he spent the night sleeping in the cloakroom, hoping the appropriation would go through. but speaker reed, he was a very razor-tongued kind of sharp guy, and he cooked up this story that harrison had appointed a postmaster in maine without his approval and he crashed the whole thing.

he wouldn't let it come up. >> so, lacking her ability to expand the white house, she turned to restoring what she already had. >> she redecorated. thinking and hoping it was a minor thing to do. and she became interested in the historic house and began researching things. and pulling out antiques and stuff and putting them in the different rooms and she had a decorator in boston make things spiffy. tiffany had been the last one to do the rooms. and they were very rundown. the special effects and all that nobody could reproduce. >> she didn't just find old furniture that had been stored in the white house. here's a quote of what else she discovered in the white house. this is from her diary and we'll be using quotes from her very prolific diary throughout our program tonight.

>> tell me the story of the rafts in the white house. >> washington has a very prolific and well-known rat community. , so they had infested the white house. and were both in the basement and i guess also in thed aic. >> yeah. >> and -- in atic. >> yeah. >> and so apparently the man with the ferrets was brought in to help reduce the rat population. but there was also a man with a gun i think. who was shooting the rats whenever he saw them. >> he would proceed her through atic. then strangely enough, atic had no access to it. the little back stair that lincoln made famous was taken out and the elevator was put in there and somehow stair access to two floors, so they had to go on a ladder, up above the elevator, and she went, little tiny woman. she went up there with this guard, with the gun, and they began pulling things out of boxes and a rat would appear and

he'd shoot it. and they were big ones, too. >> he'd shoot, she'd scream. >> she'd scream. >> is how the story goes. we would like to invite you to participate. this series, which we've been learning so much and hope you are too, this is our next to last for season one. and we'd love to have your comments and your participation and questions tonight. you can do it three ways. you can call us. and our phone numbers in eastern and several time zones -- >> make sure you dial that 202 area code. if you would like you can also join our social community, our facebook page already has some comments coming in. and you can tweet us, but if you do, use the#firstladies. as she approached the white house, she was criticized by the press for being overly domestic. >> that's correct. >> what was the view of the changing first lady that it

would be criticized? >> i think they thought that doing actual housework, which was what was room railroad -- which what what was rumored, rather than looking for historical treasures and trying to salvage the history of the white house and presidency, it was looked at as she was, you know, actually engaging in housework and maybe, who are, cooking their own meals. and this was seen as very much beneath the dignity of a first lady. but one of the things that she mirrors in the time is the growing home economics movement. which organized itself around 1890. and so she was very much a part of her times in anticipating what was thought to be the professionalization of housework. so instead of being praised for what she did, she was criticized. and she could not fathom why

there was all this, you know, scorn and mocking and so forth in the press of what she was doing in the white house, but i think people didn't quite understand what she was trying to accomplish. >> i would have thought that washington is hard on first ladies. they've been a little hard on mrs. obama. they are until they sort of prove themselves. and she had been around, he been in the senate, they'd been in washington means times. she was a popular woman in washington, socially. but when she got in the house, it was a little different. >> different viewpoint. she was very hurt by the crit similar. >> what we learn is that the press went into a frenzy. it was the booming age of newspapers, there was coverage in magazines. so, the press was prepared to cover this first lady and weren't happy with what they were seeing. here's one quote from her diary. she wrote about the press, i am disgusted with newspapers and reporters. truth is the characteristic

entirely unknown to them. santament we what might hear from presidents today. >> very modern. >> plus, she was following this absolutely gorgeous young woman. so that must have been very, very difficult. >> and a clever young woman. >> very clever woman. \>> very clever woman. young and with a husband who had no use for p.r. so people flocked around francis frances cleveland. >> frances was the sort of jacklin kennedy of her age. she was quite beautiful. >> about 10 years younger than mrs. kennedy was. >> she was 10 years younger than jackie was when she entered the white house. so she was very, very popular. of course there was this whole thing about this may-december romance that had taken place with the president. and much speculation before he actually married that maybe he was courting her mother. then there was the sort of bombshell that, no, he was

courting the young and beautiful frances. >> she was a beautiful woman but she was not -- frances cleveland, franky as she was known in the press, was just -- to tell a story about how clever she was. you may have had it on this show. >> she had her due last week. >> the president of spain is the first real visitor of state. she was the same as age as mr. cleveland. there was a reception at the white house and a pretty, pretty woman had -- wore pearls clear to the full and diamonds and all that stuff. ms. cleveland wore an off-white silk dress. it was a coup.

she stole the show. >> benjamin harrison, our 23rd president, he was the republican he was a democrat. we're going to learn about some of the policies of his administration. but we talked about the fact that we'd be reading quotes for her diary and dave measure douk on twitter asks, knowing how important the presidency had become, did caroline expect her diary to be made public someday? we're going answer that question about her diaries by visiting the harrison house. it is in indianapolis. and if you get to the cap cal -- capital city of indiana, visit it yourself. we're going to visit there for the first time and learn more about the diaries. >> caroline harrison's white house diary, this is something that we don't have out very often. she kept the diary and you can see very fragile. so she's written in the front

here, keeping the diary and the dates. 1889. to 1891 for this one. in the die reshe mentions several different things she mentions going to arlington cemetery and decorating the soldier's gravesite at arlington. she mentioned riding with benjamin to the soldier's home and hospital. some of the things that were very near and deer to her here were working with orphans and with the hospitals and she continued to do some of that while she was in washington as well, visiting the hospitals and what not there as well. but she also mentioned some of the other events and things that are going none her diary. her artistic abilities i think [inaudible] and love of flowers. she mentioned making -- having the floral arrangements for several different bank wets and dinners. one was -- south american countries meeting. she mentions decorations there as well. this is a dinner at the

arlington in washington, d.c., and you can see the table setting had quite a large group. we have the vice president, the president and where the different delegations were sitting at that particular dinner. she also talks a lot about the centennial celebration in new york for the centennial of george washington's inauguration. from 1789 to 1889. things from the banquets and one of the parades was 7 1/2 hours long. and then also very personal and family-related things mentioned in the diary as well. mentioned how she's feeling, what the weather is like. but one of the things that she talks about is the kristening of their young granddaughter, mary lodge mckee. and she says that they used water from the river jordan that her sister had brought back from a trip over there. and we actually have some of that water in our collection yet today. so we have a little container here.

actually have, you know, some water in there as well. a bottle with the label there that her sister had brought back. and mary lodge mckee was chistened in a private ceremony at that time and she also mentions christmas at the white house and having the tree put up for the grandchildren and the harrisons had the first decorated christmas tree in the white house. and she mentioned some of the gifts that were given to her at that time including some opera glasses. so we have her opera glass here's that were given to her as a christmas gift that she mentions in the diary as well. >> so the answer to the viewer's question is it looks like she intended for these to be public documents. >> but you never know. if she had started much earlier, a person can get so absorbed in a diary, it becomes a confidant or friend. i don't know whether she did or not. she didn't do other things.

like that. self-promotional or showing her. you know, she and the president both suffered from depression. and eventually it had an impact on her health. but they fought that together very hard by keeping busy. >> they lost one. >> the white house in that time was filled with children but they were their grandchildren, correct? >> their grandchildren and their children. the son was in and out. he lived in montana. but his wife was there. and the children and then the daughter, mary, who's called maimie, and the little boy who became world famous for doing nothing. just being baby mckee. at the white house. >> right. so what was life at the white house like? >> crowded. and lots and lots of

entertaining. the evening was absolutely absorbed with it. remember the office was in the house. at the other end of the hall from the family quarters. so it was -- there were about 15 servants as i recall. most federal employees from the agencies and they are paid from the agencies and all these children and the routine of the private house, plus the public activities, it was a very busy place. >> we mentioned at the outset that the first lady was an artist and we're going to learn a little bit more about the kind of art she particularly loved but first let's do a few calls. we'll talk to horr simbings -- horris from philadelphia. before ask you the question, would you mute the volume on your tv? we're getting feedback. >> sure. thank you for taking my call. i've been watching the series right along. i'm enjoying it very, very much.

can you tell bus her background? who were her parents, where was she raised? was she et kated? long before she met her husband, can you tell us about that? >> sure. can you take that and we're going to spend a segment on it later on. >> well, she was born and brought up in oxford, ohio. her father had been a minister, but at the time he was a professor. at the university, miami university. and then went on to found the oxford women's institute which was a college for women. and so her parents were both extremely well educated and her father was a supporter of women's education. so he made certain that his daughter had a good one. and i think that that sort of interested her for the future in women's accomplishments and the progress of women. >> laura is watching in

clarksville, indiana. you're on. >> i why are the first ladies called the first ladies? >> that's a good question. >> well, i think that started when zachary taylor used that term for dolly madson during her memorial service in 1849. and he said she was truly the first lady of our land. she was a connection to the revolutionary time period and she keeps coming back to the white house. she was the first in social standing, probably for 16 years first as jefferson's stand-in, first lady then, first lady on her own. but she continued to have great influence. and so i think that's how it started, that she was the first in stature. and that name carried on. it beant really picked up until after the -- it wasn't really picked up until after the civil war.

mrs. hayesment although i think harriette layne had that under some of her photographs in harpers and so anyway, but it just means the first among everyone. >> linda, bloomington, minnesota, you're on. >> good evening. i have a question that relates to my own family. i had a grandmother whose name was kate harrison and then she married and her name was thomas and she grew up i believe in missouri. there was a story that her mother had been married in the white house and i don't know if there's any truth to this, but i thought perhaps you might know if there was a wedding in the white house during benjamin harrison's term there. >> it would not be surprising but i don't know that name. local newspapers would probably carry it. both in washington and wherever they were from.

that's where i would look for it if i were looking for it. but i don't -- i know in lincoln's time there were marriages in the white house. john adams' and some others but i don't know any in the harrison tenure. >> one more question and then we'll learn more about the first ladies' -- the first lady's artistic endeavors. charlotte from olympia, washington. what's your question? >> hi. i just wanted to mention i had had the fortune of going through indianapolis last fall and got to visit the harrison home and it's a beautiful house , i've been able to go to several presidential homes but they have so much actual furniture that belongs to the harrisons and the people there are very friendly. in anyone happens to be going through indianapolis, do stop. it's a wonderful home. >> i think they will appreciate the endorsement and they certainly were very helpful to us in allowing us to record so much video for you to see

tonight. by the way, when we talked about the white house diaries, every week on our first ladies website, all of the video from the shows we've done so far are contained there and also special video you haven't seen during this program. but there's always one special future -- feature for each first lady and tonight it is the entirety of caroline harrison's white house diaries. if you want to dig into her days, you can read it all there at c-span dwoshfirstladies. -- c-span.com/firstladies. >> let's now go to the white house for the next video. >> let's now go to the white house for the next video. and you will learn more from the white house curator, about the white house china collection.

>> when she came to the white house she was very interested in how the place worked. she came down here. this was the ground floor but it was sort of considered to be the basement because the kitchen was down here, laundry facilities, storage for food and tableware and such and she found that it was rather dirty. sort of ominous. and she tried to like spruce it up. she went through the cabinets and found old pieces of china and then asked servants if they could tell her, does anybody remember how old this piece is? so she started the idea of trying to catalog and create a sense of what chinas were. she had a plan for putting some display cases in the state dining room. but never came to fruition. she was credited with being the initiater of the concept of a permanent china collection at the white house. she was interested in designing china she wanted it to be

american, as our first ladies had discovered there was not a strong enough porcelain manufacturing industry in america in 1891 when she started looking into new china so she decided this would go ahead and let a friend's company make the blanks but she would provide the did he dine -- the design. it wasn't a full service. she didn't try to order 12 or 15 pieces per place setting. it was designed with a shape that was pretty much the lincoln-era shape, that kind of simple -- this is a soup plate and a breakfast plate or tea plate. the eagle was very similar to what was on the lincoln china that represents the great seal of the united states. what she specifically designed was the border. there was a combination of ears of corn and golden rod which she felt represented american plants. the agricultural plants in corn. so there was dinner plates and soup plates and breakfast plates made in the blue. and there were also breakfast

plates and tea plates made with the white border and then a series of cups and saucers. so there weren't all the other shapes that you might have in a state service of bowls and cream soup cups and various other things that went with it. >> so, we credit her today with establishing this very popular spot in the white house. >> yes. and of course table service all through the years is extremely important to the white house, with the state dinners. that is the official dins that are are paid for by the state department. planned about the family more or less. but you know, eight wines were served normally at dinner. it would be reduced to three under theodore roosevelt and poured generously. there was a lot of wine and men guests would sometimes have scotch instead of wine. and then you would have numerous plates, bone dishes, all of these things that -- at each plate, serving about 60 for a state dinner in those days. >> and i just wanted to say that

the cups and saucers that were ordered for the harrison china did not arrive at the white house until after caroline's death. which is very sad. she didn't get to see them. and the china was reordered periodically in later administrations so it became a very popular service. ordered again by mckinley and roosevelt and even as late as jacklin kennedy and mrs. clinton. >> in addition to the official design that she did, she was an avid painter of china as a hobby and in fact she gave classes in this at the white house. >> right. >> which may have been a political move. she had -- she was a musician. \she had -- she was a musician. >> politics in the white house. >> and a former lobbyists. >> she was a musician, painter and was fluent in french. and i think she spoke spanish. did she? >> i know she spoke frenchment i'm not sure about spanish. >> she had classes. >> she did have language and

china painting. >> it smoothed the feggetters of some of the people -- feathers of some of the people. in washington, they kind of silenced themselves about her because they wanted to be part of those classes. they were ladies classes. >> next, a phone call from phil in north hollywood, california. >> hi there. thank you so much for the wonderful series. i'm just wonderfully addicted to all of you. you mentioned baby mcfiat first. i was kind of curious about it because i remember reading something years ago, it was like the first pop culture. now we don't even know about them. but i was wondering if could you elaborate more about your story over there about maybe mckee and how he became such a big sensation throughout america. just kind of curious if you had any more observations about him. >> thank you. we have a photograph of baby mckee, we'll show as we're learning more. >> i think he was just a cute little kid that they let the press have access to. >> and in the cleveland

administration, you know, they had baby ruth. and the candy bar was named after baby ruth. not after the baseball player, babe ruth. but at any rate, this is the period when photographic studios started taking enormous numbers of pictures of the white house, the furnishings, the occupants and particularly the children. became very, very popular. it was sort of a new pop culture kind of sensation and fixated on babe mckee. >> this is a great picture we're showing right now of a goat cart on the lawn of the white house. with the harrison grandchildren. >> the wicker cart that the children played on the driveway on the south laub -- lawn. south lawn was kept closed since the grant administration for children to play. you see the greenhouses behind them? the whole way it was? and that goat is a special kind of goat. i forget its name but it was still very prominent goat raises

that are raise that kind of goat and they do race them and show them. the harrisons were big animal people. so, they had all kinds of animals. mrs. cleveland had 29 pets but they didn't have that many pets. they had some pets and that little cart became quite famous there. actually is another one. another cart. as well as that one. >> in addition to the china, establishing the china collection, she also bought the first white house christmas tree. >> yes. >> which we now think of as very much a part of the holiday celebration. what was it like in the harrison years? >> i don't know what it was like. she brought the christmas tree in, do you know? >> that's as much as i know and it was decorated. >> and the family quarters. >> yes. >> today it's part of the public display for people coming in. >> and the president dressed up as santa claus and played santa claus with the grandchildren and so forth. >> can we imagine a modern day president in a santa claus suit? >> now, i can. >> you can?

>> i can. >> when i read that i thought, hm, photograph. >> speaking of photographs and the donkey card, i mean, the goat cart, excuse me, caroline i think was very savvy in knowing that people were going to demand photographs of the grandchildren. and the family. so instead of just letting them descend on her she called in a pioneering woman photographer, frances benjamin johnson, and had the children photographed and it gave her and the family much more control over how the photographs were taken and where and when and how these children were pictured in the press. >> that's a good point. >> i think she was very smart about doing that. >> the which also seems very modern. >> exactly.

and that was one of the things that frances cleveland had -- or did complain about in the second administration. that she was afraid people were going to kidnap the children. they found ways to get into the white house grounds and she was constantly fearful. so i think what caroline did was very smart. >> another thing she did for the white house was to bring electricity into it. and we have a photograph or an illustration rather of what's called the great illumination of the white house in 1891. how important was this to bring electricity into the mansion? >> extremely important. and the harrisons were terrified of it. they wouldn't turn it on or off. when they were ready to go to bed they'd call one of the employees to turn the lights off. >> for four years? >> never got used to it. scared to death of it. they were used to gas. >> what's interesting is it was installed by the edison company itself.

>> yes. >> so was the entire mansion illuminated at that point? or was it just in the public space? >> no, the living rooms were. the bedrooms, they threaded the old gas fixtures, some of them, and hung lightbulbs from the chand leers and that was that way until 199 -- 1892 and there were lots of those big old fillment bubbles hanging around, you know? but it was not lighted like it would be today. it would be heavy candlelight to us but it was really an innovation and considered less dangerous because the gas went off at a certain time at night, about 9:00 or 9:30 at night. if you didn't have all those turned, the gas would come out into the rooms and people weres a fixated all the time. then they would light the coal oil lights, kerosene lights, and so this was something that

wasn't as dangerous really. but it seemed dangerous to them. >> they were afraid of getting shocked i think or starting a fire. >> i think they could have been shocked if they did it wrong. >> so prior to this, when presidents burned the midnight oil, they really were. >> the gas was off. >> dan is in big timber, montana. what's your question tonight? >> my question, i heard you mentioned earlier that one of the president's children, i think his son, you said, livehood in helen? >> rulls, yes. >> did they say it in helena? >> i don't know. there's a harrison house there. i think their house still stands. >> oh, wow. i remember justice harrison just passed away a couple of years ago, was on the supreme court for years. i wonder if he was related? >> i don't really know. i know they were devoted to montana. he had ranching interests and also copper interests. and was a very successful man. he was not going to give that up to go stay in the white house. >> besides the baby mckee and

things for which they might have been celebrated, she also received criticism in the press and this came when she centraled a gift from a postmaster general wand maker who was a very successful man, a house in cape may, new jersey. can either of you tell the story of how that blew up in her face and what happened? >> well, people looked at it as if it were a bribe. it was supposed to be a little cottage and i think it had, what, 20 rooms or something? like that? at any rate, it was looked on as a bribe from wannamaker to the harrison administration. and finally the outcry got so heated that they had to pay wannamaker for it $10,000, which was a lot of money in those days. to make it look like, you know, the president said, well, we were going to buy it anyway. but it was one of those things that, like, for instance, after the civil war, a list of

subscribers got together and gave grant a home and so it was not unheard of. >> no. >> but for some reason the press spun it as if this was possibly a bribe. so they had to end up paying for the house. >> it was a very tumultuous time politically. anything they could jump -- grant got a house practically every year. he had lots of houses. fully furnished. linens and all. but he didn't get in any trouble for it. but this did. but it was a pretty hot time. it was a very tense time between the democrats and the republicans. the motivations were clearly drawn. the republicans were protectionist, the democrats were not. the republicans wanted high tariffs and the democrats did not. and so on. and harrison was a man who was of conservative nature.

in that he wanted the debts paid, he didn't want to allow -- a lot of spending, paradoxically because it was a time of very great spending really in his administration, but these were the the tensions of the time. and how cleveland got back in. >> i also read that it was a time of great grief and sadness in washington. no less than 15 deaths during a four-year period of people in the washington circle. people like associate justices on the supreme court. the anywaysy secretary and his family were burn aid live -- the navy secretary and his family were burn aid live in a house. and there were strikes in the east and miner strikes. >> a steel plant, it was a terrible thing, and 20 men were shot dead, of the protesters and the american public, while it seemed justified to the plant and carneigie and rest, it horrified the american public. they just could not believe it. and this chipped away at harrison, he got a lot of the blame for that. >> did this contribute to the depression that you mentioned

earlier? >> the depression, oh, his own depression? i think that went way back. i think it gas back to the civil war when he was a private general and though he was a little man, he was quite a leader and the whole prospect of war was horrifying to him. they'd been married about, what, five years? >> yeah. >> maybe more. >> short time. five years, i think. >> and they both were very gripped by that period. as many people were. >> and he must have witnessed horrible things on the battlefield, i would imagine. >> yes. >> before we leave this part of the lesson, a couple more questions. >> there were a lot of old curtains. furniture. different objects of furniture. not specifically. >> was it the resolute desk brought down? >> the resolute desk, it was just recently. >> that was something that came in the heys administration. >> ok.

