daniel webster. stephen douglas who was called by journalists of the time a steam engine in britches. because of his ferocious dynamism. had these men, clay, webster, conservative wigs aligned with stephen a. douglas, a northern democrat, essentially, on behalf of compromise, on one side, against an extraordinary group of men who really defined the old term about -- president zachary taylor, old rough and ready, again, a president who is largely forgotten by most americans. played a fascinating role in that's events. much more interesting role morally, very courageous individual. a lifelong slave owner. had a plantation in louisiana but is absolutely dead set against, against, the expansion of slavery westward. very, very staunch in opposing clay's compromise because he figured it might permit the slavery to go westward. on the other hand, politically unfortunately clueless, john c. calhoun, who i mentioned. brilliantly termed by a great american historian as the marks of the master class. because he

that's when he went to daniel webster, and even as a slave, it helped to know people in high places, and webster, jennings knew that webster had come to the aide of other slaves in need, but he said hi could never own a slave so his mo was to extend the purchase price and then have the newly freed individual work for webster in his household to pay off the purchase price, and that's the deal that he struck with jennings. dolly sold jennings for $200. webster allowed jennings to pay back the purchase price at the rate of $8 a month. he freed him immediately. finally, at age 48, paul jennings is a free man. his story after his freedom is as compelling as the one before that event. he became a leading member of the washington free black community, and in 1848, he was an operative in an underground railroad activity that turned out to be the largest scale ever attempted slave escape known to historian as the pearl episode. 77 enslaved men, women, and children of washington, including a run away teenage slave of dolly madison's named ellen stuart, boarded a scooter and hid themselves hopi

i know you will play the expectations game and say he is the greater debater since daniel webster. >> chris: want me to. >> want me to start now? >> chris: you are football game. you watch tapes. what are his techniques and threats. >> he is fast on the cuff. a witty guy. he knows who he is. and he he has been doing this for 40 years. you are not going to rattle joe biden. he has been on the national stage. ran for president twice. the sitting vice president. what i hope to achieve is to give people an alternative and different governing policy and different poll philosophies. joe is good on the attack and and confuses the issues. my job is to make sure that they are not confused about what we stand for and what they stand for. >> chris: ted olson, the guy who won bush v. gore as your stand in. what are the similarities between ted olson and joe biden? >> they are are about the same age and ted olson is one really good debater. i hope joe biden shows more than ted olson because he is one of the best litigators in america. he has studied joe biden's tapes and records and style and ted

i was wondering, henry clay or daniel webster lived long enough to lincoln's election, might they have swayed him to police because that's a better question for me because that's about the past. you know that's what we call counterfactual questions. who knows? and yet i will say that there was some republican hard-liners who would write letters in this crisis and say, we really couldn't take the kind of stand we needed taken to clay and webster were gone. they valued the union more than anything else and they would've compromised anything to keep the union together. whereas lincoln of course on the union coming apart before his very eyes. the confederate states of america was established almost a month ago linda became president. he became president with a truncated union. of course, no one knew at that time was going to happen to the separation, nobody knew. i can't say that they could've persuaded lincoln but the would've been more forces for compromise then there were. [inaudible] to the book stops when the shooting starts but i go to fort sumter. i talk a lot about fort sumter. [in

that's when he went to daniel webster, and even as a slave, it helped to know people in high places, and webster, jennings knew that webster had come to the aide of other slaves in need, but he said hi could never own a slave so his mo was to extend the purchase price and then have the newly freed individual work for webster in his household to pay off the purchase price, and that's the deal that he struck with jennings. dolly sold jennings for $200. webster allowed jennings to pay back the purchase price at the rate of $8 a month. he freed him immediately. finally, at age 48, paul jennings is a free man. his story after his freedom is as compelling as the one before that event. he became a leading member of the washington free black community, and in 1848, he was an operative in an underground railroad activity that turned out to be the largest scale ever attempted slave escape known to historian as the pearl episode. 77 enslaved men, women, and children of washington, including a run away teenage slave of dolly madison's named ellen stuart, boarded a scooter and hid themselves hopi

that's when he went to daniel webster, and even as a slave, it helped to know people in high places, and webster, jennings knew that webster had come to the aide of other slaves in need, but he said hi could never own a slave so his mo was to extend the purchase price and then have the newly freed individual work for webster in his household to pay off the purchase price, and that's the deal that he struck with jennings. dolly sold jennings for $200. webster allowed jennings to pay back the purchase price at the rate of $8 a month. he freed him immediately. finally, at age 48, paul jennings is a free man. his story after his freedom is as compelling as the one before that event. he became a leading member of the washington free black community, and in 1848, he was an operative in an underground railroad activity that turned out to be the largest scale ever attempted slave escape known to historian as the pearl episode. 77 enslaved men, women, and children of washington, including a run away teenage slave of dolly madison's named ellen stuart, boarded a scooter and hid themselves hopi