the books of john adams of the works of john quincy adams.nging exhibits of the letters were literary accomplishments of other people of other americans a few times. very tacky doctor billington and direct erica massachusetts historical society as conceivably library of congress. willing to have some of those treasures alone. northerners cases of these wonderful spirited documents and you browse look. living with the card not to be partly one of the kind that i have some fruit trees. the kind they had. remember you heard it here first. [laughter]. [applause]. guest: you have a building by the name of the adams building help. for mr. adams. and we talk about how he helped, he was the beginning of the library of congress. and wondered if in fact, reading, did you find letters about how he wanted this library to me. david: i think it was always for it. last night, i read the letter that he wrote to jefferson when jefferson sold this library to replace the library of congress that had been destroyed by the british during the war of 1812. and adam

john quincy adams diary is one of the great treasures in american literature, not just a treasure in erican history. john quincy, i think also to be said and fairly so, was a man anything more brilliant than his father or thomas jefferson. i think all of the president of the united states were given an iq test, john quincy would comed in first. he wasn't a particularly successful president but his heroic time was when he came back to washington after the presidency to serve in congresses. something no other president has ever done or has done since. and he died on the floor of congress which is now then congress which is now statuary hall. penny died with his boots on battling slavery. the same theme that runs through the adams family. and hate wanted to be there because he wanted to serve. he saw no stepping down from the presidency to congress. none. nor i don't think john adams father sees the presidency as the ultimate objective of his career. he did not sea life is climbing a mountain or a ladder of success. that is not the way they saw things. more closely i think would be the e

all of them had been appointed by george washington in john adams. at meant appeals court and supreme court. republicans argued, and i think with strength on their side, that the courts were stacked against them. but adams definitely wanted the show trial to demonstrate the government was indeed going to crackdown mercilessly. they were sending a message. susan: how did it work out for them? harold: well, he goes down in history as perhaps the most anti-press freedom president ever, although we will be surprised as we go on chronologically to find out who joins him in that category. he also called for -- he was the first to call for a state run news agency, which has an autocratic air to it. he was not the last. i guess adams left with a reputation of being repressing, thin-skinned -- because again, this was all about criticism and how he reacted to it. and the sedition act -- some said when jefferson became president and would never again rekindle. but the measures it legislated were later revised by lincoln, woodrow wilson and others. susan: abigail

did she support john adams in this effort? harold: absolutely.he was 100% his advocate and writingned with him in really angry letters about press critics. can i go ahead to jefferson to give an example? susan: sure. 'srold: one of adams chief critics was james calendar , who later turned against jefferson after criticizing adams and going to prison, turned against jefferson. abigail had a wonderful series of letters with jefferson in which she basically said i told you soap you'd he was no good -- i told you so. he was no good. you paid the penalty. sowed the world wind -- whirlwind. susan: under the system jefferson helped create, newspapers became participants and, not just observers of government. what did you mean by that? harold: the first episode goes back to the washington era, , he was funded a fellow french, james madison's roommate in college. to move to philadelphia, start a newspaper, to oppose the federalist newspaper pretty much praising everything washington did. he encouraged him. -- to operate. anlater encouraged , theesting new

john quincy adams won on the first ballot. now, there are enormously complicated reasons why this happened, and we won't talk about them today, but we only need to be aware adams was surprised mostly to the jacksoni jacksonites. adams at first was -- and monroes held their weekly reception and while everyone seemed drained by the experience they were also grateful that despite the angry talk, broad recriminations and a blinding apprehension the election in the end had been decided with a calm dignity. the president's dpaering was not festive, but it was uneventful which was pleasant for people weary of events. a kindred spirit prevaded the whole scene the national intelligence reported. the friends of the different candidates mingled together and converged with the good humor and frankness contrasted with the virulence and malignity in some parts of the country had attended this discussion. president-elect john quincy adams stood in the center of the room with a press of people with congratulations. he received them with a dra

john quincy adams won on the first ballot. now, there are enormously complicated reasons why this happens, and we won't talk about them today. we need only be aware that adams was elected on the first ballot to everyone's surprise, mostly to the jacksonites. jackson at first was magnanim s magnanimous, which strikes us perhaps as an act. then the very night after the house vote, jackson and adams came face-to-face. again, from the book. the monroes held their weekly reception, and while everyone seemed drained by the experience, they were also grateful that despite the angry talk, broad recriminations and a grandi grinding apprehension, the election in the end had been decided with a calm dignity. the president's gathering was not festive, but it was uneventful, which was pleasant for people weary of events. a kindred spirit pervaded the whole scene the national intelligencer reported. the friends of the different candidates mingled together, and conversed with a good humor and frankness contrasted with the vier ewe lens and m