>> and it was used in the upstairs hall. she furnished the upstairs hall from the attic. the corridor that runs the full length of the house, on the single floor, was just an old hallway with white wardrobes and things in it and one end of it was a waiting room. mrs. harrison furnished it as a room. and if you went up in the elevator, in the family quarters, you'd find that as a big sitting room and she furnished that a lot from old things she found in the attic. >> and she was trying to make more room for the family. the family quarters had become so crap cramped and overrun by the presidential offices that, you know, she was looking for space anywhere she could find it. so she turned that hallway into a large sort of living area with, you know, defined spaces for seating and conversation. >> did caroline invite any first ladies back to the white house? >> mrs. hays had died.

>> that's the one i know about, harriette lane. >> only harriette lane. so we talked about the fact that she was seen as a domestic partner. but caroline harrison was a great political partner to her husband, benjamin harrison. and next we're going to learn about that more and how it affected his political success in this visit to the harrison home in indianapolis. >> caroline harrison was certainly an active participant in benjamin harrison's political life. i have just stepped out the door as benjamin harrison did many times to address the crowds that came to hear him speak when he was campaigning for the presidency. there were over 300,000 people who came to indianapolis. in fact, the yard became so crowded that they had to move some of the speeches downtown to the university park. she was always beside him or

just inside the door preparing for guests to come inside the house. preparing to maybe give refreshments to some of the guests. preparing to greet them and shake their hands. caroline was very much devoted to benjamin harrison and the ideals of his campaign. when she planned her inaugural address, she wanted it to be designed in the united states, she wanted the silk to be spun in the united states, she wanted the dress to be designed and made in the united states. because benjamin harrison campaigned, advocated that we become an independent nation. and she was willing to do her part to see that happen. this probably was one of caroline's favorite rooms in the house. she loved to entertain and many, many different groups came to hear benjamin harrison speak. caroline was his right-hand

person. she wasn't always on the stoop with him but she was certainly behind the scenes and eager to invite people in for some hospitality. one group that came was a group that harrison greatly admired and very much encouraged and that was the black community in this area. and when he finished speaking to them, he invited them all to come into his home which they did and they shook hands with benjamin harrison and caroline harrison. as they walked through the house. this is benjamin harrison's favorite room. it's his library. and how interesting that in his place to be, we have caroline harrison's beautiful little desk. i think that in this room, probably benjamin drew a great deal of strength and comfort from having caroline close by. and maybe she didn't talk to him

about what paper he was writing or what bill he was working on, but just looking up from his desk and seeing his carrie was an encouragement to him. he knew that she was there if he needed her, he knew that she loved him and i think that caroline was the kind of wife that empowered her husband. >> so, we learned that she was very much instrumental in hosting these events that would bring the crowds and campaigned for public office essentially by staying home. >> there were two new ways of -- two different campaign techniques that came in at the end of the 19th century. the front porch campaign was one and the whistle stop was the other and they were sort of that opposite ends of the spectrum. the whistle stop, you know, you got on a train and went all around the country. this way you stayed home on the front porch campaign and greeted

the neighbors and anybody who came in by train. so, this brought the wife of the candidate right into the forefront of the campaigning, without violating the norms of a woman's place in the home. so it was perfect for her as far as the type of campaign technique. >> did caroline like campaigning or did she have safety concerns for her husband? we'd already lost two presidents as a nation. was there an increase in security for presidential candidates at this time? >> i don't think so. >> maybe the local sheriff. but even president truman had no when he left office, had no protection. but one thing i'd like to add to what edie said is that it was considered inappropriate for a man to campaign for himself, to get out and make the speeches for himself. >> very different from today. >> very different from today. and the sitting on the front

porch was another way of sitting in your stage. >> you're being called to the office. you're not going out and -- it's not self-promotion. they're coming to call you to be their president. >> and these are regular carve that'll values. they -- carve values. they sell postcards. >> and this will be repeated when you get to mckinley because he was very faymougs. and we'd just sit on the porch on rocking chairs and people would come by the thousands to look at them. >> jordan in pennsylvania. good evening and welcome to the conversation. >> hi. i'm a big fan of your guys' and i know all about the presidents. i know their age and stuff. my question is, was caroline harrison older than her husband? >> yes. >> a year older. >> i was going to ask if jordan knew the answer. one year older. while we're talking about her husband, here are some of the important things that happened politically and policywise

during the harrison presidency. first of all, there were a number of states that were added to the union. north dakota, south dakota, montana and washington. and in the year later, in 1890, idaho and wyoming were added as part of the united states. also, the batful of wounded knee occurred during the harrison administration. and the sherman antitrust act and the sherman silver purchase act. so two raging debates in this country were about silver, silver policy, and also the whole tariff concept which we saw that the president greatly supported. what happened to the economy result of this? >> the economy basically the silver act led the economy into a depression. harrison lost in the election of 1892 and he was lucky because the economy crashed in the autumn of 1893. president cleveland returned to office.

and mrs. harrison by that time had died. >> on twitter it was asked whether or not caroline provided any political guidance or was her place beside her husband like frances was with griever? the answer would be yes. she was much more atuned to politics. glch, much more. i wouldn't say frances was at all. excepter to pretty and funny. this woman was very salvey of what he was doing and very interested in the position of women. she was not an activist in the street like the suffrageth ettes would be who wanted the vote later on. but she believed that the power of women was very, very great. which it was. and she believed in women getting out there and getting involved. >> and speaking of her influence, not just on her husband but also to affect change in society, here's another item from her diary. the first lady wrote, my mail, consisting of requests to use my influence for some office.

>> they all have that. >> i think that was -- a part of being first lady probably since dolly madson's time. >> ms. f.d.r. had just cards and cards of letters, people wanted to get someone out of jail or kept from hanging or whatever. >> next is a call from duncan. >> my last name is -- [inaudible] and there was a wealthy family in ohio at the turn of the century last named rhinehart. did the harrisons have any experience with that family, by chance? >> i have no idea. >> we wouldn't be able to know that kind of detail. hope you can find -- >> which wish i did, yeah. >> maybe someone in your own state could answer that. >> laura in michigan. >> hi, how are you? i'm so excited, i can't believe

you're talking about the harrisons. i've lived here for about 30 years. i've had an inaugural invitation to the inaugural ball in 1889. of benjamin harrison. and i wonder if could you tell me anything about that inaugural ball. >> you don't need to write a regret anymore. but that's fascinating. the inaugural ball. it was a ferociously rainy time. >> and it was in the pension building, i believe. >> all decorated inside. >> yeah. and marine band played. the harrisons -- and they danced. they had not done so in a while. and the dancing custom was brought back to the white house where it had been missing since harriette lane. and the marine band would play and people would dance and that was a spinoff of the inaugural. it was a very -- it was in rain storm but it was very glamorous and happy event.

>> you're lucky to have that artifact. that's nice. >> more than halfway through our program and time to look back at an earlier question about this. about the couple's early life. they were both attendees of miami of ohio in oxford, ohio. tell us more about how they met. she was a native. he came from somewhere else? >> i think he was from cincinnati maybe. >> from ohio, yeah. >> he was definitely from ohio. and they met there in college. he i think was taking a course from her father. in mathematics. and then he began to visit the harrison home under the pretense of, you know, creating a relationship with his professor but in actuality because he wanted to see more of caroline. >> after they married they moved to indianapolis. >> yes, where they were to stay the rest of their lives except for washington.

>> were the politics in indianapolis or indiana at the time easier to get into? what's the motivation at that took them to the state? >> it's a smaller place. they were from prominent families. dr. scott was a prominent educator, as you've said, and very well known. and harrison quickly rose, really, he went to the civil war, and after the civil war his law practice flourished and business law and divorce. indianapolis was the reno of the day. and lots of people went there to get a divorce and he was the best divorce lawyer in town. and his fortune increased. he made quite a bit of money as a lawyer. >> indianapolis is the reno of its day. all you hoosiers out there, a little bit of your history. >> you don't have to leave home. >> so his civil war service, he had children by the time that the civil war had started and it was a big decision in the family as to whether or not he would serve.

what did she do during the civil war? >> she worked with several women's patriotic associations. she visited hospitals, attended wounded soldiers, you know, helped with the women's loyal league and that kind of -- union, what do i want to say, patriotic organizations, the women's sanitary commissions which were helping with -- nurse wounded soldiers. so, you know, the women's side of the war issue. >> which gave her experience in organizing for causes? can was that fair to say? >> i think she was just psychologically set for that because of her upbringing. that's what her family believed in. i'm sure her father as a widower living with them in the white house encouraged everything she did in that direction. >> and contributing that to the community i think was part of their ethical background.

>> they were deeply religious people. >> how did his law career lead him into politics? >> the way a law career does. there he was and he was thought well of. and simply decided, persuaded to run for office and did. he just drifted into it. >> and then he became the secretary of the republican state committee. so through that he began to make all these contacts in the state. >> and campaigned -- >> and campaigned for other republicans which then stood him in good steady in his own write as far as a candidate or possible candidate. >> and was elected to the united states senate. he first tried for governor and was unsuccessful in that bid. >> yes. >> and then was successful in his bid for the united states senate. we have another video. we're going to return to the harrison home and learn more about caroline's interests and causes. >> this is the part of the

master bedroom suite. this is just a beautiful room, a room where we love to think of caroline. this would be the sitting room where caroline might have entertained her friends. for instance, she belonged to a number of literary clubs. perhaps they came and met here and talked about the authors that they liked. caroline particularly liked dickens and especially liked shakespeare so that might have been going on in this room. i think, too, that of course this might have been the room that inspired some of her art because it has a beautiful view out the window onto the yard. where her gardens were and where her flowers group -- grew. there's a wonderful easel which is a display easel. so when she finished a picture she might put it on that easel for her friends to admire when they came up for tea. there's a beautiful fan that was

given to her by ulysses grant's daughter-in-law. and she thought it was so beautiful that she put it in a frame so that nobody could hurt it. she also would have probably done some piecework in here. she loved to do embroidery. and i think she -- and beading. that was very popular. and so i think this would have been a room that she worked in. as well as entertained and -- entertained in. she did many community things. for instance, she was involved in the orphans' asylum. she served or their board she went to the orphan's asylum at least once a week she often made clothes or took clothes to them. she did cooking and took the cooking to the orphan asylum. she cared very much about these little children and making sure that their lives were better than they might have been. so that was one of her causes. she also played the piano, of course, for her church. and every single sunday.

so that was a talent that she put to use for other people. i think caroline had confidence but i also think she had purpose. and so she was always looking for an opportunity to use her skills, to help her fellow man. and to serve her community. >> really an interesting line, that she had purpose. and we're going to talk about how she used some of that purpose when she came to the white house. but first a couple of other questions. was it common for first ladies to go to school, let alone hold a college degree like mrs. harrison? >> that was something that was relatively new. mrs. hays was the first college graduate amongst first ladies. frances cleveland i think also graduated from college and i think grover waited to pop the question while sending flowers to her the whole time she was there. and then caroline harrison also

had a college degree. so it was something that was coming into vogue for women in the later part of the century. >> they were all well educated. whether it was home education of course was the commonest of all that people had, but some of these girls as young girls went to the female academies sponsored by the churches like the baptists and methodists and they'd live there and they'd learn language, they'd learn whatever they learned there. classics and. so they were -- some of them -- college was later idea with women. >> but very well read, all of them. >> well read, yes. >> mrs. harrison was so progressive on women's issues, what about her views on race? was she influenced at all by the abolitionist movement in her early adult years? >> oh, yes. >> very much so. >> very much so. and his whole administration fought for the african-american vote everywhere.

now, of course, remember now, that would be african-american men to vote, not women. but it was for the african- american vote, he was very vocal about it. >> next is dan in omaha. hi, dan. >> hi. when you showed the office there at his personal home there, i think i saw a picture of the ninth president, the grandfather of -- >> william henry. >> yeah. did william harrison, did he earn this property himself? >> wait a minute -- >> did henry harrison own that property? >> where the house is? no, he lived in ohio. his home is in ohio and it's open to the public as well. william henry harrison's another matter. he died after 30 years in the -- 30 days in the white house. and harrison saw him as a little boy of maybe 9 years old in his coffin. that's the only time he saw him. they weren't from a very

distinguished family in virginia. they lived at berkley plantation on the james river. president harrison and benjamin harrison was the son except for the bushes, would be the only son of a -- because that was his grandfather, not his father , that was president -- grandfather and son. but the grandfather's father signed the declaration of independence. as one of the virginia signers. and berkley, you can see on the james river, open to the public, and they were distinguished virginia family and in politics for years and years and when william henry harrison went to be inaugurated, he went to berkley where he been born. i don't know whether benjamin harrison ever went but he was very conscious of being the grandson of a founder. i mean the great-grandson of a founder and the grandson of a president.

. >> just to summarize that. two father-son combinations. bushes.ms and the this is only the grandfather-grandson. >> yeah. campaign, benjamin harrison's campaign was all tippy canoe or young tippy canoe. >> he saw the log cabin in the picture. >> that had been his slogan.her's campaign and also there is something that sits his grandfather's hat. so you zealots of hats as a harrison'sils during campaign. twitter, didasks on caroline's interest in history presidency fuel her esire to be the daughters of republican's president. to answer that question, it's interesting that she took on the

the president general of the dar. >> there's a story there. would be. t there >> the d.a.r. is always misunderstood. working women by who were supporting themselves perhaps, ren, whatever, there were four major was and many others and found in fall of 1890. way, harrison with centennial, 89 centennial inauguration. hey made the first recorded address ever made by the first lady to her convention. d.a.r. had a lot to do with working women who were in the treated like being ladies. >> particularly in the government agencies in washington. when they showed the dissent from the revolution,

as you are, however mrs. nt to say it, harrison ought to be political. in the blue room in the first meeting and she told him how to do it. >> the working job it looked like. he was busy. of working knowledge on her part. >> she had a lot of support. themselves. >> can we imagine a first lady role like this? >> yeah. >> it would depend on how political people thinks it was. ut i could certainly imagine someone doing something like that today. >> to clarify, yeah, didn't harrison start the d.a.r.? the answer is no. >> a group of working women. to run it and brought it. >> the visibility, legitimacy. a place to meet.

smooth over the political differences within the groups. people wanting different offices and so forth. president's the general physician, she sort of want d a lot of that -- i the position. i want the position. >> you still don't have the vote in this country. >> they do not have the right to vote. >> the suffrage movement was finally coming together in 1890 having been split since the end of the civil war. to go the anted constitutional route. the other group wanted to have state-by-state. in other words, the state's rights approach. saw each other for a generation. a finally in 1890, they had meeting in washington in 1888. and decided to unify the movement. so that was going on at the national level.

as i mentioned before, the whole conomics movement began in 1890. the club movement progressed and state groups to national groups in 1890. you have the white clubs, the black clubs, the jewish women's clubs. and they all get started in the early '90s, so the women are beginning to organize and obby very loudly for women's progress. >> connecticut, hi, harold, your question. yeah, thank you very much for this wonderful theory. your just wondering if guests know anything. you were discussing the china white house.he do you know anything about the silver collections? and how both the flat wear and he hollow wear were being developed at the white house. lenox china when did

begin the first production for the white house, if you know? much and thank you for a great series. >> i can answer the question ant china.nox that was the wilson administration. there had at time, been no ceramic manufacturer quality of qual the european ceramicings. the 19th ost all of century and even some of the th century china ware that is ordered for the white house is from france. xcept for theodore and edith roosevelt and they used wedgewood. but not until the wilson lenox was tion that producing the kind of ceramic they felt was good for the white house and that was the first order from lenox. >> on the silver front, strange

story. orders of silver such as the white house as early as james came in trunks with trays and you had little depressions in there where a knife would fit exactly here. so a dozen knives. spoons and trays would come out. so when it was all washed after could look at the trays. if there wasn't a hole or a vacant place, it was all there. those years of through the 19th centuries. there were increases but they of the trunks that mrs. went on one d taft of the lesser tours than mrs. harrison. she saw those dirty old trunks and she said -- she had put in er taken out and drawers. like anyone does at home today trunks thrown away and the silver was decimated. the gan to go out with garbage. a lot of it remains. you begin to lose it if you

it. t count >> you look pain? >> that is painful. it's like the decayed furnishing sales at the white house for years and years. these things out of date and sold at auction. this marvelous stuff sort of might rated out of the white house. >> sam is watching us in cherry is.l, new jersey, that you're on, sam. >> caller: i had a question about the ill health. following her for years. she's one of my absolute ladies. first did her ill health affect the in her was able to do husband's administration? do you think it prevented her role ining on an active the administration. she was a beautiful woman in every sense of the world. have had great influence over him. >> she had tuberculosis.

she fact it and stayed busy. couldn't anymore. and i think it was the last two months of her life that she ailed. she died in october. everything in her life happened in october. she was born in october. died in n october, october. the d.a.r. was founded in october. >> learning more about the death and the effect on the campaign. her influences, there's a story about her support for johns hopkins that you need to tell. okay.h, well the back story is that a ns hopkins had built hospital and was going to build with graduate l education. and they built the hospital but for the out of money medical school. a young woman whose name was mary elizabeth garret who was the owner in the altimore and ohio railroad had

a group of women, all of whom at the fathers on the board johns hopkins university. so they would meet regularly in called "the friday," not the friday club. "the friday." and they referred to themselves girls.ir memos as the girls decided to take on the project. mary elizabeth had been the father's sort of right-hand person. watched lled with him, him make, as donald trump would deal.he art of the so she was very aware that this they should that tell johns hopkins that they was raise the money that needed for this medical school f the medical school would admit women on the same equal basis as men. -- took the men on the board a little aback and took them a while to sort of to the idea.

but there were all of these contactle women she had with and i will read you some of their names. 245i were millions leeward of stanford university. and palmer whose husband built the palmer house in chicago. e litz beth blackwell, the first female doctor in the country. who i atherine adams think was the grand daughter of the first luisa katherine, the first lady. and these women decided this was be their mission and they were going to raise $100,000 to help johns hopkins medical school. the men act with yes, sired. country toivided the

15 geographical regions and bevided caroline harrison to the person in charge of washington, d.c. with all her connections and so forth. o she had several relate exceptions in the white house. of course this is wonderful and legitimacy in the group of women and the mission the medical into school. and she also went to baltimore several times. and was the guest of honor at mary ception that elizabeth garret held. so it's a very successful kind lobbying, if you will. and the women came through and raised the money. harrison used the white house to advance the causes. >> absolutely. we'll learn ideo, more about that as we visit the harrison home in indianapolis. was one of harrison the first ladies to have her own project and go to congress to to find money to renovate the white house. here in terms of

redecorating the white house. his particular one was used in the east room. there's lots of different fabrics here. swatches. nice velvets and lots of colors. pale greens that were used in the bedroom, i believe. gold and greens in here. all of the different fabrics that were used when she was redecorating in the white house as well. you can see the different shades. that have a little book francis johnson was a photographer in the white house at that time. of she took a lot photographs and this little book is a compiling of those. a description of the rooms and the colors that harrison alongs. with the photographs of the room as they were decorated. just lots of ve hings that they saved from the state dinners and things like the ribbons here, or bowles.

