george mcclellan's campaign on the peninsula had fizzled tantalizingly close to richmond and soon confederate troops would invade the north in kentucky and maryland, the european powers were then on the verge of stepping into the dispute to force a mediation that would have recognized southern independence. the republican grip on congress was threatened and with it the fate of this huge and historic agenda. how the union was saved from that low point is another story told in my forthcoming book. it's an astounding chain of events, but we haven't time for that now. instead i'm going to give the final word to charles sumner. perhaps the greatest figure of that tumultuous congress speaking of misunderstood individuals. our session has been busy, sumner wrote understatedly to a friend after congress adjourned. but then he added with justified pride, i doubt if any legislative body ever acted on so many important questions. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you. we do have some time for questions. i would ask you to come up to this microphone if you have a question you'd like to ask. anyo

george mcclellan, union commander, toyed with the idea quote, i almost think that were i to win some success now, i could become dictator. he wrote to his wife and he did nothing to discourage the press from signing him the nickname the young napoleon. he even posed for official photographs with his hand tucked into his tunic. congress moved -- that congress moved with such unprecedented speed to create a modern currency, raised the vast sums needed to fight the war because people in 1862 understood what later generations of americans have, i would argue, largely forgotten. that if secession managed a first success there would be no logical end to it. we see the civil war so much as a north versus south issue that we imagine other possible results, always revolving around two side-by-side nations. that's not what they were looking at. there was nothing inherently stable about two independent nations, north and south neatly dividing the space and the resources they had once shared. if the south was section successful, more faultlines were likely to open. the bonds that held the old no

time trying to approve of what, in fact, they had assumed the people already believed, that george b. mcclellanas a great military hero and, hence, the importance of this book to make had his case. now the dispute over mcclellan's worthiness of the title of military hero boiled down to a pretty simple question. and that was mcclellan's failure in the campaign of 1862. the issue, therefore, in the 1864 presidential campaign was simply -- it boiled down to one question. did mcclellan lose all by himself because he was too cautious and too slow, or did president lincoln cause mcclellan to lose by with holding from him thousands of soldiers to protect washington that mcclellan needed in virginia to win the peninsular campaign. this was not just a military report but also a campaign document for presidential election. it was widely reviewed in the press, and i would have to say that most of the reviews of it were unthinkingly partisan. but i did find one that was moderate and thoughtful. the review appeared in new york city in a periodical of sort of mildly democratic party leanings. it was a magazi

well, lincoln gave the same advice, more or less to george mcclen mcclellan in 1862 and said, quote, it is indense pennsylvaniaable to you that you strike a blow. i am powerless to help you. you will do me the justice to remember i always insisted that going down the chesapeake bay in search of a field instead of fighting at or near manassas was only shifting and not surmounting a difficulty that we would find the same enemy and the same or equal entrenchments at either place. so by contrast then, when in 1864 lincoln was explaining to general grant why he wasn't going to interfere with him as he had in the past he said that the problem had been that -- the problem previously had been, quote, prep procrastination on the part of commanders. procrastination. so, in other words, lincoln saw strategy and maneuver as squirming and crawling. one of the other things that lincoln liked about ulyssess. grant. he wrote a memorandum which said the army like the nation has become demoralized by the idea that the war is to be ended, the nation united, and the peace restored by strategy and not by

he used to say when people asked him why he hadn't fired george mcclellan, he'd say i'm a minority president and he's a majority general. but by the end of that war, the republican party was definitely a majority party and was for the next 30 years because in large part they had articulated an agenda that americans were ready to get behind. >> you raised spectrum of corruption. it was legal to bribe congressmen until 1853, after which time it was legal to pay them consulting fees to do things. which is interesting. so i wondered in relation to the money you were talking about, was it consulting fees some i know it's stocks. you mentioned that. if you could you sxheyou could . >> a huge amount -- question if anyone could not hear is what was the legal at that tistatus money the lp&w was throwing around in congress. a huge amount of what they were doing is offering land which they had not yet fully stole p from the indians but were going to and that land was of questionable value, but if it had the transcontinental value cao through going through it, it would be of great value. it was certainl

compare, compare what burnside's experience to that of general george mcclellan. in the spring, burnside is experiencing this great success and in intelligence, clearly wink the intelligence war. mcclellan, has the largest army. takes them from washington to the virginia peninsula where the fortress is. mcclellan is not friendly to runaways. he won't talk those being used by the confederate war effort. he will return them. the league, african-americans do not like mcclellan. they do not provide him good information. mcclellan would march his army within ten miles, rebel capital, 1862, down in south carolina. susie king taylor, a teenager learned to read and write in secret schools of savannah, had run away and was at hilton head. she said in the camp it was a gloomy time. when mcclellan was close to richmond it was a gloomy time. they did not want mcclellan to succeed. it was a gloomy time. in richmond, pinkerton would name john scobell, one of the operative of the league, and pinkerton would have his own operatives, hatty lawton, and timothy webster. john scobell