[laughter] and john adams kept marvelous diaries. nobody would dare keep a diary anymore it could be subpoenaed and used against you in court. [laughter] >> at home thinking. >> can you imagine if somebody in washington today were to write that in his or her record of what they did that day? [laughter] >> i will add one addendum that reflects the profession from which i come it is something of a lost art very good friend of mine the past president dad princeton i had dinnernd recently it was about to have presentations for phd candidates and she said to were legibly written and three were not very good. that the addendum i would add is the ability to present your argument verbally. >> yes. absolutely to defend your argument orally warren buffett said anybody who is a good speaker and to speak publicly you will make 50 percent more in your lifetime then if you can't do that. it worked for me. lord knows that i could have done it's important so with the basic grounding in the humanities and social sciences because the critical thing is

book, mccullough's john adams biography was the same thing that since more people into my seminars thanse. >> guest: for years. i give students full permission to say whatever they want. i said at this time as well. why are you in the course? the answer isn't because republicanism is meaningful to me. i don't want the yale answer. there was something i was curious about, i am curious about it or i saw a movie or a book or i never studied america. i give full permission to say whatever they want and for a while it was there was this john adams biography david mccullough wrote and i read it and i am curious now and that was the thing. then the hbo miniseries students would say i am curious about and wants to learn more about the time period, then the musical for a time. this time i asked because it wasn't necessarily something worth bringing up. someone's head on twitter at this point because only young people are interested in the musical but the older students don't want to be saying musical, they are backing away in public because younger people are more focused on it. i don't know. th

because reading and early biography of john adams.tart with reading and then i geto to hamilton and i stopped because he was strange in comparison to the other people. and had i weird beginning of his life foreign relatively poor in die is as a dual and as he in person he wanted to accomplish great things so i identified with the young person wanting to have an exciting life. i read his biography i won't name it because i didn't like i it. i wish i could reconstruct that i read that and said it didn't sound convincing but it did so i asked what the writer read that gave him the rights and she pointed me to the 27 volumes of the hamilton papers i pulled out a volume and looked at them. it isn't the easiest thing to read but that was the real stuff not someone telling me about history but that was theso history. but that is the most exciting thing ever. i want someone to read this stuff. i just started to read the papers started at volume one and then started again and did it for years and years. it never occurred to me be a professor o

adams. clay made a big mistake, he accepted the offer of the secretary of state from john quincy adams. that was the stepping stone to the presidency. half of his people said he said heo it, half should not. greatrew jackson, his nemesis, what was jackson's position on slavery? he marched in florida mainly to clear out what he considered a threat from florida. to of his major campaigns florida was to free black people along with native americans who were taking slaves out of the united states. he is very hostile toward any showof freedom, much more -- more so than our president. >> next is scott. clay question,ry i went to high school in eastport, maine. it was very close to canada. we know that in eastport, henry clay insisted that the island had been taken by the british. he insisted when he negotiated the end of the treaty that the island to be returned to the united states. even with john quincy adams who was another negotiator. --was willing to let canada the british of the island. i am wondering if any of the historians would know what he was so adamant on the return to moose isla

time i want you to listen to what gerry adams said today his reaction to john hume's death . dand of it all at war and of course not least because it's only money allers what just because this is the saadat this policy that smart but it would not have happened was i challenge you and our progeny of the united from our different perspectives. agree. and he was singularly against the ira but that's big 0 but that. event about 30 second's years let me just get what your reaction to hearing that reaction to the death of john. adams is quite right it couldn't have happened without him quite right so i had to point out that he and was opposed ratties the last series they are right and his methods and yet somehow managed to break through to root it to persuade not just the our own republican movement that just because somebody wins doesn't necessarily mean somebody else loses that the north of on foot 6 wasn't in the end of 0 sum game and he was an architect of one of the great peace treaties of the 20th century brian dooley irish author and human rights activists brian we appreciat