she has the white house image on there and the day of the event. harrison, january 18, 1892. different colors, different ribbons they would use. this is from a february dinner 1892. it's been untied but the image of the white house and the name the event at the other end. we have several place cards in our collection as well. mrs. rd with the eagle, harrison, january 20, 1891. we have another one for mrs. daughters. we have executive mansion on the event, may 29, 1891 on the other. and the president for the 1891 event as well. just below the section, a lot of again, red, white, and blue. these were all for the same

event. the eagle on one end and the date, april 23, 1890 on the other end there for them as well. >> and how they entertained and also some of the historic in ervation for the events the white house. back to telephone calls. watching us in charleston, south carolina. hello, marge. >> what a wonderful program. i'm so thrilled. my question might be a little premature. the prime historian of the first opinion, you, in your tell us which may have been the most december pitzed? been the most loved. and my second question is, is it true, nancy reagan bribed the esigners to give her her dresses for free? >> well, they're both despise? one?s there

>> i don't know that i would use that term. there were people who greatly eleanor roosevelt. >> i don't think they despised her. they --'t think >> they -- >> i think mary lincoln was also had to h hated and that do with the civil war i think as much as anything. ost love, probably dolly madison is who i would use or kennedy. >> mamiizen hour was well loved. part of herthe last question? >> i think it was for the nancy reagan? > nancy reagan did receive dresses for -- for free from as a form of advertising for the designers who gave them to her.

of. >> the people designed dresses and given them to the first ladies. think after nancy reagan got into problems right there. --the 1890s and >> i think people are becoming interested in fashion where they supporting america? >> they did it in europe. the designers the same way movie stars are today. nobility like that closed. >> i'm not familiar with this.ng that went on like with this particular period. maybe we didn't know. >> sharon in sacramento. >> hello. >> we're listening. >> okay. >> we were talking a little bit about the father and son that had been president. 'm wondering about benjamin's father. what did he do with politics or did that skip the generation. or did he live to see him become president?

for bill. ne >> that's one for bill. yeah. no. he was in politics. >> he was. had died before harrison went to office, i don't know -- >> i don't know that either. he made it to the politics but he didn't make it to the level his own father or his son. we don't have the answers if he's there for the inauguration son.e thanks for asking. arie in lovejoy, georgia, hi, marie. >> i love your guests. y question is, what was the salary of the president in washington to harrison compared today? >> $25,000 a year had been the salary. it went up to $75 for grant and stayed there forever, forever and ever. good money in those days. >> yeah, it was. and what they would usually do had to it because they

in the first term to pay their debt. to squirrelthey try it away for retirement. lincoln was doing that. nd they all knew -- jefferson did it. jefferson was no businessman. but anyway, they had that and you had $20,000 you didn't have to account for. to that finally got up $50,000 and more and the first made , the president they account for it is president truman in just a mean spirited act from congress. normally it's something that realizing they were the extra expenses they would have do. coast, from palm florida. hi, gael. >> caller: i've been wondering jaclyn kennedy, first foremost in been style and fashion. was caroline harrison the same way?

lady. ls a beautiful >> i don't think so. it was francis cleveland and certainly not caroline at that -- at that point in her life. >> ms. cleveland was into style. they'd borrow her name. the president. kind her image on every of conceivable chatzky that sell. wanted to grover was so concerned about billthat he tried to get a through congress but he didn't succeed. kennedy on, mami isenhower in modern times started the whole thing with fashion. remember the mimi bangs and the that she would buy fashionable clothes and she feels approached by thee signers theirr their clothing and hats. and was on the pest-dressed list for many years in the white house. >> the selection of 1892 and candidatearrison, the

for re-election. the economy is in tough shape rematch s once again in with -- with former president cleveland as he goes into the election. harrison becomes more and more ill. can you tell the story of her death? > well, she just declined and declined and he could have been a -- he could have been re-elected but he was so by her illness and her sinking. he not send her to the adirondacks to try to recover. >> they tried to get her to go montana. she wouldn't do it. >> the whole family went with her to the adirondacks. in the white house in 1892. and only to first ladies who have die in the white house. tyler being the first. >> and what was the effect on the nation first of all. was it a great state funeral? was in the east room. but i think it was not of a state nature.

>> the people you have to invite government were there. the cabinet and wives and so forth. in the east room, there's a her coffin, covered in roses, pink roses. she died and he was -- he worked harder. he could have won in that campaign. what he was saying was flavored with reform. was hat grover cleveland doing was bringing back the past. and it didn't happen. i mean cleveland won. i think her thing that is very notable about that. neither of them with respect to and then subsequently her death did some campaigning. >> cleveland. >> yeah. >> cleveland never did make campaign speeches. but it would be interesting to see what would happen today if there was a great death would abstain we from campaigning in the society up back then.g

what happened in the official white house? you did. >> mother and baby mckee. >> personal life. remarry.on to can you tell us who he remarried. >> 1896. >> he remarried caroline's niece ho had been her social secretary. the lso an aide to him as president. and she had lost both of her parents when she was very young. so they brought her into the family sort of as, you know, into the ughter family. them, looked at both of i think, for most of the time, you know, substitute parents. whether there was -- >> elizabeth wasn't still

-- ng >> her mother die in the white house in '89. caroline's sister. the niece was a widow. >> the niece was a widow. a young widow. >> and without parents. so they -- you know, had brought her into the family. > so benjamin harrison after the death of his wife, for me, there's no sting in losing the election. indeed, after the heavy blow, the death of my wife, i do not the i could have stood strain of re-election would have brought. so how many years after that marry?did he >> four, i think. >> four or five. >> '96. '96.married in it was a great shuffle about it. it was considered the wrong do.ng to and certainly the family. >> the family were shocked. she had been there with them almost like a sister. it was shocking to them. child.ey had a >> holly asks -- having read harrison min evidence ofas there

that happening when caroline was still alive. >> oh, no. it's interesting. one of the articles i read, it memorandum written ckinley's and was m then later theodore roosevelt's sort of chief of staff. which he says that he had a conversation with robert mckee, father of baby mckee. who live in the white house the entire time. that mckee told quarteru that caroline was so distressed that she was was so that she was moving him to the younger niece that white houset of the nd she talked her out of it because of the scandal that been brought down on

the presidency. better to have. >> but you're skeptical. >> very skeptical. > the people at the harrison home are skeptical as well. >> and she feels, as edie said, him.as like a child to but he married her, had a baby. had a little girl. in los has watched us angeles and has a question. >> yes, i do. enjoying this series. keep it up. questions. ou said you had a record ed caroline, the first lady had -- havehe first first lady to the voice recorded. and do we have one of the president? my second question is what was -- president harrison's views on civil rights at the time? thank you.

> i don't know where that recording is. i assume the daughters of the american revolution have it in library in ive washington. but the harrisons were both rights.ed to civil i said earlier, he -- he thought time different ways and he had a legalistic mind, of course. for ways of assuring the street the african-american course.f he wouldn't have been -- white women weren't voting either. were committed and public about it. >> they were saying that one of the favorite people -- groups of that visited the front porch during the campaign were african-american groups. >> crystal in terre haute, indiana. another hootzier. your question about benjamin harrison or his wife. >> yes, this question is about mrs. harrison. the line of the other caller about african-americans. an ow that mrs. lincoln had african-american semistress who hers.o a friend of

and i read she's a confidante of lincoln. my question is mrs. harrison. helpers who nt and were african-american at the white house. special harrison have a relationship with african-american helpers orser vants. servant to them. >> i don't know. they were always except one icans brief period in 1989 and 60 at house.ite the butler ran thingings. and she perhaps had a maid or that -- i don't know. >> i don't know if there's a personal friendship of any kind. the tenure of first lady and some of the things that she's noted for. as the first president of the national society of the daughters of the american revolution. john hopkins university medical campaigning for them

for en the medical school them. the conjunction with the d.a.r. establishment of the china white house collection. where did she sit. >> she's little known. >> she was -- she did more than most. and what she did that later -- absolutely. came to fruition. ertainly the vision of the historic nature of the white house and the fact that it the united flecting states is this up and coming power in the world. i think were a motivating factor trying to get the white house enovated and reconstructed and the grand vision for what the white house could become. also is probably

the first who correctly understood. that the white house was the the ric repository of american people. and of the presidency. the white i think house china collection was one of the things that she did. antiques hat she used that she kind of resurrected from the attic in the basement. i think she -- you know, she as a predecessor for people like mrs. coolidge and mrs. hoover who tried to do inventories of the white house. she did the first inventory that i'm aware of. vision, both er about historic nature of the -- and the and the collections and the campaigns pet betterment of women ere very important but not picked up on her own time. >> want to know in facebook what

lady would irst caroline compare most to? >> rose lynn carter, a quiet irst lady but a woman busy trying to do worthy things. i guess the thing about -- modern day ford and her -- her -- it's often lic -- public. but she was -- >> she was. >> and ms. carter wasn't. she was a much quieter, more -- more behind the scenes. >> so -- a neat person but i wanted to -- i want to say jaclyn of her in the sense sense of the white house and the historic preservation and why important to the presidency. > we began 90 minutes ago with the thesis that caroline harrison was one of the more underrated first ladies. hope you demonstrated over the last 90 minutes some of the

perhaps be uld better known than she is. guests for e two being here and the help they provided and the season as the season progresses. ckinley will be the final first lady in the first season of thet ladies taking us in to new century and we look forward to seeing you then. >> thank you.

. ladies, influence and image continues monday when when ckinley who ida m appeared regularly in front porch rallies. suffered from epilepsy. in september of 1901, she became lady to lose her husband to an assassin. life s as we look at the of ida mckipley in the final rogram of season one of first ladies, influence and image. watch and listen on c-span or c-span radio, and /first at c-span.org ladies. our website has more about the including a special section -- welcome to the white house, produced by the white house e

historical association which chronicled life in the executive mansion of the tenure of each of ladies.t with the association, we're offering the special edition of the first ladies of the united america, presenting a biography and portrait of each noted ady, comments from historians, and thoughts from ichelle obama on the role of first ladies throughout history. now available for the discounted $12.95 plus shipping at c spahn.org/products. >> c-span created by america's 1979 brought s in to you as a public service by your television provider. next, a funeral and tributes to the new jersey senator frank monday.rg who died then the gerald ford journalism awards. of r that, the discussion how a human race can avoid mass extinction.

new jersey senator frank lawsuitenburg died on monday at the age of 89. ccording to a statement from his office, he had complications from viral pneumonia and cancer.sly suffered from on wednesday, a memorial service was held at the park avenue synagogue in memorial city. ofs has remarks by secretary state hillary clinton, vice biden.ent members of the lautenberg family. this is an hour and ten minutes. up from the etting ew and moving into the aisle, the vice president said, good luck following that. had crossed my mind as i

was listening to brian. frank would have loved that. i could see the casket vibrating. my colleagues iom the senate who were here, had the great privilege of sving with frank. and i found myself often sitting in the back row. frank came back to the senate as retiring the first time, and missing the work advocacy and the opportunity to speak his mind for his ings constituents. senate,irst come to the you're assigned the seat, and back.sually in the so i would often be sitting with

frank when it was called the you vote s where constantly for many hours. sit your vote, go back, down, mill around, talk. frank would also have something to say. it's a running commentary about what we were doing and what we were not doing. and those jokes that have been to which all of us got very used to hearing. frank and you h just couldn't help but have a one on your face at least time during the conversation. frank would say, it's not where ou sit that counts, it's where you stand. doubt whereever any he stood. he did stand with the families their children safe from toxic chemicals from

drunk driving. he stood with the victims of gun h.i.v.-aids. tostood with veterans trying follow in that footsteps and go school to e to success in civilian life. e stood proudly with the working people of new jersey trying to provide for their build businesses like frank and his two friends pursue the american dream. he stood with the riders of amtrak. and most of all, he stood as we seen so beautifully today with his beloved family. he would talk about you all of the time. he would invoke you from the floor. especially the grandchildren.

explaining why he fought so hard for what he believed in. you.as always for and for all children and the children yet to come. rank was also a steadfast champion of women's rights and opportunities. i have heard now perhaps why he had to be. ut i have to tell you, i was talking with some of my friends who are still serving so incredibly well in the senate kind we did consider him of an honorary member of the women senator's club. ccu mcculskey, the

longest serving woman in the a name for those who help the women. was one of them. he would be the first to say he was doing it for his daughters and his grand daughters. when he left the senate for the first time in 2000, he mutzed on the future. some day they say there's the grandfather. the one would stop smoking on airplanes. e was hoping to raise the rinking age to 21 to help the country last far beyond the service in the senate. well, we don't have to wait for history books. these young men and women we not be prouder of their papa.

offer one more memory that had a long time.e for lady, frankwas first and i went together at ft. dix meet the first plane load of refugees fleeing the conflict in kosovo. more than 400 people, tired and of them women and children with little more than the clothes on their backs. the general in charge said he to welcome the refugees the grandparents had been welcomed in ellis island. the ked frank talk with families. put his arm around them. grown from had poverty in patterson, this helped liberate europe and world war ii whose through ts had come

ellis island with nothing but a written a law hat allowed more than 400,000 people to escape religious persecution by coming to the loved. he here he was again. representing the best of who we are as americans. our surprise and concern, frank and i noticed that one of the women coming off plane was very pregnant and quite dehydrated. he was rushed to a nearby hospital on a stretcher. the next day she gave birth to a little boy. i remember how proud frank was baby was born, he security, eedom, in and in new jersey. nd how incredibly moved he was

when the parents decided to name america after the country that welcomed him. frank just loved that. the late robert byrd, a dear to so many of us once took to the floor to pay tribute to frank. he quoted as only senator byrd that a poem by emerson asked, what makes a nation great. not gold or arms. who stand fast and suffer long who worked while while sleep who dare others fly. frank lautenberg was such a leader. dared greatly and he led boldly. stronger, and r, more prosperous because he did. hearts are with his wonderful family. know, he loved and he was

loved. that's what makes a great life. thank you, frank. [ applause ] >> secretary clinton, thank you so much for your words. laura, we call on you. act to followhard too. thank you, secretary clinton. >> i'm danielle, or as frank call me dan or step one.

my sister, step two. the people le here, of new jersey and the world, onnk was an accomplished man many levels most notably in business, as a philanthropist as a truly effective, passion nalt, and who leaves servant a treasure trove of legacy that ill impact us for generations to come. i admired, respected, and learned from that frank. i adored and cherished my franke poo. my father at 7 years old will stay forever. into our lives, it was a great fortune. say we it's safe to hated each other. terrible battles because frank wrong, and i neither a erstood nor cared what

senator was -- sorry to all of you colleagues. now i do. knew he was a man spending time with my mom. frank was a fighter. life, he fought for things he passionately believed in. he fought sometimes just because he felt like fighting. he wanted to be right. worlds, th of frank's he's incredibly stubborn and passionate. years past, our relationship developed to one of utual understanding and return to each other. it turned into one of the best known.nships i've one or both of us saying you're wrong. i still love you and we would move on. my mom and frank decided to make it official after 18 years of dating. for nly was i thrilled the -- not only was i thrilled for them, but i was so happy, i to them as y refer my parents. even though it felt like we had somehowily for so long,

making it legal was so meaningful. i'm not sure when, but somewhere the last 25 years, frank became my dad. worried about me, me, comforted me when i was heart broken. me like a father looks at his daughter. beautiful blue eyes would light i walked into the room and i felt loved so deeply. for uld talk and laugh hours. just look at the others and know what the other was thinking. cared about and each other's thoughts, opinions, and feelings. dancing where he was always the last man standing. the events where my mom was unavailable. skiing with him, and just hanging out at home. him make others laugh. he had a knack for it. at a holiday party, frank thought it would be fun to introduce me to the late senator thurman. me, nice to meet you, you look like you needed a big hug. and boy did it get one.

he was a strong man for his age and surprisingly affectionate. and frank was hysterical. he knew that i would get a greeting along those lines and loved setting me up for it. and frank loved telling a joke, a funny story, playing a prank. thewhat he really loved was reaction of the person or group engaging. his joy came with the joy of others. me, you'reften say to not my blood, but you are mine. poo, you were and you will always be mine too. ne of my dearest friends,s the smartest person i will ever know, my protector.

i'm heart broken that you're physically gone. to have ed and lucky your friendship and love for so happy to have e you as his papa. when you meet my dad, i know other. love each you have a lot in common. that you both loved and took my mom, claire, and i and had a great love of life. i know you two will have a great changing stories about bonnie for eternity. tell him that we love him and miss him and we thank him for sending you to us. frank, you brought great joy, excitement, positivity, and love to my life. and it will be forever grateful for the time we had together. rest in peace, i love you. > i know frank is spelling right now. dear frank. it's hard to imagine life without you. when momlike yesterday

told me about her new special friend whom i wasn't exactly eager to meet. the early days were tough and our personalities didn't gel. didn't get you and you get me. it wasn't until the fifth grade when i was studying the new laws that i began to appreciate, respect, and maybe even like you. prepare a project related to the smoking ban on airplanes. labored over posters, dioramas, and models. i have walked in with a recorded interview with you. [ laughter ] this marks it beginning of a and special ul relationship. and i got an a. our family of three soon became a family of four. you became a permanent fixture model and the male role we needed. my chose well. our country needs more role

models like you. taught us to fight hard for what you believe in and you worked tirelessly for your and future n generations could live in a better world. frank is so amazing. i'll miss your endless phone when you ecially wanted to send flowers to mom. birthday, anniversary, and flowers and there were plenty of those over the years. lair, iall and say, hey, want to send flowers to bon, what's the name of the flower like.you i'd roll my eyes, yell at him. the same ve him answer. frank, i've given you the name times.mber a million linda as the number, its's on your iphone and computer. it to e it to you, give you again. we would chat about the kids, catch up, and be on our way. i choose to believe he always had the number accessible but he hello. to call and say i will miss my weekly dinners, usually at an italian restaurant

love to use your restaurant italian. could say rase you was "no garlic." [ laughter ] ou said it to the waiters, busboys, coat check ladies. said it at a ou japanese restaurant. you terribly this summer when my girls are on the swing set and i look up to your bedroom terrace and you aren't there. you adored watching them. i'll be waiting for you to us while we were watching tv. you never understood why we didn't stopwat watching when yo in the room. i will miss you every time i pass the roasted corn stands on the side of the road. simplest things in life gave you the most pleasure. you would walk into the house a bag of freshly roasted corn with a smile on your face and a candy store. hey, lair, have you tried the every weekend, the same corn, the same dialogue, the same simple pleasure.

bright smile, r the twinkle in your beautiful baby blues, and the sound of whistle when you saw something amazing. we've lost a giant of a man. stepfather and special friend who completes our whole family, our whole family, to all of e world them. to your wonderful children, anielle and i thank you for sharing your dad with us. so proud to learn about american history and understand a true american hero they called papa. cora st thing, your pal wants to give you a little advice -- wherever you may be, down, the fairway is wide open for you. rest in peace, we love you. sodanielle, laura, thank you

much for your beautiful words. vice president biden, we call on you to speak of your friend and colleague, senator lautenberg. definition there's a of redundant, i'm it. [ laughter ] . by the way, josh, i'm representing the pope. knows frank used to hel me the only catholic jew knew. you know, hillary, i think

you were thinking the same thing talking.en you were i just wish the whole country could have heard all of you. not even about senator frank lautenbe lautenberg. you are the living definition of successfulns to be a man. i really mean that. as a lot of my colleagues have, i have spoken at more eulogies than i like to remember. i advise you all, you already broke the rule i advised people observe. never make a good eulogy. again be asked again and and again. all kidding aside, what a frank's life. -- nothing i us a ld say could define what

spoken.as more than -- to the grandchildren -- there's not a one of us, i know serving for 25 years, there's us who knew him who didn't know all of you. until i had grandchildren when i he'd to match him and then stop. my wife says i'm the most daughter in the world? no, wrong. frank was the most obnoxious. i -- and by the way, danielle, i thurman so well, literally, i was asked to do his eulogy. eulogy.is this is a lot easier. [ laughter ]

i want to tell you something, i knew strom thurman well. he would be proud of your recollection. he would be proud the way you described it. so -- oh, gosh, i'm about to get myself in trouble. like -- i'm sure like senator me innocent dez and ecretary clinton, i'm truly honored to be included to ask to speak about a guy who -- who was my friend. from experience that there's nothing anyone can say of the family. they can do anything to fill feel rightt void you now. you feel like there's sort of an in your chest.

got sucked into it. know from personal experience that profound loss just takes time. i realize it's beyond my words to dofind the justice to frank lautenberg. obviously i can't do justice to what he meant to all of you or to me and to eant his country. they used excuse us, to say it in the senate, they still do. colleagues, my excuse the point of personal privilege -- frank was one of my in the senate. we served together. that's how it started off. together. i met frank. in 1975, i was -- a young united in office tor, been for three years. and frank was chairman of the united jewish appeal.

and went to see frank. nd actually spoke -- frank asked me to speak. and we immediately, and i mean immediately, became friends. about ng that i admired frank so much is that we always of what he erms could do, what he should do. what -- what he always thought practically. make it better? not some great debate he had with himself. to frank at least to my observation. there was a problem, so we should fix it. the philosopher was correct when

"character is destiny." character is destiny. everything else about frank, agree, disagree, like, dislike. frank? all acknowledge frank had great exceptional character. matter how he died.his life but how he know people serving in new jersey to the very end. josh, about ke, your dad saying he wish he had made that speech. will tell you he started at christmastime last calling me. he had to see me. to see me. and i said, frank, is it okay. said, oh, no, i've got to see you. but i don't want to talk to you on the phone. we were in the midst of another crisis in the senate, it didn't quite work out. i remember -- i see bob

mcculskey smiling. i remember when i came to explain that last deal, and frank came over and grabbed me and said -- i've got to see you. so we worked it out. frank came down -- he said i can come down right now but maybe you can go to the senate. which i did. i know it'll do everything, bonnie, and i'm sure he told you we spoke about two hours. he wanted my advice -- should he run again? [laughter] what in the hell do you say to frank lautenberg when he says should i run again? even then, frank was slowing a little bit, and he knew it. i said, frank, look, i think you will win again if you run again. i think even christie will vote for you.