john adams riding to a friend and saying how should an american politician rest. i want to look those sort of british or french european aristocrats. the clothing i have has a lot of lace on it, it it is it too much lace. could i strip some of the lace away. how many horses with the carriage would seem appropriate in american versus how many in another place. it sounds really goofy in this part of white's abridgment to teach. on the other hand, they are seriously thinking about the back. the stylistic decision on really going to shape the tone and character of the government and the nation and let everything set a precedence. the kind of improv can have a pig impact. on one hand, it's almost comical because it seems trivial on the other hand, it really isn't trivial and the in itself is really interesting. >> we had several hundred white male elites forming this country with their buy-in from the three or 4 million people who live here the time. on the one hand there is a small group of people who have power. on the other hand revolution is a popular revolution an

then he writes about attacking his own presidential candidate john adams.idn't do him favors because people were at that point backing away from him and it's what they call in indiscreet politician. he doesn't have discretion. he couldn't have control over himself and he is a danger, a liability.y. so his career is already suffering. as a federalist, his party is now fading away. the nation is moving in a democratic election and the federalists would have preferred. so on that level, he has muchct less power. so in one way or another, i don't think that he was going to gain political power. so the question is if it hadn't happened, what would he have done. he left behind one or two little clues about that. i think that he'd become a bit of a political commentator. he was pondering another collection of essays along the line as a federalist which he was an initiator that he wrote with james madison and in the later years he was thinking about doing that again independently he had approached one friend and colleague who had a sort of senate would you be willi

john adams would be a passenger. i arrived too late to make a reservation upon the ship. did have the opportunity to meet with mrs. adams, but in short time, and she embarked and i had to quit for the next ship. the ship i sailed on without a boston -- it left boston on the fifth of july. i spent the fourth of july in boston. do you know a number of years later, you may recall, i was sailing the atlantic east ward when you were sailing the atlantic westward to return to our nation for the first time since the war. do you think that your ship and mine passed in the night? >> they undoubtedly did, my friend. >> if only we knew. >> are there any other questions for us? andhis means that both you mr. jefferson were in france during the storming of the bastille on july 14, 1789. how did each of you experience that moment? marquisesay, monsieur , you were an actor on the stage of all the turbulence that was onewing at the bastille july 14. i was there to see you, bear witness to your great speech that you gave. >> you honor me so, my friend. of course, the storming of the bastil

[applause] on a marble fireplace in the white house is carved a prayer which john adams wrote. it concludes, "may none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof." since i have resided in that historic house, i have tried to live by that prayer. i [applause] i faced many tough problems. i probably made some mistakes, but on balance, america and americans have made an incredible comeback since august 1974. [applause] nobody can honestly say otherwise. and the plain truth is that the great progress we have made at home and abroad was in spite of the majority who run the congress of the united states. [applause] for 2 years i have stood for all the people against a vote-hungry, free-spending congressional majority on capitol hill. [applause] fifty-five times i vetoed extravagant and unwise legislation; 45 times i made those vetoes stick. those vetoes -- vetoes stick. [applause] those vetoes have saved american taxpayers billions and billions of dollars. i am against the big tax spender and for the little taxpayer. [applause] i called for a permanent tax cut, coupled with sp

>> john quincy adams has another quotation in the same document we shouldn't go abroad in search of monsterso destroy. in other words to go look for trouble. wilson and john quincy adams have to coexist. from the beginning of our republic we have seen ourselves as the city on the hill as an example for the rest of the world to follow. as part of foreign-policy to do all we could to advance the interest of democracy and reform of political rights where i draw the line is using the military to make that happen. you cannot force a country into democracy they have to be developed one of the lines we all used with having one election is not synonymous it is based on the rule of law and institutions and the role we can play to help them develop this is where the civilian part of these instruments of power is so important because our people helping them develop their own institutions and encouraging those developments. usaid and private foundations in the united states funded a huge number of nongovernmental organizations in russia in the 19 nineties to encourage democratic institutions and the rul

not just john adams but a lot of them. george reads those. >> [inaudible] >> that's nice. [applause] an answer to that people say you will not live in texas are you? of course we will. that summer home. we chose texas. we love texas. is very nice we love midland very much when we lived there. [applause] >> [inaudible] >> i am almost 79. [laughter] and it depends on what age i guess. with four boys and a husband running for office, i just not as good of a memory as i have on that. i think truthfully they read sports illustrated or books about athletes and god willing we finally got a girl. [laughter] >> in your opinion what your favorite book that you wrote? >> that i wrote? i only have four choices. of course my favorite book is reflections. [laughter] thank you for asking. i think millie's book certainly was great because it told people about the white house. >> [inaudible] >> i do. i have a speechwriter. and she takes it from my material because every day i go out and something unbelievable happens. i managed to trip over the funniest things but i do have a speechwriter.