[laughter] by the way, the governor and i are friends. we both love the university of delaware. we both went there. i even asked him to come out and tear at a few games with me, but he cannot make it. i offered him to ride on air force two. one of the advantages. i said frank, what are you thinking? and we talked and talked, and he i said look, i will send you some data. and i said ok. i was going to germany. he said there is a guy in germany i want you to talk to.

then we met again, and your dad was getting a little more frail. and he said -- what do you think? and i said i think you should run, frank. and then he called me again, this is over about a 2.5 month period. and said joe, i will not use the exact words, he said i do not think i can run. he said my legs, my legs. it was clear to me he desperately wanted to run again. and i think the reason is not because he wanted to be senator, but your dad never quit. he never quit anything. he never gave up. for frank lautenberg to decide that he wasn't going to run again was not only a decision about how he cared about his state, it was about his character. he viewed it in terms of he was quitting something. my dad who some of my colleagues knew said joe, never explain and never complain.

your dad never explained, and -- he complained a lot. [laughter] but he did not complain about his circumstance. he never complained about what life through his way. right to the very end, the last meeting i'm told frank took was with senator vitter just two weeks ago to work out a bipartisan breakthrough to bring more transparency in toxic

chemicals used in everyday products. two weeks before he died -- your dad knew -- knowing what shape he was in. even in his final days, it was not his health is concerned about, it was the health of the people of new jersey, the health of the kids in this country. he has left you all an incredible legacy. children, stepchildren, grandchildren. what an incredible legacy he left you. frank one said there is no end to what can be accomplished if you work like the devil. and my, god, did he work like the devil. bob was right, he was tenacious. he worked and worked and worked. and he did -- this guy, who was raised, it was pointed out many times, with little money. i'm told the first time he ever

left the new jersey, new york region was when he joined the united states army and was shipped out. when he came back, he probably would tell anyone who would listen that he went to columbia. it is not just go to school, he went to columbia. and so, anyone who knew frank would not be at all surprised why frank was so -- some of my colleagues, i've been there since 1972, none of them are that old, unfortunately. but you remember the fight on the new g.i. bill, frank was passionate about it.

absolutely passionate about it. because he knew what it could mean. everything your dad did, everything he did was done with passion and success. he was proud of adp. he was proud, proud. he was proud to be a jew. he was proud of his heritage. he was proud to be a united states senator. like me and my colleagues, the greatest honor can be displayed can be bestowed upon you. and i don't think there are many senators, a lot of accomplished women and men here today, but i don't think there are many -- and some of them have done great

things -- but not many senators who can in the immediate time that they are acting see immediately the effects of the good things they have done. frank was able to do that. frank knows that, notwithstanding the fact that it probably did put you in trouble in college when he changed the drinking age to 21, and by the way, you're not kidding. [laughter] but as transportation secretary ray lahood, who was also a close friend of frank, can tell you, he saved over 25,000 lives so far. people not smoking on airplanes. how many thousands more lives have that saved?

he is the reason why, as hillary reference, since 1989, hundreds of thousands of jews and other persecuted minorities have been able to go to america. he is the reason why domestic abusers are prohibited from owning a gun, saving so many more lives, as dick durbin knows. the violence against women act. frank even in thought we should have that prohibition in there. he did not rest until he got it done. it's health was failing, he never gave up, he never give in. if it was never frank, amtrak would not be what it is today.

josh, i want to tell you something -- nobody, literally in history, has ridden amtrak as much as me and the conductor. [laughter] over 8000 round trips i've made, literally. 8000 round trips. between washington and wilmington -- i never had a home or an apartment in wilmington. the conductors are like my family. after being vice president, one of my good friends come to me and says joey. as they will tell you, they're still my buddies. i took the train every sale -- single day. i would blow out of the senate, i would get down to seven

minutes to make the train. and i sometimes miss the train. one day of i am breaking my train -- my neck to get to the train. i am sprinting. if you ever take amtrak, just ask anybody when you hit washington station, if they know joe biden, i guarantee you they will tell you a story about my trying to make the train. i am like those old commercials, running for the airplane, jumping over the chairs. carrying my bag. true story -- i get up, the conductor said, joey, hold up, don't worry. we holding it for lautenberg. [laughter] and all those years, i never once asked them to hold a train for me. in all those years, jill and i would have every christmas and have the conductors and their

families for dinner, it got so big we would have a picnic at our home. all these guys, they never once held it for me. and they looked at me. and chris christie just across the row in new jersey, don't worry, joe, we are rich -- we are holding ever frank lautenberg. you going to wilmington transition, which has a hell of a lot more people than the lautenberg train station. [laughter] it is referred to the biden train station, but you cannot find the name biden anywhere. not once. you see like a neon sign -- lautenberg, lautenberg. but he did make a difference, josh, he got me on a train. i saved amtrak three times before he was elected. [laughter] i don't know how the hell this happened. you know what i mean? that is mostly true. [laughter]

but your dad and i had a little as they say in southern delaware we had a little auburn call. he said, you know, joe, i think we should have one train, at least one of the runs, it is going to go from washington, make one stop, and then to new york. i said over my dead body. you think i'm kidding? that is the only time frank and i -- and frank, i said you are a powerful guy.

you will not get another judge in new jersey, i promise you. he was actually going to cut out the delaware station, my friend. he's said joe, imagine what it would mean to be able to do that. i said yeah, you have to limit the money and buy a place in washington. i can tell you that. look, the fact is that frank always had to be in the game. that is what i love about your father. too much to be done, too much left unsettled, too many injustices to right, too many people needing help.

for frank, the thing i loved about him, like me, he loved the senate. he saw in it the place he could do more than all the financial success he had, all the influence he had in the community. he believed in what was right. there was no place he could do as much for the people he cared about then in the united states senate. he said it is time, i was there shortly thereafter doing a fundraiser for a new jersey canada, and frank was there, and he said what a big mistake, and he came back. it is fair to say, bonnie, there is nobody happier than me when he did come back. everything frank then shows character.

as a consequence, he earned the admiration of its friends and political foes alike. look at how many of his colleagues are here today. frank, no one in all the years we served together, no one ever doubted -- which is a short supply, no one ever doubted that one frank said something he meant it. no one ever doubted his word, no one ever wondered whether or not he would keep whatever commitment he made herein even if his political circumstances had changed and now it was difficult to keep the commitment. as my colleagues know, the most valuable commodity, the most valuable capital anyone can have in the congress is their word.

and frank kept his word. talking about your dad repeating things, i remember why i drive my kids crazy. one of the addresses i repeat all the time is expression used in my family constantly. my mother would always say you are defined by your courage, and you are redeemed by your loyalty. you are defined by your courage, and you are redeemed by your loyalty. if frank was your friend, he was your friend. he never calculated how that friendship or loyalty would influence him. he said a friend is someone who walks in when others walk out. a friend is someone who walks in when others walk out. every difficult political moment

of my life, your father walked in. he did not walk out. every difficult time i had, he walked in. i spent many my colleagues would tell you the same thing. for more than 25 years that we were with one another, he was always there. frank had courage both physical and moral. on the streets when he was a kid in patterson, in europe in world war ii, the downhill slope. i used to ski with frank all the time. that is another story. but watching him. i remember watching him in his 70's after he wanted to go helicopter skiing. by the way, helicopter skiing, you get in a helicopter, and it

takes you about the lift line where the lift does not go on the very top of the mountain where you can not get there other than being dropped off in a helicopter. if i'm not mistaken, he was doing that into his early 70's. i am told, although i did not do it with them, i am told that as late as three or four years ago he was skiing, downhill being. but most of all, frank had the courage and convictions, and he acted on those convictions. frank would even talk about himself sometimes about his public speaking. frank's speeches were not marked by their eloquence, but i mean sincerely, he overcame it with the eloquence and elegance of his convictions. he spoke with principle and purpose. he always spoke with principle and purpose. he was a self-made man who spoke of the poor in the its vanished anyway you could taste it when he spoke it. even before he entered politics,

he spoke with resounding commitment to the security of israel, the fate of the jews behind the iron curtain, as the rabbi said, an abiding awareness of his roots. he never lost sight of the fundamental moral commitment we had to the state of israel. he never backed off his political convictions for expediency. in the words of shakespeare, he was a man taken for all in all i shall not look upon his like again. he was a man. he was a real man. [applause] >> vice president biden, we all thank you for your musings and beautiful tribute.

bonnie, we call on you to speak of your beloved. >> i just want to thank the vice president, thanks hillary, madam secretary, bob menendez. he spoke beautifully. this is an extraordinary gathering for a great man. i thank everybody for being here. just an amazing turnout. he would be so proud to have you all here. i want to welcome governor christie, former governor, senator mcgreevy, secretary lahood, the entire senate delegation, the pouring out of love from all of you for me and

frank and the family. i cannot thank you all enough for being here, all the representatives, all the dignitaries, and a special hug and thank you to harry reid. thank you for making magic. you have been amazing. because of senator reed, frank will be the second senator in history to lie in the chamber. his casket will lay somewhere that held the casket of lincoln. he will be buried in a military ceremony, including a 21 gun salute. you might wonder why this is so unique.

the last world war ii veteran in the united states senate. most people prepare when they want to rest in the hereafter. not frank. he told me he wanted to go to arlington cemetery so his grandchildren and great- grandchildren would come to washington and look for his grandfather be so proud that he served in world war ii and was a united states senator. i said frank, you've got to make plans. so when the time is right, you can go there immediately. it could take a month or more if you are not prepared. he never did anything. [laughter] he could not face his mortality and figured somehow it would get done. it did get done. and harry reid did it. miraculously. so thank you, harry, from me and the entire family. [applause] today is a celebration of

frank's life. the only thing that would've made him happier than seeing all of you here would be if this was a fundraiser for his next campaign. [laughter] as you heard, he did not want to retire, and had even well, he would have put up a good fight to stay in the senate. he was a street kid from patterson and so proud of it. so what was it like being married to this renaissance man who actually accomplish all those things you saw on television this week? difficult, interesting, challenging, loving, amazing. what a life we had. together over 25 years, married for more than nine, frank was the most positive person i know. he never looked back, he just looked forward and made things happen. he had a vitality and a smile i fell in love with 25 years ago,

and i never lost that love. he was my prince charming. he would call me everyday from the senate, and we with big all the time when the senate was working until the wee hours of the morning, at night, and he was only what was going to be on the front page of the "new york times" the next day. that was pretty heavy because it was before the internet, 24 hour news. he introduced me to presidents, heads of states, governors, senators, actors, directors, ordinary people who just always came up to him to thank him for his work. truck drivers. he loved them all and treated everyone with the same respect and warmth. he constantly told jokes. i had to listen to the same jokes all the time. and i had to laugh as if i had heard them for the first time. [laughter] he told the same great stories, but over and over. and got offended if i would time and while he was telling it. every time he had a new audience, i would hear the same story. after a while, i hated introducing them to anyone new. [laughter]

but there were extraordinary times with frank. like the time we got into a taxi after flying to boston. the taxi driver had a russian accent. frank asked the driver how did you get into this country, the driver says, the lautenberg amendment. frank said, i am lautenberg. [laughter] the taxi driver said no. frank said yes, no, yes. and so it went on. it was so amazing to see how you can make such a difference in someone's life and how much the taxi driver really appreciated what frank did. the taxi driver did not want to take frank money, but frank insisted we pay. in aspen, frank had a serious injury. 30 days later, he said bonnie, i am seeing stars. he went to a hospital in new york. he lucked out with a great surgeon.

he had a bilateral hematoma, and the doctor successfully operated on him. he was about to speak at the timbre of commerce dinner. frank was not going to miss this dinner, philly at his favorite navy suit, a red tie, got dressed to the nine, and asked camera crews to set up in the hospital room, and gave his speech with all of the hospital apparatus hanging out of his jacket. [laughter] no one had any idea he was in the hospital. i think it is a perfect time to say thank you to all the doctors who helped frank along the way sorry with phil steeg, marty goldman, james holland, and then to all the doctors to care for frank at new york presbyterian hospital. they try to make frank healthy. he could not fight the viral pneumonia. to the nurses and care staff who took loving care of frank. thank you beverly, franz, mildred.

we owe so much to dan katz and brendan gill, and the entire staff. the work was done with this intelligence group of people. cap the engine running. kept good story then and got the dark without fear it i cannot see why enough. and thank you to all the lautenberg staff. he could not have done it without you. [applause] and to linda borchard, thank you for being so helpful to me. you were always ready, willing, and able, and i'm so grateful for what you did for frank. to his assistant, eleanor, he depended on her and respected her ability and friendship for over 45 years starting at adp. to rabbi dan cohen, and the entire staff at park avenue synagogue, thank you for this beautiful service. [indiscernible]

to my friend ed torres, and to stokes for your extraordinary generosity, talent, for singing frank's favorite songs. he lived the impossible dream and always did it his way. to gail curtis, thank you for the beautiful music selection. i love the love and adoration he gave to my children and grandchildren. he was an amazing role model. he was the father they loved. he taught us how to think at a deeper level and stimulated us in a way we had not known prior to his coming in our lives. his biological children

grandchildren are an amazing group who he adores. they are grateful their dad had a family that was geographically convenient. [laughter] throughout his illness, we spent a lot of time together. it was a blessing for all of us. when he was finally at peace. we leave here today to go to the caucus, to the train station that bears his name, and we will bring him home to new jersey one last time. it is a sentimental journey that will take us to washington d.c., the country's capital where

they served for 28 years. there was not a time where he was driving in washington when he did not say how much he loved his job as senator, even with all the difficulties and frustrations. he felt like he was in the world series every day. his job stimulated and challenged him. frank, i was so happy to take care of you, but it hurt every day watching you suffer. you told me i had done everything for you possible except to give birth to your children but you love me as if i did. rest in peace, my love. i will miss you always and thank you for the most beautiful memories and an extraordinary life. [applause] >> bonnie, vice president biden, secretary clinton, senator menendez, to each of the children and grandchildren, thank you for your words,

spoken from the heart. each thought and memory is a brush stroke for a portrait of a life well lived, worthy of continued admiration and study, a life whose ideals will serve as a bar of aspiration for so many here and

so many not here today. as i mentioned, senator lautenberg said each of us will not arrive in the promised land. in that sense, the service taking place on this side of the jordan and hudson has a poignancy verging on the poetic. the torah accounts said the decree was given even as moses resisted. god brought moses to the top of mount. he would have a chance to see the journey ahead. a legend explains it was a blessing of seeing into the future, the compassionate act of being able to see one's legacy extend beyond one's lifetime. the children and grandchildren. the generations to come. on that morning as his life passed into god's embrace, a similar tussle may have taken place in the heavens between

senator lautenberg and his divine sparring partner. frank knew he enjoyed not just the blessing of a life well lived, but the comfort of knowing his essence would be for a blessing into the future. so, too, today, tomorrow, and the months and years ahead, through our words, memories, and the deeds. we have the obligation to ensure even in loss, the extended shadow of senator lautenberg extends long past this day, and in so doing, individually and collectively, we will ensure his memory is a blessing for generations to come. amen. please rise for the memorial prayer. ? ? ♪ ♪

>> god, grant infinite rest in your presence among the holy and pure. for the soul of senator frank lautenberg, who has gone to his eternal home. merciful one, we ask our loved ones find perfect peace in your eternal embrace. may his life be bound up in the bond of life. may his soul rest in peace. let us all say, amen. i would ask that everyone remain standing in their seats as the family escorts the casket out of the building.

the immediate family toward the capitol police, who will lead the procession to the frank lautenberg train station. following the family's recessional, i will ask you remain in your seat until the official party has exited according to the directions. the senate on thursday for the senate floor and a burial at arlington cemetery on friday morning. may the memory of frank lautenberg be for an internal blessing. amen. >> amen. ♪ ["america the beautiful" playing]

>> on thursday the casket of senator frank lautenberg was taken to the lincoln memorial. on friday morning, the burial ceremony was held at arlington national cemetery. it was the last world war ii veteran to serve in the u.s. senate.