the american people know as president john adams said so ng ago, and i quote, our constitution was designedfor a moral and religious people. it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. i have traveled all across this country. sometimes with my wife at my side. and as charlotte said, sometimes with our daughter along. four years on i'm more convinced than ever of two things. america is a freedom-loving nation. and this is a nation of faith. people across this -- people across this country know how precious freedom is. i see the passion in this room, i see it all across the country, on street corners and conversations. from sea to shining sea. but men and women, we've got a tough fight ahead of us. but it only means the prize is going to be more glorious. i hope you'll all see yourselves as part of a great story. the story of promises made and promises kept. it's a story of renewing american strength. story of reating jobs and opportunity for every american. t's a story of resilience. through the trial of this past year, story of law and order and protecting all that's made this c

before he even left kentucky, he said he favored john quincy adams for the presidency. >> it was held at the university. it is quite interesting even. the listed a bipartisan discussion. how did henry clay in hand the power of the speaker? >> the force of his personality. no one wanted to debate him. the voice to win the argument. that alone had great influence and power. i do not notice any other speaker could compared to. committee, basically, he understood the speaker had the power to put people he wanted on the committee. he was known to be a fair man and speaker. overwritten in his rulings. when he knew that there was a certain issue, there was a slight clinician that he wanted the issue to go certain way. the rules changed. things like that allowed him to be a more important, powerful figure. >> next telephone call is from raining. raymond, we are going to move on. >> good evening. lincoln once referred to clay as his ideal of a statesman. i always believed they had never met, but recently i came across a webpage that reported a book that had been inscribed by clay to lincoln. w

as i write in the book i think wilson and john quincy adams have to coexist. that it is from the beginning of our republic we had seen ourselves as the city on the hill, as an example for the rest of the world to follow and as part of our foreign policy to do all he could to advance the interests of democracy and reform abroad in human and political rights. where i draw the line isn't using the military to make that happen. i think that as we have been discussing you can't force a country into democracy and these institutions have to be developed and one of the lines we all use was having one election is not synonymous with bringing democracy to a country. democracy is based on the rule of law, based on institutions and the role we can play is helping countries develop those institutions. this is where the civilian part of these instruments of power that i talk about is so important because it is our people helping them develop their own institutions and encouraging the development of those institutions. usaid and a number of private foundations of the united

. >> and i guess to be fair, even if we go by john adams old quantification of support for the revolution maybe one third of people who are ardent patriots, one third were arctic tories and one third were we'll see how things go. we would expect the mother of george washington to be a patriot but she lived her life as a british subject. >> her historians will tell you that maybe more than a third of american, or americans were loyal tothe crowd . his own son was imprisoned as a tory spine. >> he's the governor of new jersey, he had to be a tory. the king gave him a good job. so we got at least three people of our two dozen questions have asked about how, what mary about martha . so i want to ask you martha, if you have something to tell us about what mary ball washington about her daughter in law martha washington. >> it's complicated and i think at mount vernon i think they didn't get along at all. and then mary and martha really didn't like each other . they were both very powerful women. i think mary was pleased that george married martha and that if there was discomfort, it was probab

john? >> thanks, alex. let's bring in meteorologist adam klotz, a glancing blow here in washington, d.c., bunch of rain, littles shining and it looks like you're almost through it in new york. >> john, you're absolutely right, we really are close to almost through this, everything here highlighted in the big red box are still areas where you are seeing tornado watch is in place. you can tell with all the heavy rain, activity, new york city on the backside of the system at this point, anything popping up here in the pink box is a tornado warning storm on the ground, the hartford, connecticut, area currently a spot where there is at least a severe thunderstorm getting a little bit of rotation paired we can continue to see that for the next couple of hours though i think new york city proper is in the clear. this is going to be the path as we head through the evening, running through upstate new york and you're going to see this across a large area in new england, very heavy rain, wind still at 65 miles an hour and of course a lot of moisture with it so flooding could still be an issue, northern pennsylvania thro