♪taps" playing]

>> on monday with the announcement of senator lautenberg's task, collects came to pay their respectful. here are some of their remarks. >> let us pray. oh god, thank you for being near to us in good and bad times. we celebrate your wonderful blessings that bring us new

victories each day. onwe look at the flowers the desk of our friend and brother, senator frank lautenberg, we thank you for his life and legacy. as we mourn his death, send your comfort into our heart. ands bonnie and his family give them your peace. if this good and courageous american inspire us to transcend the barriers that divide us. and to work for the good of america. , in your merciful name.

amen. >> please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag, of the united states of america. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. we will read a communication to the senate. >> washington dc, june 3, 2013. to the senate. paragraph three of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tim kane, senator from the commonwealth virginia to perform the duties of the chair. >> majority leader.

momentked to observe a of silence in honor of frank lautenberg, late senator from the state of new jersey. >> we will now observe a moment of silence about please stand. -- if all could please stand. >> mr. president, majority leader. a few matters to take care of. senate willday,

resume consideration of a bill. due for atwo bills second reading. the titlesll read of the bills for the second time. >> hr three, to intervu vicki construction and maintenance of the keystone xl pipeline. act to clarify that compliance with an emergency order under section 202 c of the federal power act. >> i object to both, with regard to both of these matters. >> objection having been heard, the measures will not be placed on the floor. >> mr. president, when i learned that frankmorning lautenberg had died, of course i became very, very sad. served with him for 2.5

decades or more here in the senate. now the flowers on his desk. i have a heavy heart. the senior senator from new jersey and my friend, frank lautenberg guided this morning as we all know. my cats are with his wife -- wife andare with his children and grandchildren. you people have pinched -- few people in this institution have the trimmed as much as frank lautenberg. his story was what the american dream is all about. he came from a family of working-class immigrants from . hise, russian poland

parents struggled and i've heard frank talk about how they struggle. and movedd so hard around new jersey often. 18, during the middle of world war ii, he enlisted in the army. i remember frank talking about his experiences. he was up on a ther pole and he could see war going on in his site. sight. he talked about the many experiences he had making can a better american. he was very proud of his military service. he was the last world war ii veteran having served in the

senate. we do not have any world war ii veterans anymore, mr. president. his death is a great loss for this institution in many different ways. when frank came home from the and waswas very smart permitted to attend the prestigious columbia university. he did it on the g.i. bill like millions of others. he quickly found his own business, his own company. he did it with two boy who befriends. -- boyhood friends. adp crew into the largest company of its kind in the world. he was so very proud of that. he never hesitated to tell everybody that he became rich.

he was a poor boy that became wealthy as a result of people being able to carry out their dreams. n't content with his personal success along. nothing made him more proud than what he did with government and ofn he served as the head the jewish federation. he was very proud of that. frank lautenberg was known for many things. , here he came to the senate was elected in 1982 he came to the congress the same year that i did. and that three decades since, he has worked on behalf of his state in the country.

once.ired wants. -- he could not stand retirement. he hated it. he returned to the senate in 2002. he had a remarkable career. i touched upon a few things. his determination that made him successful in the private sector certain well in the senate. to hissident, motivated own experience, friend lautenberg, a world war ii how muchecognizing this meant to him and he wanted to help a short the veterans returning from iraq and afghanistan enjoyed the same benefits that help to become so successful. my youngest boy just hated cigarette smoke.

and it really made him ill. airplanes, i remember we went for a procedure or you can smoke everyplace. in thaty sucked secondhand smoke. frank lautenberg took care of my boy it millions of other people that no longer have to suck in that smoke when they are on an airplane. here's the one more more than anybody else who we have to thank for protecting us from deadly secondhand smoke in an air plane. because his legislation banned smoking on airplanes. of thea longtime member public works committee. had he not retired for the sure pedal of time that he did he would have been chairman because he was not there. i got the opportunity to be the chair.

he focused on infrastructure, roads and highways. but of the things he touts would make this country a much safer place was to pass a tricky drinkinga trunking -- limit. drunk driving standard. he believed in helping the state of new jersey. that was his first priority. his second priority was helping the country. and i'm not sure which order they came in. he was focused on the country and new jersey at the same time. frank wanted to make sure women and children were protected from gun violence and because of him, we passed legislation to convict domestic abusers. of his workxamples

in the senate that saved lives. out of his sick bed in a wheelchair to vote on gun legislation. he agreed with a 90 of the american people. people who had severe mental problems or felons should not be able to buy guns. he agreed with 90% of the american people. he came from his bed to vote with us. he was so happy to be here. he came a was after that just a few days ago to vote when we needed him again. thatied so hard talking he wanted to live to be 100. , i took af years ago big delegation to china.

he bipartisan group. a wonderful trip, frank lautenberg, that was his last foreign travel. , i had not been to the great wall of china. it is pretty steep. that haverocks there been there for centuries and centuries. because frank was 88 years old, somebody grabbed his arm to help them. he pushed them away. he did not want help from anybody. he was on his own. that was the way he wanted to be. owes a great gratitude for frank for his service. he is always been so kind to me. -- he has always been so kind to me. he appreciated being here. he loved being in the senate.

the nation is going to miss his strength and leadership. that probably a lot of people do not know know about frank lautenberg, his sense of humor. i had him tell the story because nobody could tell the story like him. is that he left at his own jokes. he thought they were funny. about my favorites was two wrestlers. he would take five minutes or so to tell the story. it was hilarious. nobody can tell it like frank. he had a sense of humor and we appreciated that. even though the united states senate, mr. president, at had alt last night franken, there was room for two

funny people. prior to his death this morning, al franken always made us amount and often made us laugh -- smile and often made us .augh ever they were funny together and apart. it is with deep sadness that the senate family is going to say goodbye. we will do that wednesday morning. an exemplary public servant and faithful friend. >> the clerk will call the roll.

gerald fordal journalism award. how the human race can avoid mass distinction. another chance to see the funeral attribute for frank lautenberg who died on monday. >> of the next washington journal, james and i inferred bamford looks at public surveillance programs. a discussion on the growing number of families in which mothers are the primary andiders with maria kumar mona charen. un's rolend eu in -- in syria. >> when you put on a uniform for a job that's a maintenance job at this is true if you are

a building janitor or a sanitation worker, you are consumed by the role like you are just a part of the background. i am going to say almost like a machine. gets toral world overlook you. not really see you. i have called it -- it is like a cloaking device. those people who are star trek geeks will recognize that reference. ands both very frustrating also an interesting privilege. when i am wearing a uniform, i can observe people in ways they do not realize i am observing. . but nyu professor -- >> in why nyu professor.- >> the gerald ford foundation recognizes to journalists for

their reporting on the president. this year's winners were hal bernton and john dickerson. this is an hour. [applause] .> thank you it is an honor to be here. many years ago dad was here to do this award. he had such a great respect and love for the members of the he hadnd journalism and his ups and downs with the press, that he always respected them and counted on them as friends. he wanted that openness and transparency that was so important work is unique time in the presidency.

we have got to winners appear. the judges told us we had so many great submissions for the award for the presidency and defense and he sat with cannot do the luncheon without having a couple of the honorable mentions the recognize. i want to start off with that. the honorable mention for the presidency is "politico." can you please stand? [applause] is introefense tillman.- andrew [applause] it is my honor to present our first award winner, john dickerson, for the reporting on the presidency for the gerald ford award.

it was a fantastic series of articles. much of it was about the temperament of what a president has to handle the problems and the pressures once he become selected and he spoke about president obama. he talked about what kind of temperament would he have to handle a war and the capture and killing of osama bin laden and the economy. it made me reflect on dad and what he faced when he was duringnt back in 1974 vietnam and watergate area -- watergate. the economy was in tough shape. as family members, we deny think about the temperament. you think about your father and his temperament at home and how he handles family issues. i did not see anything in the article about is sasha ought bad grades. i know how the dad,

even-tempered he was. there was a night, mom and dad had a dog, one night the dog woke dad up and had to do his business outside. he waits a president up. he gets out of bed. he puts on his robe and slippers. he does what ever father does. as he goes out to the diplomatic entrance, the secret service it did not know he was leaving the white house at 2:00 a.m. in his bathrobe and slippers. he goes out and he and liberty walks the grounds they do their business -- the dog does his business. he goes back to walk into the white house and the door is locked. [laughter] is the humanity of being president of the united states. it is not about watergate or

dealing with the russians or the chinese, it is about your temperament when you have family issues like that, up. -- come up. it is an honor for us to give this award to john. i wanted to read what the committee wrote down here. the judge and committing has elected john dickerson of "slate" for distinguished reporting. during the campaign year, he produced an exceptional series of articles on the qualities required of the modern successful president in a postwar era and the relevance of campaigns and helping voters to decide which candidate has those abilities. using two decades of experience reporting in and around the white house, dickerson each effectively -- fixing effectively use anecdotes as --

dickerson use anecdotes and stories. the series covered all aspects of presidential leadership from inspiration and personal management to temperament and political skills. how details have changed in the digital era. he also provides an evenhanded primer on how those qualities apply to the major candidates. members of the judging committee were highly impressed by his work, ambitious and sweeping and illuminated by an impressive array of examples and stories and offering real insight into the american presidency. it is my pleasure to give this award now.

[applause] >> thank you, steve and all of you into the dickerson table. thank you to the foundation. when i first came to washington, my colleague one of ford award. one of the great honors is being in the company of the journalist who won it before. it is great to have this award because a gift is also the to model ourselves off. i will not read the 25,000 word series. i want to thank the team who helped me put it.

the first is the editor of "slate." he has us to take a month out of the year to write besides our daily journalism. that is a train for any journalism to do was in their life time. he forces us to do it once a year which is a joy. my two editors are here. michael newman helped me start this project. will dobson bristled at to the ground and made it clear -- the ground and made it clear. they had to endure me pacing their offices. " makes the common law of psychiatrist. the women in my life. my mother, the late nancy dickerson, the work that she did. she did it smarter and in high

heels. ann.fe, the editors get to go home at night but she has to deal with the low-level magnets that these kinds of series produced where you have to give accident monologues and talk about the .residency she did not lock me out. i appreciate that. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. a love affair with the newspaper business. i remember as a kid growing up thomas every morning he will start up with a stack of five newspapers. he would have the big national newspapers, the new york times india was finished with his local, hometown paper -- new york times and would finish

with his local, hometown paper. i asked him why. he said the local paper would always tell me if all those big federal programs ever made it back to my hometown. until hiske that dying day. he loved picking up a newspaper every morning. it is my honor now to get out to the award for distinguished reporting on national defense. it is hal bernton. let me read what the judges wrote. haly were pleased to select bernton for 26th annual gerald ford journalism award luncheon. on reverse diagnosis is of soldiers with posttraumatic stress disorder

uncovered a multifaceted, complex issue regarding the many challenges that both medical professionals and soldiers face in dealing with the aftereffects of combat. even though there has been a lot written about ptsd over this past several years thomas this series uncovered a huge hidden issue area -- issue. the-world effects on military personnel, their families, and the organizations designed to serve them and society at large. his writing approach is refreshing and returns to a traditional hard-nosed writing of complex issues coupled with genuine enterprise journalism that personalize the human impact of military actions in afghanistan.

the stories were broadly sourced with verified data and written with clarity. this was not just a set of stories. he places the spotlight on local as well asat mccord the reverberation that such decisions have on have as veterans transition into retirement. hidden devices showed his skill at finding a new, unique, human angle on a widely reported issue. withwar winds down millions of veterans returning from service in afghanistan and and howe issue of ptsd

the army and other organizations address its role and implications will be felt for years to come. his distinguished work will help leaders and politicians better understand how complex and difficult ptsd diagnoses is and the impact it exerts on the lives of soldiers and their families. his contribution to that discussion stood out among the many excellent submissions. in the opinion of the judges, capture the essence of the award." [applause] >> this is certainly a very

humbling honor. been helping to report on the wars in afghanistan and iraq for more than a decade. bit longer than i expected when one of my editors said why don't you help cover the military here back in 2001. i certainly realized from a lot of my reporting -- a lot of the rules of will dwarf -- wounds of war if we england we get the right care, everything will be all right. one of the inks i am learning as i go on -- things i learned as i go on, things are not all right for some folks. i wanted to note as i got this geraldhat joel ward -- ford had a big impact on my life when i was out of college. and was in eastern

washington thinking i could get a job picking fruit. had the jobrd opportunity program. there was a sign of employment toiler saying we need people build trails. i took the job. i had a great time. , over thee whole ball cascade. i went east, but i did not want to stay east after that. fall comeed the whole over the cascade. it has been an amazing thing. i want to end by thanking my editors at my newspaper. , it islot of newspapers taken a lot of hits. it remains a very strong and vibrant place to do good work. over ands supported me

over again when i wanted to go notfghanistan or basically necessarily stick close to home to report stories. they really supported me. i really appreciate that area i "the seattlegain, times" has endured as a great newspaper. my wife and parents who have been supportive of me over the years. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you. it is now my honor to introduce was anotherupton proud university of michigan grad. he was first elected to congress in 1987.

he represent parts of my dad's district in michigan. , congressman upton served on energy and commerce which has jurisdiction over matters concerning energy, healthcare, telecommunications, and manufacturing, and oversight and investigation. prior to his election to he worked for87, president ronald reagan in the office of management and budget. , can tell you from our family we are very grateful that in uptonof 2011 congressman

sponsored a resolution that allowed a statue honoring my dad in the capitol rotunda. the resolution was cosponsored by all 14 members of the michigan congressional delegation and passed .nanimously bipartisan support it is my privilege to ask fred upton to say a few words about my dad's centennial year. [applause] >> thank you. i am from south west michigan. if you are from michigan, raise your hand. [laughter] i do represent some disdain -- same constituents that president ford represented when he was the republican leader in the house. inan remember a town meeting a little tackle shop one

saturday morning where i had about eight people show up. tookroprietor of the shop me inside and he had a black- and-white picture and there was jerry ford as a congressman. he had like 80 or 100 boy scouts that had a campfire in the middle and they were circled around him as he was holding court and talking about what it was like to be in the congress. jerry ford was a boy scout. that was for sure. i was a scout, not an eagle. if you hold up your hand and recite what a scout does, all of that applied to him. if you go to that wonderful where iin grand rapids pass by on friday. you will see that so much of their is really tied to scouting from all around the country.

our country needed him right at the right time. watergate, the antiwar pickets in trouble we had and the double-digit unemployment and --lation, interest rates they all were a tough time for the country. he provided the trust. he really did restore the country to where we needed to go because we were torn apart. he was the right guy at the right time. not only did he put the country ahead of his own personal politics, costing him by all estimates the 1976 presidential election, he started the healing that our country so needed.

, i got to know him a little bit. i went to the white house the last day he was the president in 1977. i had a number of conversations with him as a member of congress on trade, defense. back then we had cell phones that were as big as your shoe. i would pull off on the road when he would call me. we would talk about our favorite sports team whether it was skiing for the michigan wolverines. this last friday, i spent the weekend with the john dingell who will serve as the longest serving member of congress in our history. if you know john dingell, i am sure that he will be on

everybody's top 10 list as one thehe most -- one of greatest members that ever served in the united states congress. i asked john about his friend jerry ford. he said he was the most honest, decent guy you'll ever meet. brought the respect not only to the republican leadership in the house but to the presidency in a time where we needed it the most. jerryou think about it, ford in a ten-month span went from a member of congress to the vice president to the oval office as president of the united states. our country certainly benefited from his unquestioned leadership. from him and his wife, betty. they were a couple because of their steady hands and faith

helped to stabilize a country that was so desperately needing the skills and human touch to get out of the crisis that thally threatened our 200 birthday. stretched the fabric to know him. he and betty were public servants from start to finish, pure and simple. he left a wonderful mark on and the love and joy of so many people. i'm delighted to know the ford family a little bit. i will tell you, there is not a time that i stroked the capital that i do not give them a big salute. it is really a marvelous statue. if you have not been to the rotunda, to buy very much. -- thank you very much.

[applause] >> thank you. to our second speaker today. how many people do you know what works for president or, nixon, , reagan, andn clinton. it is john gergen. his commentary is highly sought after. he is a professor and director for public leadership at the harvard kennedy school. herting with the news hour, has been a regular commentator on public affairs for some 28 years. in the late 98's, he was -- in 1980s, he was an editor. a warmjoin me in giving

welcome to john gergen. [applause] >> hello. it is good to see all of you here. it is wonderful to be with fred upton. i know why we have such a a crowd. the word got out that he was going to bring his niece. she is not here. ?he is now of age, isn't she the person knows that. i want to congratulate john dickerson and hal bernton for their awards this year. ,o some if you were younger jerry ford may seem part of a distant past. let me tell you this much and emphasize how relevant his presidency he remains today.

i was in the nixon administration. i remember what it was like to have a war on the press. i remember the wiretaps. this a conspiracy by the left to bring us down. i knew bob woodward. we went to school together. somed conversations on evenings about what was going on. of the pillars government seemed to be shaking and might come down. so much of that originated in -- thensions and hatred the press.ward one of the reasons that jerry ford was important because he caught off that war. because he did have a very different view of what democracy

is about and understood when you are in government there are times when you're angry about the leaks leaks. of course some of these leaks endangered national security. if you look at the allen's for the need -- a balance for the government to have security against the first amendment, that balance is often struck in the wrong place. we are going to apo now -- isiod now where the bounce been struck and the wrong coverage. we have to stand up and say wait a minute, the press is important. we all live that are off when we have a watchdog in the press. we do need watchdogs. [laughter] it can go too far. we do need watchdogs. all of our freedoms are protected when we have that. president ford understood that.

pressught in his secretary. they had a falling out. what did he do? and got aaround secretary from tv land. he turned to david from "time magazine." he became one of his most trusted advisers. they shared a good sense of had a decent according to him. the president value his advice. one of the previous winners of this award is here. tommy, i cannot remember the exact history. we tried to lure him and asked him if he would, from the press and coming to the presidency. he has remained a teller for a long time.or a president ford surrounded him with people that came from the

press. he did not always agree with what they had to say. there were times when he was extremely uncomfortable. -- and herand her candid way said we have an 18- year-old daughter, would i be alarmed if she had an affair? no. president ford was watching a tv. that even in the most uncomfortable moments, a vigilant press is important to the success of the broad public. it is important to go after who the leakers are. thoughtand we might -- that we might criminalize

reporters for asking the tough question goes beyond. this an important moment. what makes our society work? into a democratic society that makes it vibrant and whole? ,ell i have been a government i know the temptation to lie. i know how overwhelmed that temptation is. as somebody who spoke to the press, i was like to inside. lied to inside. you know there are people who will hold you accountable is what gets the government to tell the truth. that is a good thing. that is a good thing. [applause] 's presidency was the shortest in the 20th century. many feel it was a result of

something consequential. that is exactly wrong. he started out with stumbles. he was not prepared to be president. who could have imagined. he wanted to be speaker of house. when he realized he would not get there, he told his wife out will retire in 1976. lightning struck and tools pulled in. he did the best he could. there was some early stumbles. you look at the overall record and how he gathered himself he wasr and what he did, a person who understood if you are going to be a strong and effective leader find people who are better than you are and what you do it you will have a better team. if you look back at what he did in a short heel of time -- period of time, he replaced eight of the cabinet members.

he put in a terrific hersen. -- person. one of them is here. for my judgment and my perspective, the fourth cap ended -- ford cabinet ended up being the best that we have had. it did not last long. kissinger had stayed. you can go through the list. there was a very fine group of people. over time, he'll come push a lot. he helped to end the war. he accomplished a lot. he brought a new relationship with the soviet union that helped hasten the end of the cold war. he had a sensible approach to budgetary. he cut taxes.

he was 1 for 1. i thought it was the right idea. madeught his approach sense. he brought healing. a sense of integrity, and back to the white house. he was a straight shooter. that may a great deal of difference. ,t was not just watergate there were whole series of things going back to vietnam war. kids to their deaths for no purpose. lying about what was happening. watergate came along. the government -- there was a sense in the late 1970's that we can no longer govern ourselves. maybe we need a constitutional amendment. lloyd was in favor of that.

maybe we needed to make a more parliamentary system. ford helped to get things writes. that was a huge accomplishment. as a result of that, he started coming back to washington on his birthday's in june. this marks another one of those birthdays. he had a reunion every year with all his folks who worked for him. it was a wonderful gathering. it brought people together who had not seen each other in a while. they were proud that they worked for him. they shared that bright. i happen to be one of the representatives. -- they shared that pride. that was a sense of president ford was ms. --

underestimated. i must tell you that we on the him. misunderstimated i received a call or ms. office saying the president has a speech draft. a speech he is supposed to give. he would like you to read it and can he call you at home? i said, sure. i read the speech. it was a gorgeous beach. it was very complex. it was rich. speech.s a gorgeous it sang. it was so interesting. it was not at all with the way he spoke. we wrotet the way speeches for him. there was a fear that he will stumble over the words. it will not be him. you have to give him a see, spot

run. thought that he wanted me to put it in his style. he called me that night. he had his pipe. he asked if i had the speech. he asked if i had a chance to read. i said it is a gorgeous speech. i asked do you want me to work on it and put in your style but mark -- style? i heard him chuckle. say something. he said this the first time i have had a time where i could write my own speech. i realized that this man was capable of giving far better speeches and the crap -- than the crap we gave them. it was embarrassing.

in the rearview mirror, we have better understood. he is looking better as a president and a human being. he was midwestern. i remember the last of the reunions was his 90th birthday. george bush gave a dinner for him. that dinner, president ford when he got up to speak said, when i was young my mother taught me three basic rules and they have served me well even here in washington. work hard, tell the truth, and come to dinner on time. [laughter] that is so ford. that captures who he is. under not want to spend more time. -- i do not want to spend more time. we will answer a few questions. i want to end with this. for many years, after george whatngton surfed asked

would george washington do? , whatsked afterward would eight lincoln have done under the circumstances? -- abe lincoln would have done under the circumstances? trying to make sure you can firm -- conform the way you behave in the moral standards you set to lincoln. i would argue we should think about what would jury for to do under some circumstances we face ford do under some circumstances we face today? he had 16 battle starts. -- kamikazeszi's coming across.

a very important part of who he was. .he world is still dangerous figure out what your strategy is and make sure you can afford it. do not make it a play thing. or is not in question that you would say you have to get spending and taxes under better control. this is irresponsible to keep going the way we are going. he would argue that we have got to get back to a way of governing in which people can work across the aisles and with respect and understanding like john dingell had toward jerry ford. many of us who worked for reagan are proud of the temper tipper/reagan relationship.

jerry ford because you can always count on him. john who is no longer with us but has left us a book about jerry ford "an honorable life." he told the story. when richard nixon was president and spiro agnew , nixond in disgrace needed a new vice president. he wanted john connolly. he had converted to the republican party. he had to get through the senate. he called the leadership of the senate, two democrats. who had all the honors in the world. when he died, he asked to be up here. a plot

that was the kind of person he was. carl albert was the other. president nixon called both of them. we have to pick out who the vice president is. 50erybody knew there was a 50- chance he would not survive. nixon said i would like to put junk only up. they said, mr. president, do not do that. he is slippery. we do not trust him. he is not a man of his word. they said -- he asked, who would you like? that jerry ford. he is the man we trust. the work across the aisle. we'll have a better country jerry ford there. the congress, the democrats ford the president. why we continue to celebrate him today. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you. i will invite you and senator upton appeared. -- up here. some questions. the most common theme that you addressed mr. gergen is bipartisanship or lack thereof. i have congress become so polarized? how much there is not as much compromise? -- why has congress become so polarized? >> let me just say when i was elected back in 1987, we had a member of our leadership team

that was the secretary of the republican conference. thesaid, folks, republicans, we are the minority. it willve a good bill, either get defeated or stolen. on every decided that piece of legislation i would seek out a democratic sponsor and would try to work to get things done. on one of my very first bills and to get to your question here in a second, one of mine was to get a colleague of mine who represented baltimore and we passed a bill that provided a tax credit for small businesses that had to make structural changes to comply with the americans with disabilities act. we had the black caucus and the republicans as said, we think

will move the bill. and we did. he said you have ruined my reputation. as the mostheld important piece of legislation impacting small businesses. the chamber has given a piece of kudos. , am big time with her scores what have you done with my reputation? we have got to work together. i am a relatively new chairman. i have changed one of the rules in our markups. first. bipartisan -- i say let's work together to seek to get things done. we would take a major piece of legislation impacting a pharmaceutical company. john dingell was one of my big supporters to getting that through markup. byplan to have that past later this afternoon. if you look at what we have done, i have always been policy over politics.

the last congress we passed 80 bills on the house floor they came out of my committee. all before five had democrats support. 40 of them, the president signed into law. that is not a bad record. it is not what a lot of people like to hear on the talk shows, but we have to work together. there are a lot of great members. i was surfing on a mental health conference. a lot of members who care where we are going. we have a divided government. let's work together. well try to do that in our committee. other my colleagues have the same attitude. the margin is small. we have 233 republicans in the house. a margin of 15. we have got to work together. with got to govern together.

it is complex. many of the contours of the subject was described in a book. you can find many different hallowing out of the middle. the can often influence conclusion. that number has dwindled a great it. there are various rules. you can go on and on about the rules. it is partly a cultural issue and where we are as a country and the generational changes that taken place. i have had the privilege with the world war ii generation was running things. many people have come to age. presidents in a

row who all were a military uniform and they came back to washington thinking they were the civic generation. they worked together. that has been lost since that generation has left. i do not think it is hopeless. we need to be electing new people like fred, the spirit he represents. we have a generation that is younger still that is very different. in many ways, the millennial's are coming through now. [laughter] about this being the narcissistic generation. i find it is very idealistic and very hopeful of changing the country. they are going into nonprofits. i continue about teacher or america. it is extraordinary.

the other group we should be hopeful about and a silver lining are the young people coming back who will be taking off the uniform after serving in iraq and afghanistan. some of those people you are going to restore him spin is -- a spirit of bipartisanship. scandals going on at the current white house. i would like to hear the take from both of you on the secret probes that were conducted into the associated press and fox news. is this an infringement? where thingsnow are headed on this. i do think there are more than capable chairs and committees that are beginning an

investigation of this. we have councils. we haven't oversight subcommittee. we have the lawyers and the capability to ask for subpoenas and information. we need to find out what the truth is. need to follow the trail and find out where it takes us. i am quite confident you will see that happen on the irs. we will get the answers. as my dad always said, tell the truth the first time, you do not have to worry about it the second. this.e spoken to there is no question in my mind mind that we crossed a line when the fbi filed an affidavit and co-ed mr. rosen a conspirator. a criminal co-conspirator. simply asking questions per you cannot put the press in that situation.

that is why it is so important to push back and make sure we get on the right side of this. it is hard to assess unless you are there. it does seem excessive. how many people they swept into the net. the government has become very powerful. what we need to ask is restraint. re-strengthen the use of power. restraint when we send our forces abroad. and restraint in how we treat each other. --seems to me that what the what unites the issues and the lack of restraint. people inside government have to treat citizens with a certain dignity and understanding. we have to be respectful of certain standards. it is not just a question of what the laws are. it is a question of what the standards are.

[applause] >> from serving in so many administrations, how would you assess the effectiveness of this president's communication in the scandals? i think this president has a capacity to be one of the finest communicators we have had. the speech in philadelphia he gave during the 2008 campaign, it would be a star injury. i think this president has often inspired in the way he has addressed people, especially the young. we should respect that. he should be given credit for that. i think on the question of what , i think therent

have been more effective in campaigns than governing. they have been a little ham- fisted on whether it is benghazi, or some of the irs. one of the things you learn in damage control, i started with watergate. one of the first things you learn is it really is important to get your story out fast. but first it is important to get your story straight. understand what it is you are dealing with. you have to do -- and it is not ways easy. things get so riled up so quickly. lawyers will not be present when you debt with some of these

questions. they didn't tell you couldn't release that. ,ow they are so heavily lawyer there is a political side of the house that has to push back and read we have a responsibility here. >> one question on current events and congress, the public has expressed a disinterest in the impact of sequestration on national defense. why is that? how do you get this perception problem solved? >> a couple of things. i got my stripes working for ronald reagan, who cared about the deficit. a lot of battles. one of the primary reasons i ran for office. you might remember in the early acrossor early 1980s,

the board cuts if congress did not do its work. i was in the first meeting with graham and rugman. that was how this thing was devised. in the house, i was a member of the supercommittee. in the house, i was on the supercommittee. it broke my heart that we didn't get it done. it really did. we got a group of 12 people. we had an equal number versus a majority that really wanted to come out with a solution. done democrats, some republicans. at the end, they said we will do the sequestration. that will force congress tried to come up with something to get itone.

at the end of the day, it did not work. we passed two different bills with real offsets to the sequester. it didn't get anything out of the senate. i can river sitting -- i can remember sitting with leon panetta when president obama was sworn in. the house and senate leadership, leon panetta, i served with him when he was in the house. i said you guys are not going to .ess -- let the senate it is coming. at the end of the day, this is not the best way to do it. it isn't. we wanted to make the

individual departments, but their own choices, set their priorities without to deal with these different things. fromded up they took money the airport improvement fund to offset those layoffs that otherwise would have come. we have got to get serious about the deficit. the fiscal cliff issue was resolved. that kicked it automatically. revenues are up. the sequester was going to kick in automatically must we came up with an offset. the senate failed to take action. it is not going to change for the balance of this year. i am hopeful that we can sit down, as republicans and democrats, and figure out the path that we have to be on, including entitlements. when jerry for old -- --

>> we're almost out of time. before wrapping up, let's get a couple of housekeeping matters to take care of. our upcoming luncheon speakers. wednesday, june 6, the u.s. agriculture secretary. of hewlett-rmer ceo packard, who serves as chairman of 360. i like to present our guest today with our traditional coffee mugs. [applause] >> this is in accord with the house standards. any gifts youept

could drink in one sitting. >> i will not tell you the value. i am quite sure it is within congressional ethics. thank you to our guest for being here today. i would like to thank our national press club staff, including our journalists institute. here is a reminder, you can find more information about the club at our website. press.org. if you'd like a copy of today's program, you can find it there. thank you for coming. we are adjourned. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> a discussion about how the human race can avoid mass extinction. then a funeral for frank lautenberg, who died on monday. a chance to see the gerald ford

journalism award presentation. , ida mckinleyalth stepford -- suffer from epilepsy. her husband would sit next to her at state dinners so he would shield her face from guests. despite her health problems, she traveled as first lady, even attending the pan-american exhibition where her husband was assassinated. we will look at the life of ida mckinley monday night at nine a clock -- 9:00. >> now a discussion on how to to preventces biological discussion. this is about 45 minutes.

>> recent magazine articles. we are joined by -- the book is "scatter, i debt, and remember." the headline in your piece is how to death proof a city. mass 16 chan, death. . why use these words? guest: these are events where more than 70% of species on the planet die out over a time of one million years. it is sure in geological time.

it is quite long in human time. most of these have been caused by climate change area did there is a lot of evidence mounting now that humans may be about to enter a new mass extinction. the proof is that we are seeing climate changes. part of the proof is we're seeing elevated extinction levels among animals. more animals going extinct there we might expect over the past couple of centuries. the evidence is mounting that we are looking down the barrel of this kind of disaster. the question is, how should we as humans respond? that is what i am interested in tackling. tot: you write in your piece safeguard the future of our urban cities, our cities must be sturdier, healthier, and more alive. you call the my biological city. what do you mean? guest: i am talking about the

fact that cities are a place where most people will be comingover the next centuries. already already happy world's population lives in in cities. the u.s. estimates that by 2050, 67% of the worlds population population will be living in cities. those numbers are much bigger for developed countries. aties are also a source of huge amount of our gdp. some estimate up to 85%. these are very important areas to focus on if we want to see the future of humanity progress. one of the proposals that i make, and that a lot of scientists and designers are making as well, is that we need to be pushing our cities toward being more survivable. that can mean something as simple as being prepared for

disasters like earthquakes and floods, and mudslides. that can mean reengineering buildings that already exist. making emergency evacuation plans more widely available to the populace, so people know what to do. looking to the future, one of the things i do in my work, you also are looking at changing the materials that we make cities out of. that is where the biological city idea comes in. right now, in research labs, we're seeing the development of what are called self-healing or smart materials. things like c meant that can heal itself -- things would cement that can heal itself. the idea is to create cities that are sustainable. we you not have to keep knocking things down and building new things. we have structures that are robust against damage, but robust against the ravages of time. again looking toward the future,

part of the city will involve new kinds of fuels, like biofuels that might be grown in and around cities. >> we are talking with and about her "discover magazine" article. if you want to call lynn, (202) 737-are at 0002. we will get to your questions and comments in just a second. will our cities look any different than they do now? guest: that is a good question. when you are looking ahead to 50 years from now, if we start using more biomaterials and self-healing materials, probably cities would look a lot the way of they do now pray the difference would be a bridge developing a crack, that bridge

crack would seal itself up. orsea scars on your bridges buildings. 100 50 yearske out, a far horizon, the horizon we are looking at, you might start to see cities that look like they are covered in vines, or covered in algae. it is a good chance at the cornerstone of the future city might be something like a genetically engineered algae that can do anything from provide fuel, to provide water purification, and even provide lighting. instead of burning fossil fuels to have your lights on at night, you might just have algae that glows at night. cities might start to look something like a real win -- ruin. outside you would have these scarred concrete, but inside you would have high-tech internet

and total access to awesome developed technology. it looks very natural me outside. we would still have all of our modern conveniences on the inside. >> the title of the piece is " how to death proof the city to safeguard the future." , how humans will survive a mass extinction. many of you have guessed from listening to her, you're the founding editor of a science website. io9.com you can find everything from stories about the latest scientific innovations to the latest star trek movie. host: let's get to our first

phone call. you are on the air. caller: good morning. i am interested in knowing how annalee could revise a city like detroit, michigan, which is dying from within. it has lost over half its population since 1980. decay in grave urban that city over the last couple of decades. how would she resolve that situation for detroit in particular? .uest: it is a good question detroit is always given as the example of a classic city in decline. it is the case that if you look at how cities function over the long term, and you look at a city like istanbul, which is existing for thousands of years, the way that i city serve size

-- survives is by constantly changing not just its urban layout, but the kinds of economic production that it engages in great it changes the relationship it has with other cities, and other nations around it. , isoit, in the short term looking at some tough times. i think that over the long term, will have to happen is detroit will need to have new industries developing order to revitalize the city. under the new relationships with the cities around it. it is not something that can happen overnight. it has to be part of a long- term plan to revitalize that city. it always come back to cities have to be flexible when it comes to the kinds of industries that they are promoting, and that they are cultivating. just like an ecosystem needs

adversity, cities also need diversity in terms of their economic productivity's. one of the problems with detroit has been that it has been focused tightly on one particular industry. the first thing that needs to happen is that versification. host: what is the role of the government in safeguarding cities, preventing the mass extension of urban areas? guest: the role of the government is twofold. one is, i feel the role of the government is to put money into organizations like the national science foundation, and the department of energy to allow scientists to do the kinds of research that will allow us in 50 years or 100 years to lose our dependence on fossil fuels, lose our on materials that are heavily polluting, and the have awful byproducts.

also, it is the government's role to participate in coming up with better city planning. that city planning is everything from how the city is designed for people, to how the city invests in businesses. i think -- i did not mean to say that the government should control all the businesses in the city. are the government's role should be to help nurture that economic diversity. that could be part of the long- term plan. they should never be a plan that we depend on one particular type of way for people to make a living. host: you write about in your book, and it is featured in the piece, subterranean cities. can you explain? guest: when you're looking at mass extinction, a huge global destruction event, one of the possibilities for the human future is that we would have to move underground.

the kinds of disasters that might cause that would be a radiation disaster, which is may be caused by war, by an industrial accident, they be caused by nearby star exploding and shooting gamma rays and our hemisphere. it actually has happened in earth's history. it sounds and michael bay movie, but it could happen. it is something we need to think about. in that case, if you want to be protected against radiation, a great way to do that is to have a couple of feet of rock between you and the radiation source. underground cities are such a appealing idea for coping with that kind of disaster. what is interesting is, a lot of our futuristic stories about living underground depicted it as this horrific life. we're all going to mutate mutate, and we will become moveble fascists will be underground pray that is not be the case.

the happen underground cities historically they have thrived and have been quite a statically pleasing. for example, when i was researching, i went to central turkey, where there are a number of underground cities that were built at least 1500 years ago by people who were suffering from marauders coming into their cities, and killing people, and stealing things. downwere able to get beneath their houses, and create cities that were in some cases able to hold up to 20,000 people. they had stables, and wineries, and public meeting areas. every person who had a house above ground also headquarters below ground. they managed to live in the cities for months at a time. they had ventilation shafts. that was how they did it. it was a way for them to ward off attacks. a similar thing could be done

now if we were to repurpose mining shafts, repurpose train tunnels, or start building underneath our homes, which is happening if i many cities that are high density. partly the underground city is a purely defensive idea. what if there is a terrible disaster? where would we go? partly it is a way of thinking about how we use our space. how do we become more efficient at using space? there are actually a lot of designers, and architects who think about how do you make an underground city a place to live it doesn't feel like you are about to turn into one of the science fiction mutants. one tip i wear -- one tip i will share, the biggest problem people have is that they feel like everything looks the same. like they are always walking

down halls look exactly the same. the number one recommendation for building an underground city is creating neighborhoods. create areas that look really dramatically from from each other. so people have a sense of being in a civilized nation nation, or in a city. instead of feeling like they are in a giant underground bunker. wondering whyre we are talking but underground, and only is writing for "discover magazine about death proofing a city. it is based on her new book read -- book. let's go to van, a democratic color. an 86% black is city.

they stopped hiring blacks. i was worried about whether the qualification was there or not. i began to ask questions. they couldn't work out here. he question my intelligence the came to the railroad when i was 19 years old. tigers to what we are talking about. guest: you are talking my desperate -- death proofing the city. they are getting all the jobs to white people. [inaudible] what about social issues impacting the area of our

cities? guest: it is a huge issue. racism has been a huge problem in our cities in the past. certainly in the labor force. going forward, we're going to start seeing new kinds of social issues emerge, where we need to be thinking about how can communities work together to make cities healthier? both economically, in terms of making sure the actual population in the city is getting jobs in the city, and is getting fed in the city, but also in terms of how do you think about a city as an organism? cities are going to very likely be a locust for future pandemics. close are in such quarters. people think of that as a health problem among or as a science problem. it is actually much more a social problem. we need to get people working together to get things like

vaccinations to protect their neighbors. not just to protect themselves, but when you get vaccinated, you prevent the disease to being passed on. by the same token, we need to be thinking about how the cities of emergency services would coordinate in order to get vaccines people, or if it is too late, how to get their pc people to deal with pandemics. i think that it is tempting to look at a city to always think of the city as one part of it just engineering and infrastructure, and scientific stuff, and then over here, totally unrelated to that, all of the social issues, like our caller was bringing up. around labor, how neighbors treat each other, around jobs allocated. those are issues that are absolutely connected. as we move into the future, part of the goal of having a living city is going to be cities that

career -- care for the people who live in them, down to feeding those people. as city of the future needs to have farms so that city is providing food. not necessarily for free. the food is local, nearby, so that you do not the situation where there are people starving. the city needs to become much more of a coherent social organism. host: you are right in the discover magazine, feeding a hungry city with a skyscraper that features solar powered farms on the outside of that. you're right that cities of the future might be themselves by creating forms inside in enormous skyscrapers, where every floor is a greenhouse. all the water would be recycled.