for john quincy adams son. just thank you all for being here tonight, to have this important conversation that we are privileged to host. i will now welcome forward my good friend, stewart mclaren, the president of the white house historical association. (applause) >> thank you very much rob, to reverend fisher and the people of st. john's church. it's wonderful to be in your historic home, and this historic neighborhood, here tonight. for this very very important conversation. i also want to thank this -- who performed for us as you are coming in. they are a local washington d.c. group, and it is wonderful to have them with us tonight and i hope you enjoyed their music. (applause) to our friends joining us tonight by c-span and on facebook live, welcome we hope you enjoy this conversation. it encourages you, along with everyone here, to dive deeper into the topic that we will be unpacking for you this evening. i am here tonight on behalf of the board of directors, the white house historical association, our na

for a variety of interesting reasons he ends up choosing somebody who he actually has been warned john adamslly does not want to and that person is the start of everyone's favorite musical. alexander hamilton. [laughter] >> to watch the rest of this event and find other author programs about george washington visit our website booktv.org and search for george washington in book using the box at the top of the page. >> welcome to another saturday evening as we binge watch programs from the booktv archives. tonight we are going to be looking at some programs with the late award-winning novelist toni morrison. she was the author of numerous books which included the novels "beloved", "song of solomon" and "the bluest eye" she received the nobel prize nobel prize in literature in the Ãb toni morrison even though a novelist appeared on booktv and over the next several hours we will show you some of those programs. first up in 2001 she was a guest on our monthly author interview program in depth where she discussed her books, her writing process and answered viewers questions. >> toni morrison's fi

john adams said facts are stubborn things. and i think we have to follow those facts. >> yeah. listen. you mentioned the march on washington. and thousands gathered, today, at the lincoln memorial. 57th anniversary of the march on washington. you are out with a new book on john lewis. because i butchered it in the open, your new book is titled "his truth is marching on, john lewis and the poour wer of hope" how would he see this week? >> he would see it not unlike the way he saw that week 57 years ago. he was the young radical. the kennedy administration had put two advance men behind the memorial with a power switch to cut the mic if john lewis seemed to become too revolutionary. he believed and said then, we're tired of being beaten by police. we're tired of going to jail. we're tired of being told to be patient. we want freedom, now. cut to june, in the wake of the murder of george floyd, what was the last time, the last occasion, where we saw john lewis in public? he was standing at black lives matter plaza, across from the white house. >> yeah. >> and there -- there's a li

he can draw the comics incite economics, john adams. southern belle who can raise holy hell, anchor dagen mcdowell. she's got real flair and shiny hair, kat timpf. and sharks have a tyrus week. tyrus! all right, scott, you made a prediction longing ago on the fate of ms. harris being the nominee or possibly the likely nominee after being vp. how was this rollout? where do you see it going? >> well, i've got to tell you, it doesn't seem anybody cares who the candidate is or who the vice president is. there was a pew research poll that said 56% of people supporting biden really just care that it's not trump who wins, and then on top of that there were another 13% who said they like biden because of his personality and temperament which i think is just another way of saying you don't like trump. so if you add those together, you've got 69% of people who support biden who don't care about anything, they just want to beat trump. exactly 9% of them said they cared about policies. which tells you they're just signaling that there's a complete,

the president was john adams, he came down and lived here only for a few months before his term was up. he only served one term. but did he have any slaves servicing the white house? >> adams didn't own any slaves but there were enslaved people who worked at the white house. you begin to have enslaved people working from almost the inception, really threw into the 18 fifties, working in the white house. he was very careful not to ever own slaves, he didn't believe in slavery, but he in effect, had some enslaved people working at the white house. he knew they were enslaved, presumably. >> there was later that was needed. so there were four adams, there were people who did the laundry. some of the people who did the work around the exterior, who took care of the horses, were enslaved. >> adams was succeeded by jefferson, jefferson was a big slave owner. he had a longtime relationship with slaves, did he actually ever bring sally hemmings to the white house? >> what jefferson did it he is he brought some of sally henning's family to the white house. but what jefferson did, was that he bro

the lower courts and congress passed the law and john adams signed it, i don't think presidents have the right that has been claimed recently to not enforce laws, he doesn't agree with the policy of congress. that is what the daca program was, the president said we should let more people into the country. congress's immigration laws are too harsh. if you allow the president to not enforce laws selectively, you've given him a veto and second, you probably defeat congressional efforts to compromise about that issue, to do some sort of legislative deal by later coming on and saying i'm not going to enforce the law and don't agree with it anymore. >> host: the point about nonenforcement, president obama was announcing the daca policies, an article on the take care clause, many years ago. but one of the challenges, the president's ability is wrongful but the ability to simply not enforce laws, a proper constitutional check and balance to counteract that, an individual president limits his own ambition, policy on policy grounds, not having constitutional argument against it and living up t