the structures would be designed to be carbon neutral. is definitely one possibility. there are a lot of people who believe that we will have these skyscraper farms. that is a fantastic idea. it is certainly demonstrating what i am talking about, the idea of a city that can filled itself -- feed itself. cities would be designed to be very high density at their centers, where most people live. instead of having suburbs surrounding the city, instead of having a kind of urban sprawl, all of those areas would be farms. feedingrms would be into the economy of the city. there is a famous urban theorist who said that the goal for city designers, and city planners, should be that everything that a city is importing should eventually become as something the city is producing. that is absolutely the case with food. especially as we are going into the future, food is going to

become a political issue. it is going to be in a river issue. -- an urban issue. we will hear from jonathon next. caller: can you hear me? i do like c-span. i enjoy. thank you for your guest. you are on track. i want to run for political party in michigan him up because you are are saying -- on the money. people should listen. you can probably help yourself if you listen when people talk. you say a lot of stuff going on that i can say. i do not like the governor --5

[inaudible] sent sunday 65, everything is gray. detroit has been going downhill since 1965. it is just getting trashed. i think people can work together on a plan. host: i'm going to leave it there. guest: i think this is the case that we need to be working on unger term plans for cities. part of the reason why you see a city fall into decline, whether it is destroyed or another place, is because of the fact that we do not have these long- term plans for keeping our cities diverse, information sure that we have an idea of where the city is going, and how it is

going to evolve over time. host: on twitter, vivian says -- any thoughts about natural disasters like we saw in oklahoma? in a city prepares for that the future? guest: this is the moment when we would hope that oklahoma would in fact go in the direction of building structures that are going to be more disaster proof in the future. part of the reason i use the term death proof to describe the cities, is precisely this kind of moments. to think about, what was it about the city that was a problem during a disaster, that is likely to strike again? something like tornadoes in oklahoma, that is a slamdunk in

terms of the fact that this is going to, dinh -- going to come again. i live in san francisco. earthquakes are the big issue. there's a going to come again. how do we design our city to be robust against that? i think that is where people, consumers need to be thinking about what kinds of homes can i build? there are ways of talking to architects and engineers, getting information about what you want to build read -- build. when developing roads, and other kinds of public infrastructure, they also need to be thinking about that, and consulting with engineers, and finding out how can we build buildings that have adequate underground shelters? how can we build buildings that can be robust against strong winds? all of the country, there are labs where engineers of looking

at this grade when they have a huge warehouse with a build a structure, and blow incredibly strong winds of the structure to find out what kinds of homes and buildings are robust against that. we actually have that data. as the beautiful part. the big part, the big problem is getting that scientific data, getting engineering into the hands of people who are willing houses, cities are planning how they want to design the sitting, and make sure that is that connection between innovation in the lab, and innovation in the city. host: sandy, in d.c. caller: do you have any ideas about the concept of space colonies as an alternative response to mass extinction? my own instinct of reaction is that space colonies could lead to a/an bird -- slash and burn

strategy. i would rather see investment in earth. i wonder how you view it. ae compatible concepts, or massive diversion in waste of resources. guest: i think that space colonies are a great long-term goal. when i say a long-term goal, i mean something that is hundreds of years out, or even thousands of years out. saying something is 1000 years out doesn't really fit into our typical political cycle. it sounds like science fiction. i really do think that we need to be thinking in those terms because what is immediately important are these issues in our cities. in the near term, over the coming decade, and even over the coming next century, i think we need to focus on earth. not that we shouldn't be thinking about how to eventually get to space.

i think it is portman have a space program, not just for fun stuff like going to mars, but for things like convincing asteroids from hitting the planet. we need to be aware of what is going on in our neighborhood and our solar system, just a protection. but we also need to be thinking about the technologies we can use to improve our relationship with the environment am a to mitigate time and change, to create cities that are carbon neutral, and maybe one day even carbon negative. that is our immediate goal. in the long term, hopefully we will have space cities. that is not going to happen on our lifetime. host: what do current budget cuts, space, nasa programs, what impact does that have on this conversation, the research that is happening now on the evolution of our cities? guest: the budget cuts are

absolutely devastating. i am personally very disturbed by how little money goes into basic research. groups like the national science foundation, which has done so much to fund a basic research that will allow us ultimately to build cities that are more sustainable, we need to be building up that budget. not cutting it down. the budget is integral to the future of the u.s.. i also think that one kind of small ray of hope is the department of energy, who has science initiatives right now which should get much more funding. guest: they are looking at alternative fuels, looking at the fundamental building blocks of ecosystem six -- ecosystems.

i think that these budget cuts are actually terrifying when you look at the future. i hope that moving forward we are going to go back to an era in the u.s. where we really value a sick research and education. we have been there before. i think it is going to have to come back. we are going to have to realize that this is the pathway forward. host: the founding editor of io9.com. she's the author of a new book. discoverytured in " magazine." how to death proof a city. robert, jersey city. caller: i was wondering if glass -- class status dictates who lived underground.

undergroundkey had cities. what would that person do? clearly, they might get left on ,op while whatever is happening while everyone else is in town. fundamentalis the question. as incredibly good question. it is one of the basic social problems of our cities. he goes out but we were saying before where some populations gets shut out of jobs. the best way to address this issue is to have good public infrastructure. they you are not dependent on being a rich person who can dig underneath your house have a shelter. i think that we have lost sight of the fact that cities are

public spaces. they are designed to foster community, and by fostering a community, we foster economic productivity. you cannot expect people to be productive and to put their all into their work if they feel on safe. -- unsafe. if there is a horrible storm, i'm the person that is going to be left on the surface. that is why cities need to be thinking more about coordinated disaster response plans. not just creating those plans. most cities have those plans. but letting citizens in the city no what would happen in the event of a disaster. sometimes i call this at a city level. helping the people in the city to prepare and prep for my happen if a disaster struck, so that you know that there is a public underground shelter i could go to. it would take me five minutes

to get there by car, or 10 minutes by bike. this is how i would do it. if i hear an alarm, this is where i'm going to go. that really is part of the municipal government duty. to make sure that the citizens understand what resources they have in the event of a disaster. >> quagmire once -- on twitter -- guest: and mass extinction is actually both worse and better than what you are thinking. mass extinction is when 75% or more of species on the planet die out. that means that there is always a percentage of cc who survive. there have been five of these mass extinctions already on earth. species have always survived.

have survivedo have characteristics of human beings. the two main characteristics are that they are very adaptable, and that they are able to scatter to multiple regions on the planet. ecological nietzsche's -- we have gotten into pretty much every habitat on earth and adapt to it using our ability to actually change the environment. we actually are very likely to survive and that mass .istinction -- max extinction we have characteristics that will bring us through. the question is, how will we survive? what will our survival look like? will it look like something where we are living in caves? or will it look like something where we have actually went for that disaster, we have built our cities to be robust against it. we have a good public infer structure to protect people.

maybe we will actually survive in a way that is fairly comfortable. host: on twitter, scary thoughts -- our next caller. caller: one issue but the extinction, once you decide to have everybody lived together in such a common grouping as a city, you lose ethnic diversity that creates the cities we live in. -- not want to live between eating at a tocco stand or a taco bell. once you wipe out the affect diversity, every one will die because everyone he comes cookie-cutter. you need to have diversity to have a city to survive. thank you. guest: i think that is

absolutely true. we have been talking already about meeting diversity in the city. part of diversity in any system is what keeps it robust. i think there is actually very strong evidence that cities that survive over time do it precisely because they have at the cities that don't get homogenize. where you have neighborhoods that become homes two different ethnic groups am aware you have a welcoming environment for immigrants, as much as possible, and if you look at cities that have survived for very long periods of time, like aroma or mexico city, the cities have been many different cities over time. they have had many different groups passed through them. they been associated with many different in hires. wes kept them alive and vital is that the groups have always come in and transformed the city, and

added to the city. i think the future of the city is very much about maintaining human diversity, while creating public spaces where the script can come together effectively, and work, and create new ideas. absolutely, you need diversity to do that. host: on twitter -- there is evidence on both sides. they are suppressing technologies, there is evidence that they are investing in new technologies. ultimately, what is going to have to happen is that energy companies are going to have to invest in alternative fuels. we are going to reach peak oil. i am often shocked that people find a controversial. it is a limited resource, just like if you use all the ketchup in your bottle. you are not going to find the ketchup by looking on the glass

prayed enough to accept that in one hundred 50 years, we are going to be looking at a very different landscape in terms of the kinds of fuels that we are using him of the energy we are using. that is going to be part of our economy. as going to be how companies make make money. we are in a very dark face in the transition right now. companies are trying to hold on to the old fuels, and the old resources, and haven't figured out how to monetize the new resources. host: we need to people thinking of these things. the space waste -- the space race was a last-minute inspiration. guest: we are still in the middle the space age. i'm surprised people say the space age is over. he have a robot -- we have a robot on mars, driving around. it is doing geological testing

pre-it is learning about the environment on another planet. you can go to the nasa website and check out mars through the eyes of a robot. i think the space age is different when we -- from what we thought it be. it is not going to be a city on the moon in the next 50 years. what is going to be is exploration using technologies that we never even thought we would have when when we started sending people to the moon. how a sophisticated robots that can move autonomously in an alien world. wow. that is sci-fi territory. now it is real. i think, when you think about hope, think about the mars rover. think about how that is a human tool, and the human friend that is out there on mars doing research as we speak. i think that there is a lot of hope to read i do think that our immediate goal has to be to look

at humans on earth, and fix the problems that we have here before we get our cities on the moon. host: jane, republican caller. caller: i love this topic. i'm a fan of science fiction. i'm more of a libertarian republican, but you said earlier that you love -- he thought the city would become a social organism. spoke of food and farms. collectivism. collective farms really don't work prayed they did not work in the former soviet union. who owns these forms? it is collectivism. for natural disasters, you talk about wins. what about major flooding? i will take your comments off air. thank you. guest: i think there is a lot

of legitimate fear about collectivism, and the idea that the way we would respond to disasters by allowing the government to come in and control everything read i do not think that is the case. -- everything. i do not think that is the case. we let our free markets here. love capitalism here. what you are going to see going , itard with urban farming will be a patchwork. it will be a lot of private farms. it will be some farms are subsidized by the government, just do it we have now. i think that the cities are not going to be all that much different from the way we have cities today. when i talk about things like having public infrastructures for people in disasters, that is the kind of stuff that we have now read it is not well organized. all of the emergency services in a city have to be part of the

government structure. it has to be something publicly owned and funded. it is for the social good. parts of those emergency responses to be produced by private industry. for example, there are companies now like ibm and cisco that are selling city operating systems. ecological systems allow different emergencies groups to talk to each other quickly, to make lance, so you are always going to see a patchwork of public money, and private money funding the transformation. that is delay the city has always been been. it has always been fueled by markets as well as by government. host: a couple of tweets here. --

guest: this is not going to be a nonnatural extinction. humans are natural. we are not the only species to have absolute transformed the environment of the planet. in fact, very early in the development, the atmosphere was dominated by methane. now we think is a gas we don't want any environment. algae are also known as by terry a, -- began to release oxygen as part of its digestive cycle. over hundreds of thousands of years, that algae polluted the environment with so much oxygen, the it completely alter the atmosphere. ihumans are not the only creatures who have altered the arenly do have is we

conscious of what we're doing. over the past several decades,, we have become aware of the fact that we are pro-turbine -- pre- turbine the carbon cycle. we are working hard politically to find ways to reverse that process, or to mitigate that process. host: i have to jump in. we have run out of time. the house is about to come into session. if you're interested in in her article, it is "discover magazine," and she's the author of a new book. thank you very much for your time. looks at theord history of government public surveillance programs. recent revelations acknowledging the existence of ongoing top- secret surveillance. then a discussion on the growing number of families in which mothers are the primary providers.

then the u.s. and human roles and syria read washington journal is live on c-span. for frankal lautenberg, who died monday. after that, the gerald ford journalism award presentation. i realize the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war. frequently, the words of pursuant fall on deaf ears. it is useless to speak of these. useless until the

years -- leaders of the soviet union adoptee attitude. i hope they do. i believe we can help them do it. i also believe that we must re- examine our own ideas, as individuals, and as a nation. our attitude is as special as theirs. as a graduate of the school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war, and wishes to bring peace, should begin by -- >> tom brokaw reflect on the kennedy presidency sunday at 7 -- 7:30. new jersey senator frank lautenberg died on monday at the age of 89 years old. according to a statement from his office, he had complications for from pneumonia.

on wednesday, immortal service was held in new york city. this portion recall -- this is one hour, 10 minutes. [no audio] >> as i was getting up from the pew and moving into the aisle, the vice president said, good luck following that. [laughter] that crossed my mind. i was listening to brian. frank would have loved that. i could see the casket vibrating.

colleaguesy of my on the senate to our here, i had the great clear village -- privilege of serving with frank. i found myself often sitting with him in the back rows. frank came back to the senate as you know after retiring the first time, and missing the , and thethe advocacy opportunity to speak his mind and do things for his constituents. when you first come to the senate, you are assigned a seat. it is usually in the back. i would often be sitting with frank when we were having will are called voteramas. you cast your vote, you sit down

and mill around. frank always had something to say. [laughter] it was usually a running commentary. what we were doing, what we're not doing. those jokes, which have been referred to, which all of us got very used to hearing, you would sit with frank. you couldn't help but have a smile on your face at least one time during the conversation. as frank would say, it is not where you said that counts, it is where you stand. there was never any doubt where he stood. he did stand with those families who keep their children safe from toxic chemicals, from smoking, from drug driving. he stood with the victims of gun violence and hiv aids. he stood with veterans trying to

follow in his footsteps, and go from service to school, to success in civilian life. he stood proudly with the working people of new jersey, trying to provide for their families, to build businesses like frank and his two friends he stood with the riders of amtrak. and most of all, he has stood with his beloved family. he would talk about you all the time. he would invoke you from the senate floor. especially the grandchildren. explaining why he fought so hard for what he believed in. it was always for you. and for all children, and the children yet to come. frank was also a steadfast

champion of women's rights and opportunities. i have heard now perhaps why he had to be. [laughter] but i have to tell you, i was talking with some of my friends who are still serving so incredibly well in the senate today. we did consider him an honorary member of the women senators club. barbara mikulski, the longest- serving woman in the senate, have a phrase for those of our male colleagues who really go the extra mile on behalf of women. she called them our galahad. frank was one of them. but he would have been the first to say he was doing it for his daughters and for his

granddaughters. when he left the senate be first time in 2000, he mused on the future. he hoped that someday one of my grandchildren would open a history book and say there was my grandfather. he was the one who stop smoking on airplanes, he was the one who raised the drinking age to 21, saving thousands of families from having to mourn the loss of a child. things to help this country that will last far beyond his service in the senate. well, we do not have to wait for the history books. these young men and women, who we have heard from, could not be prouder of their papa. let me offer one more memory that has stayed with me for a long time. in 1999, when i was first lady, frank and i went together to

fort dix in new jersey to meet the first lane load of refugees fleeing the conflict in kosovo. more than 400 people tired and scared, with little more than close on their back. the general in charge said he wanted to welcome the refugees just of his own grandparents had been welcomed at ellis island. i watched frank talk with the families, put his arm around them. this man who had grown from poverty, this veteran who had helped liberate europe in world war ii, whose own parents had come through ellis island's with nothing but a dream, who had

written a law that allowed more than 400,000 people to escape religious persecution by coming to the country he loved -- here he was again representing the best of who we are as americans. to our surprise and concern, frank and i noticed that one of the women come in off the lane was very pregnant and quite dehydrated. she was rushed to a nearby hospital on a stretcher. the next day, she gave birth to a little boy. i remember how proud frank was that this baby was born in freedom, and security in new jersey. [laughter] and how incredibly moved he was when the parents decided to name that little boy america. after the country that welcomes him. frank just loved that.

the late robert byrd, a dear friend to so many of us, took to the floor to pay to ruby -- pay tribute to frank. he quoted from a pole and by emerson that asks what makes a great. the answer is not gold or arms but leaders who stand fast in suffer long, who work while others sleep, who dare. frank lautenberg was such a leader. he dared greatly, and he led boldly. and we are safer, stronger, and more ross fritz because he did. our hearts are with is wonderful family. he loved it he was loved, and after all, that is what makes a

great life. thank you, frank. [applause] >> secretary clinton, thank you so much for your words. danielle, laura, we call on you. >> that was a hard act to follow, too, thank you, secretary. i am danielle, or as frank like to call me, dan. or step one. my sister -- step two. to most people here, the people of new jersey in the world, frank was an accomplishment on many levels, mostly in business,

have a philanthropist, and as an inspiring and effective public servant. his legacy will impact us for like that for years to come. i admired, respected, and adored that frank. the misfortune of losing my father at seven years old has stayed with us forever. but when my mother brought frank into our lives, it was a great fortune. early on, it was safe to say we hated each other. we had terrible battles because frank was never wrong, and i did not understand or care what a senator was. sorry to all of you wonderful colleagues. [laughter] now i do. i just knew he was a man spending time with my mom. frank was a fighter. in his public life, he fought for things he passionately

believes in, but in his private life, he thought sometimes just because he -- he fought sometimes just because he felt like fighting and he wanted to be right. in both of the worlds, he was greatly passionate. it turned into one of the best friendships i've ever known. both of us would say you are wrong and i still love you and we would move on. when my mom and frank decided to make it official after 18 years of dating, sorry, 16. [laughter] not only was i thrilled for them, but i was so happy i could finally refer to them as my parents. even though it felt like we had been family for so long, somehow making it legal was so meaningful. i'm not sure when, but somewhere in the last 25 years, frank became my dad. he cared about me, worried about me, protected me, comforted me,

and looked at me like a father looks at his daughter. his beautiful blue eyes would light up when i walked into a room. we could look at the other in know what we were thinking. we cared about each other's thoughts and feelings. he was always the last man standing up parties. being with him, just hanging out at home. i love watching him make others laugh. at a white house holiday party, frank thought it would be fun to introduce me to the late senator thurmond. senator thurmond said to me nice to meet you, you look like you need a big hug, and boy, did i get one. [laughter]

he was a strong man for his age, and surprisingly affectionate. [laughter] and frank was hysterical. he knew that i would get a greeting along those lines. frank loved telling a joke, telling a story, or playing a prank. but what he really loved was the reaction of the person or group. his work impressing the joy of others. in recent months, he would often say to me -- you are not my blood, but you are mine. franky-poo, you will always be mine, too. my protector, and the most special second at three. i'm honored and lucky to have your friendship and love so long. i know you'll watch over us and protect us.

when you meet my dad, i know you will each other. you have a lot in common. i know you two will have a great time exchanging stories about bonnie for eternity. [laughter] please tell him that we love him and miss him and we thank him for sending you to us. frank, you brought great joy and love to my life. i will be forever grateful for the time we had together. rest in peace. i love you. >> dear frank, it is hard to imagine life without you. it seems like yesterday when mom told me about her new special friend, whom i was not exactly eager to meet. the early days were tough, and

our personalities did not gel. i do not get you, you did not get me. it was not until the fifth grade when i was studying the new smoking law when i began to appreciate, respect, and maybe even like you. our assignment was to prepare a project related to the smoking ban on airplanes. my classmates labored over posters dioramas and models. i walked in with a recorded interview with you. [laughter] this marks the beginning of a very meaningful and special relationship. [laughter] and i got an a. our family of three soon became a family of four. you became a permanent fixture in the male role model i needed. my mom chose well. our country needs more role models like you. you taught us to fight hard for what you believe in, and you worked tirelessly so your grandchildren and future generations could live in a better world.

frank, there are so many things a woman is about you. i will miss your endless phone calls, especially when he wanted to send lowers to mom. weather was her birthday, anniversary, or apology flowers, and there were plenty of those over the years -- [laughter] -- you would call and say hey, laur, i want to send flowers to bon. what is the name of the flower shop? i would say, frank, i've given you the name and number a million times. it is on your iphone and your computer. but of course, i would give it to you again. we would talk about the kids, ketchup, and be on our way. i choose to believe you always had the number accessible but you just wanted to call and say hello. i cherish our weekly dinners, usually at an italian restaurant, were you like to use the onlytaurant italian. senzo you could say was

garlic.ich means no you said it to waiters, busboys, coat check ladies. i will miss you when my girls are on the swing set and i look up to the bedroom terrace and you're not there. i will be waiting for you to interrupt us when we are watching tv. you never understood why we did not stop watching when he walked into the room. [laughter] i will miss you every time i passed the roasted corn stand on the side of the road. the simplest things in life give you the most pleasure. you would walk into the house with a bag of freshly roasted corn with a smile on your face just like a kid in a candy store. hey, laur, have you ever tried this roasted corn? every weekend, the same corn, the same dialog, the same simple pleasure. i will miss your bright smile, the twinkle in your beautiful baby blues, and your whistle. frankie, our country has lost a giant of a man. but i've lost my stepfather.

to your wonderful children, daniel and i thank you for sharing your dad with us. we learned about american history and understand the true american history that you called papa. wherever he may be, keep your widedown.the fairway is open for you. rest in peace, we love you. >> danielle, laura, thank you so much for your beautiful words. vice president biden, we call on you to speak of your friend and colleague, senator lautenberg.

>> if there is a definition of redundant, i am it. [laughter] by the way, josh, i am representing the pope. [laughter] and bonnie knows franky has been calling me the only catholic jew he knew. you know, hillary, i think you are thinking the same thing i was when you were talking. i just wish the whole country could have heard all of you.

not even about senator frank lautenberg. but just about the definition -- you are the living definition what it means to be a successful man. i really mean that. i have, a lot of my colleagues have, i have spoken at more eulogies than i would like to remember. you have already all broken the role i like to observe never make a good eulogy, you are be asked again and again. this is a testament to frank's life. nothing any of us, including me, nothing i could say, could define what a man he was more than you have all spoken.

today grandchildren, there is not a one of us who knew frank, not one of us who knew him who did not know all of you. until i had grandchildren, when i would try to match them, and then he stopped. [laughter] my wife says i am the most obnoxious grandfather in the world. wrong -- frank was the most obnoxious. [laughter] by the way, daniel, i knew strom thurmond so well literally i was asked to do a eulogy. i did his eulogy. this is a lot easier. [laughter] but i want to sell you something, i knew strom thurmond well. he would be proud of your recollection, it would be proud the way you described it.

i'm about to get myself in trouble. [laughter] bonnie, i am sure like senator menendez and secretary clinton, i am truly honored to be included, to be asked to think about a guy who was my friend. i know from experience that there is nothing anyone can say outside of the family. you can't fill that void you feel right now. i know from personal experience

that profound loss just takes time. i realize this beyond my capacity to find the words to do justice to frank lautenberg. obviously, i cannot do justice to what he meant to all of you, or even what he meant to be into this country. but if you use this excuse, excuse the point of personal privilege, frank was one of my closest friends in the senate. we served together. we work together in delaware, new jersey. i remember when i met frank in 1975, i had been in office three years, and frank was chairman of the united jewish appeal. i went to see frank, and frank asked me to speak. we immediately -- and i mean immediately -- became friends.

the thing that i admired about frank so much is that he always thought in terms of what he could do, what he should do. what he always -- he always thought privately, what can i do to make it better? it was not some great theological debate that he had with himself, it was so simple to frank. -- least to my operation. at least in my observation. there was a problem, so we should fix it. i believe that the greek philosopher eric ladies -- heraclitus was correct when he said character is destiny. everything about frankie goes to agree, disagree, like, dislike.

frank, we all acknowledge that he had great character, exceptional character. we saw that not only how he lived his life, but how he died. by serving people in new jersey to the very end. either way, i know you joked, josh, about your dad, saying you wish he had not made that speech. bonnie will tell you he started at christmas time last, calling me, he had to see me. i said, frank, are you ok. but no, i have got to see you, but i do not want to talk to you on the phone because we were in the midst of another cliff, crisis in the senate that is not quite work out. i remember -- i see barbara mikulski smiling. i remember when i came to explain that last deal, and frank came over and grabbed me and said -- i've got to see you.

so we worked it out. frank came down -- he said i can come down right now but maybe you can go to the senate. which i did. i know it'll do everything, bonnie, and i'm sure he told you we spoke about two hours. he wanted my advice -- should he run again? [laughter] what in the hell do you say to frank lautenberg when he says should i run again? even then, frank was slowing a little bit, and he knew it. i said, frank, look, i think you will win again if you run again. i think even christie will vote for you. [laughter]

by the way, the governor and i are friends. we both love the university of delaware. we both went there. i even asked him to come out and tear at a few games with me, but he cannot make it. i offered him to ride on air force two. one of the advantages. i said frank, what are you thinking? and we talked and talked, and he i said look, i will send you some data. and i said ok. i was going to germany. he said there is a guy in germany i want you to talk to. then we met again, and your dad was getting a little more frail. and he said -- what do you

think? and i said i think you should run, frank. and then he called me again, this is over about a 2.5 month period. and said joe, i will not use the exact words, he said i do not think i can run. he said my legs, my legs. it was clear to me he desperately wanted to run again. and i think the reason is not because he wanted to be senator, but your dad never quit. he never quit anything. he never gave up. for frank lautenberg to decide that he wasn't going to run again was not only a decision about how he cared about his state, it was about his character.

he viewed it in terms of he was quitting something. my dad who some of my colleagues knew said joe, never explain and never complain. your dad never explained, and -- he complained a lot. [laughter] but he did not complain about his circumstance. he never complained about what life through his way. right to the very end, the last meeting i'm told frank took was with senator vitter just two weeks ago to work out a bipartisan breakthrough to bring more transparency in toxic chemicals used in everyday products.

two weeks before he died -- your dad knew -- knowing what shape he was in. even in his final days, it was not his health is concerned about, it was the health of the people of new jersey, the health of the kids in this country. he has left you all an incredible legacy. children, stepchildren, grandchildren. what an incredible legacy he left you. frank one said there is no end to what can be accomplished if you work like the devil. and my, god, did he work like the devil. bob was right, he was tenacious. he worked and worked and worked. and he did -- this guy, who was

raised, it was pointed out many times, with little money. i'm told the first time he ever left the new jersey, new york region was when he joined the united states army and was shipped out. when he came back, he probably would tell anyone who would listen that he went to columbia. it is not just go to school, he went to columbia. and so, anyone who knew frank would not be at all surprised why frank was so -- some of my colleagues, i've been there since 1972, none of them are

that old, unfortunately. but you remember the fight on the new g.i. bill, frank was passionate about it. absolutely passionate about it. because he knew what it could mean. everything your dad did, everything he did was done with passion and success. he was proud of adp. he was proud, proud. he was proud to be a jew. he was proud of his heritage. he was proud to be a united states senator. like me and my colleagues, the greatest honor can be displayed can be bestowed upon you. and i don't think there are many

senators, a lot of accomplished women and men here today, but i don't think there are many -- and some of them have done great things -- but not many senators who can in the immediate time that they are acting see immediately the effects of the good things they have done. frank was able to do that. frank knows that, notwithstanding the fact that it probably did put you in trouble in college when he changed the drinking age to 21, and by the way, you're not kidding. [laughter] but as transportation secretary ray lahood, who was also a close friend of frank, can tell you, he saved over 25,000 lives so far. people not smoking on airplanes. how many thousands more lives have that saved? he is the reason why, as hillary reference, since 1989, hundreds of thousands of jews and other persecuted minorities have been

able to go to america. he is the reason why domestic abusers are prohibited from owning a gun, saving so many more lives, as dick durbin knows. the violence against women act. frank even in thought we should have that prohibition in there. he did not rest until he got it done. it's health was failing, he never gave up, he never give in. if it was never frank, amtrak would not be what it is today.

josh, i want to tell you something -- nobody, literally in history, has ridden amtrak as much as me and the conductor. [laughter] over 8000 round trips i've made, literally. 8000 round trips. between washington and wilmington -- i never had a home or an apartment in wilmington. the conductors are like my family. after being vice president, one of my good friends come to me and says joey. as they will tell you, they're still my buddies. i took the train every sale they. i would blow out of the senate, i would get down to seven minutes to make the train. and i sometimes miss the train. one day of i am breaking my train -- my neck to get to the train. i am sprinting. if you ever take amtrak, just ask anybody when you hit washington station, if they know joe biden, i guarantee you they will tell you a story about my trying to make the train. i am like those old commercials,

running for the airplane, jumping over the chairs. carrying my bag. true story -- i get up, the conductor said, joey, hold up, don't worry. we're holding it for lautenberg. [laughter] and all those years, i never once asked them to hold a train for me. in all those years, jill and i would have every christmas and have the conductors and their families for dinner, it got so big we would have a picnic at our home.

all these guys, they never once held it for me. and they looked at me. and chris christie just across the row in new jersey, don't worry, joe, we are rich -- we are holding ever frank lautenberg. you going to wilmington transition, which has a hell of a lot more people than the lautenberg train station. [laughter] it is referred to the biden train station, but you cannot find the name biden anywhere. not once. you see like a neon sign -- lautenberg, lautenberg. but he did make a difference, josh, he got me on a train. i saved amtrak three times before he was elected.

[laughter] i don't know how the hell this happened. you know what i mean? that is mostly true. [laughter] but your dad and i had a little as they say in southern delaware we had a little auburn call. he said, you know, joe, i think we should have one train, at least one of the runs, it is going to go from washington, make one stop, and then to new

york. i said over my dead body. you think i'm kidding? that is the only time frank and i -- and frank, i said you are a powerful guy. you will not get another judge in new jersey, i promise you. he was actually going to cut out the delaware station, my friend. he's said joe, imagine what it would mean to be able to do that. i said yeah, you have to limit the money and buy a place in washington. i can tell you that. look, the fact is that frank always had to be in the game. that is what i love about your father.

too much to be done, too much left unsettled, too many injustices to right, too many people needing help. for frank, the thing i loved about him, like me, he loved the senate. he saw in it the place he could do more than all the financial success he had, all the influence he had in the community. he believed in what was right. there was no place he could do as much for the people he cared about then in the united states senate. he said it is time, i was there shortly thereafter doing a fundraiser for a new jersey canada, and frank was there, and he said what a big mistake, and he came back. it is fair to say, bonnie, there is nobody happier than me when he did come back. everything frank then shows character. as a consequence, he earned the

admiration of its friends and political foes alike. look at how many of his colleagues are here today. frank, no one in all the years we served together, no one ever doubted -- which is a short supply, no one ever doubted that one frank said something he meant it. no one ever doubted his word, no one ever wondered whether or not he would keep whatever commitment he made herein even if his political circumstances had changed and now it was difficult to keep the commitment. as my colleagues know, the most valuable commodity, the most valuable capital anyone can have in the congress is their word. and frank kept his word. talking about your dad repeating things, i remember why i drive

my kids crazy. one of the addresses i repeat all the time is expression used in my family constantly. my mother would always say you are defined by your courage, and you are redeemed by your loyalty. you are defined by your courage, and you are redeemed by your loyalty. if frank was your friend, he was your friend. he never calculated how that friendship or loyalty would influence him. he said a friend is someone who walks in when others walk out. a friend is someone who walks in when others walk out. every difficult political moment of my life, your father walked in. he did not walk out. every difficult time i had, he walked in. i spent many my colleagues would

tell you the same thing. for more than 25 years that we were with one another, he was always there. frank had courage both physical and moral. on the streets when he was a kid in patterson, in europe in world war ii, the downhill slope. i used to ski with frank all the time. that is another story. but watching him. i remember watching him in his 70's after he wanted to go helicopter skiing. by the way, helicopter skiing, you get in a helicopter, and it takes you about the lift line where the lift does not go on the very top of the mountain where you can not get there other than being dropped off in a helicopter.

if i'm not mistaken, he was doing that into his early 70's. i am told, although i did not do it with them, i am told that as late as three or four years ago he was skiing, downhill being. but most of all, frank had the courage and convictions, and he acted on those convictions. frank would even talk about himself sometimes about his public speaking. frank's speeches were not marked by their eloquence, but i mean sincerely, he overcame it with the eloquence and elegance of his convictions. he spoke with principle and purpose. he always spoke with principle and purpose. he was a self-made man who spoke

of the poor in the its vanished anyway you could taste it when he spoke it. even before he entered politics, he spoke with resounding commitment to the security of israel, the fate of the jews behind the iron curtain, as the rabbi said, an abiding awareness of his roots. he never lost sight of the fundamental moral commitment we had to the state of israel. he never backed off his political convictions for expediency. in the words of shakespeare, he was a man taken for all in all i shall not look upon his like again. he was a man. he was a real man. [applause]

>> vice president biden, we all thank you for your musings and beautiful tribute. bonnie, we call on you to speak of your beloved. >> i just want to thank the vice president, thanks hillary, madam secretary, bob menendez. he spoke beautifully. this is an extraordinary gathering for a great man. i thank everybody for being here. just an amazing turnout.

he would be so proud to have you all here. i want to welcome governor christie, former governor, senator mcgreevy, secretary lahood, the entire senate delegation, the pouring out of love from all of you for me and frank and the family. i cannot thank you all enough for being here, all the representatives, all the dignitaries, and a special hug and thank you to harry reid. thank you for making magic. you have been amazing. because of senator reed, frank will be the second senator in history to lie in the chamber. his casket will lay somewhere that held the casket of lincoln. he will be buried in a military ceremony, including a 21 gun salute. you might wonder why this is so unique. the last world war ii veteran in the united states senate.

most people prepare when they want to rest in the hereafter. not frank. he told me he wanted to go to arlington cemetery so his grandchildren and great- grandchildren would come to washington and look for his grandfather be so proud that he served in world war ii and was a united states senator. i said frank, you've got to make plans. so when the time is right, you can go there immediately. it could take a month or more if you are not prepared. he never did anything. [laughter] he could not face his mortality and figured somehow it would get done. it did get done. and harry reid did it. miraculously. so thank you, harry, from me and the entire family. [applause] today is a celebration of frank's life. the only thing that would've

made him happier than seeing all of you here would be if this was a fundraiser for his next campaign. [laughter] as you heard, he did not want to retire, and had even well, he would have put up a good fight to stay in the senate. he was a street kid from patterson and so proud of it. so what was it like being married to this renaissance man who actually accomplish all those things you saw on television this week? difficult, interesting, challenging, loving, amazing. what a life we had. together over 25 years, married for more than nine, frank was the most positive person i know. he never looked back, he just looked forward and made things happen. he had a vitality and a smile i fell in love with 25 years ago, and i never lost that love. he was my prince charming. he would call me everyday from the senate, and we with big all the time when the senate was working until the wee hours of the morning, at night, and he

was only what was going to be on the front page of the "new york times" the next day. that was pretty heavy because it was before the internet, 24 hour news. he introduced me to presidents, heads of states, governors, senators, actors, directors, ordinary people who just always came up to him to thank him for his work. truck drivers. he loved them all and treated everyone with the same respect and warmth. he constantly told jokes. i had to listen to the same jokes all the time. and i had to laugh as if i had heard them for the first time. [laughter] he told the same great stories, but over and over. and got offended if i would time and while he was telling it. every time he had a new audience, i would hear the same story. after a while, i hated

introducing them to anyone new. [laughter] but there were extraordinary times with frank. like the time we got into a taxi after flying to boston. the taxi driver had a russian accent. frank asked the driver how did you get into this country, the driver says, the lautenberg amendment. frank said, i am lautenberg. [laughter] the taxi driver said no. frank said yes, no, yes. and so it went on. it was so amazing to see how you can make such a difference in someone's life and how much the taxi driver really appreciated what frank did. the taxi driver did not want to take frank money, but frank insisted we pay. in aspen, frank had a serious injury. 30 days later, he said bonnie, i am seeing stars. he went to a hospital in new york. he lucked out with a great surgeon. he had a bilateral hematoma, and the doctor successfully operated on him. he was about to speak at the timbre of commerce dinner.-- at

the chamber of commerce dinner. frank was not going to miss this dinner, philly at his favorite navy suit, a red tie, got dressed to the nine, and asked camera crews to set up in the hospital room, and gave his speech with all of the hospital apparatus hanging out of his jacket. [laughter] no one had any idea he was in never missed a beat. i think it is a perfect time to say thank you to all the doctors who helped frank along the way sorry with phil steeg, marty-- the way, starting with phil steeg, martuy goldman james holland, and then to all the doctors to care for frank at new york presbyterian hospital. they try to make frank healthy. he could not fight the viral pneumonia. to the nurses and care staff who took loving care of frank. thank you beverly, franz, mildred. we owe so much to dan katz and brendan gill, and the entire staff.

the work was done with this intelligence group of people. cap the engine running. kept good story then and got the dark without fear it i cannot see why enough. and thank you to all the lautenberg staff. he could not have done it without you. [applause] and to linda borchard, thank you for being so helpful to me. you were always ready, willing, and able, and i'm so grateful for what you did for frank. to his assistant, eleanor, he depended on her and respected

her ability and friendship for over 45 years starting at adp. to rabbi dan cohen, and the entire staff at park avenue synagogue, thank you for this beautiful service. [indiscernible] to my friend ed torres, and to stokes for your extraordinary generosity, talent, for singing frank's favorite songs. he lived the impossible dream and always did it his way. to gail curtis, thank you for the beautiful music selection. i love the love and adoration he gave to my children and grandchildren. he was an amazing role model. he was the father they loved. he taught us how to think at a deeper level and stimulated us in a way we had not known prior to his coming in our lives.

his biological children grandchildren are an amazing group who he adores. they are grateful their dad had a family that was geographically convenient. [laughter] throughout his illness, we spent a lot of time together. it was a blessing for all of us. when he was finally at peace. we leave here today to go to the caucus, to the train station that bears his name, and we will bring him home to new jersey one last time. it is a sentimental journey that will take us to washington d.c., the country's capital where they served for 28 years. there was not a time where he was driving in washington when he did not say how much he loved his job as senator, even with all the difficulties and frustrations. he felt like he was in the world series every day.

his job stimulated and challenged him. frank, i was so happy to take care of you, but it hurt every day watching you suffer. you told me i had done everything for you possible except to give birth to your children but you love me as if i did. rest in peace, my love. i will miss you always and thank you for the most beautiful memories and an extraordinary life. [applause] >> bonnie, vice president biden, secretary clinton, senator menendez, to each of the children and grandchildren, thank you for your words, spoken from the heart. each thought and memory is a brush stroke for a portrait of a life well lived,

worthy of continued admiration and study, a life whose ideals will serve as a bar of aspiration for so many here and so many not here today. as i mentioned, senator lautenberg said each of us will not arrive in the promised land. in that sense, the service taking place on this side of the jordan and hudson has a poignancy verging on the poetic. the torah accounts said the decree was given even as moses resisted. god brought moses to the top of mount. he would have a chance to see the journey ahead. a legend explains it was a blessing of

seeing into the future, the compassionate act of being able to see one's legacy extend beyond one's lifetime. the children and grandchildren. the generations to come. on that morning as his life passed into god's embrace, a similar tussle may have taken place in the heavens between senator lautenberg and his divine sparring partner. frank knew he enjoyed not just the blessing of a life well lived, but the comfort of knowing his essence would be for a blessing into the future. so, too, today, tomorrow, and the months and years ahead, through our words, memories, and the deeds. we have the obligation to ensure even in loss, the extended shadow of senator lautenberg extends long past this day, and in so doing, individually and collectively, we will ensure his memory is a

blessing for generations to come. amen. please rise for the memorial ♪rayer. ♪

♪

♪