room where above the mantel, below a portrait of lincoln, is engraved a passage of a letter that john adams wrote abigail adams when he first moved in 1800-1801. and it said "may none but good and honest men ever live under this roof." and that is a prayer that i'm afraid has not been answered in this hour. and then i was thinking about the other side of the house, the east room. and about ten years ago, i think 2011, which now seems as though you're talking about the peloponnesian war, i was honored to be a guest at the kind of event we associate at the white house where barack obama was giving out the presidential medal of freedom. and there were two people among about ten recipients that day. one was george herbert walker bush of greenwich, connecticut. and the other was john robert lewis of troy, alabama. and that was a president who understood that he was, in fact, in charge of the affairs and had the fates of the entire country in his hands, not simply his base of supporters. and i think if you look at the last two weeks, the choice is very clear. i think that last week we saw, howeve

john adams found it "mortifying that we americans should exceed all other people in the world in this degrading, beastly imbibe -- beastly vice of intemperance." intemperance meant drunkenness in the language of the time. it was not just working men. it was also gentlemen. for example in 1790, the governor of new york gave a public dinner attended by fellow gentlemen. there were 120 gentlemen attending, and they consumed 135 bottles of madeira, 36 bottles of port, 60 bottles of beer, and these would be bottles the same size as a wine bottle. so, the running total for those of you keeping score -- 135 bottles of madeira, 36 of port, 60 of beer, 15 bottles of rum, and this was at one public dinner. partly the drinking is so heavy at these political banquets because they are offering toasts to almost everything. there would be a toast to the united states, a toast to the constitution, a toast to the heroes of the revolution, a toast to the president, a toast to the vice president, a toast to the american fair, by which they meant the women not attending the banquet. there would also be a

just as abigail was with john adams. we have only two of her letters. but there are several hundreds that she wrote. the family didn't think her letters were worth keeping. there is a big blank in my heart for his wife, thatcher's wife. or stature like many members of the first congress, and early political figures in the republic, you can't help but fall in love with them. joe ellis wrote this wonderful book, founding brothers, the idea of brothers as equals, they're all kind of farm funneling along trying to figure out how to move along in life. for us to be able to look back, 200 years later and see what it must be unlike when he did know how the story was gonna and, it's a real treat. it's an honor really to have access to these letters to make sense of them. sometimes you get so embedded in the you forget that there is a post 1802. in this case i made very few references to anything that happens after 18 a two or 18 or three. can bowling who was my first my colleague and my first project first bowling project. if you ask him anything about anything

presidency, the house that still has scorch marks from when the brits tried to burn it down, still has john adams' admonition on the fireplace hearth. how did you view what happened tonight? >> oh, i was sickened by it as an institutionalist. you know, this isn't a south baltimore alderman's race here. it's not a toy. it's the presidency of the united states. and, you know, donald trump -- the country knows now that he's a cheater. he cheats on his wives. it looks like he's been cheating on his taxes. and he's now cheating the rules of an election where you have to respect the voters. so for everything from pompeo's deal to the tin pot dictator routine of the marines opening the door for him, the whole thing to anybody who cares about the institution -- i don't care what side you're on, r or d, it was a transgression, and it just shows you that in trump's mind, there are no rules. there is no respect for democracy and frankly no respect for the american voter. >> james, same question, and no one has to tell you when you were a campaign guy, you were a campaign guy. the white house staff, the west

thomas jefferson university, i'm going to start with the election of 1800, when jefferson defeated john adamsreason that was a critical election is because it set the precedent for an incumbent president being defeated for re-election and leaving office peacefully. 1860 i think is absolutely the most important election in american history because it led to the civil war and eventually the abolition of slavery. but this century, i pick two, 1932, franklin roosevelt's election opened up a nearly 50-year period of activist government, and that ended in 1980 with the next most important election, with ronald reagan began a 30-year -- approximately, 30-year period of retrenchment, of conservative government that reversed some of the trends that we saw during the roosevelt era. >> so, where does 2020 fall, according to you? >> i think it's the most important election of our lifetimes. i really do. look, i don't know whether it's the most important election of our lifetime but i'm going to say that because i want to maximize turnout. now, the truth is, we don't know. michael, we don't know. remember