he stood up for general george mcclellan. >> earlier in his career, he stood up for mcclellan and hisse secretary, who were blamed. he said, no, no. the blame should be mine. the definition of a -- one definition of a great leader is somebody who takes less credit than he should and takes more blame than he should. that's not what we have now. >> sean: you talked about dwight eisenhower. >> dwight eisenhower before normandy, wrote out a message to be given in the event that the germans threw us off the beaches. what it said was, i picked the place where we landed. the troops, the navy, the airmen did their best and are most volarrous. if anybody deserves blame, it's me. >> sean: how many troops did we lose -- 7- or 8,000 men when they slammed the beaches of normandy? >> right. >> sean: a lot of loss. he prepared to take the blame, not -- >> correct. >> sean: then he gave praise after. >> when it became clear that it was a success. he wrote another message, giving all the credit to the troops. the only time he mentioned himself was at the end when he said, i'm proud of you. >> sean: wh

lee, stonewall jackson, george mcclellan and james longstreet. the mexican war was america's first war of invasion. it was fought on multiple fronts across thousands of miles from the texas border to mexico city to san francisco bay, in snowy mountains and deserts, in summer heat and winter cold, on tropical beaches and in densely-populated cities. general zachary taylor's army fought on the rio grande river and northern mexico. i've got a map here. this is where the war started, and taylor's thrust into northern mexico followed this red line. the other, the second front that opened after about a year of the war was at veracruz by genuinefield scott. he landed here and marched 260 miles to mexico city. there are other fronts too. john c. fremont led fighting in california, general steven carryny marched from kansas to santa fe to san diego and fought two major battles outside los angeles. a brigade of mormons that followed kearney's path nearly starved. alexander donaldson led a famous troop of missouri volunteers from santa fe to chihuahua, mexi

he stood up for general george mcclellan. >> earlier in his career, he stood up for mcclellan and hisefense secretary, who were blamed. he said, no, no. the blame should be mine. the definition of a -- one definition of a great leader is somebody who takes less credit than he should and takes more blame than he should. that's not what we have now. >> sean: you talked about dwight eisenhower. >> dwight eisenhower before normandy, wrote out a message to be given in the event that the germans threw us off the beaches. what it said was, i picked the place where we landed. the troops, the navy, the airmen did their best and are most volarrous. if anybody deserves blame, it's me. >> sean: how many troops did we lose -- 7- or 8,000 men when they slammed the beaches of normandy? >> right. >> sean: a lot of loss. he prepared to take the blame, not -- >> correct. >> sean: then he gave praise after. >> when it became clear that it was a success. he wrote another message, giving all the credit to the troops. the only time he mentioned himself was at the end when he said, i'm proud of you. >> sean

he stood up for general george mcclellan. >> he, earlier in his career, stood up for mcclellan and forfense secretary who were being blamed. he said, no, no, the blame should be mine. one definition of a great leader is somebody who takes less credit than he should and takes more blame than he should, and that's not what we've got now. >> reporter: mukasey also cited general dwight d. eisenhower of a statement accepting full blame of the invasion of normandy's failure. such examples are worth mentioning every time president obama claims bin laden bragging rights. now, we did reach out to the white house for official reaction, no official response as yet. megyn? is. megyn: all right. when we get it, we will bring it to you. gregg, thank you. >>> new concerns for an iranian pastor who may be facing a death sentence for converting to christianity. now his attorney has been locked up by the government for nine years. why? because he's defending this guy, at least that's what the reports say. jay sekulow has been fighting to bring attention to this pastor and his plight, and jay joins us li

host: was it the election between abraham lincoln and george mcclellan? guest: yes, this is one of the posters that every fact that you wanted to know about the election is there. you've got the lincoln letter. there's a letter here from him. and positions from all, you know, the various people and the other thing about this poster, this is something that goes back into another poster, the one for lewis cast election earlier than this, between zachary taylor is how they put all of these presidential faces around it as well. and that's one of the things that seems to be a common theme in these early posters particularly in the 19th century where they're trying to go back to the founders. host: this is the poster you're referring to? guest: that's the poster and this is very much like that poster and i think listeners in michigan will know who he was. he was the governor of michigan. a high school in detroit is named for him but during the campaign, zachary taylor's campaign liked to make fun of his name because he felt that it rhymed with gas and every opp

he is up and having to be forcibly restrained from hitting tim mcclellan and the yankees have won the ballgame 4-3. george in the ninth inning against the yankees but he cheated. he put it in his bat -- don't rush at me! if that's where he wants to take it. joining us is baseball hall of famer and the original wall of fame headliner for "fox & friends", george brett. welcome back to the show. >> thank you. it's been a while. >> what is your thought? what was your thought about the george brett that rushed out of the dugout that day? >> first time i saw it, i said i looked like i was really mad. i wasn't that mad. i was going out there to argue and what made it really bad is one of the umpires joe brinkman which you'll see here, this is on tv, he grabs me from behind right there. and all of a sudden, i don't know what's going on. then i'm trying to go away and had a little struggle with him. but you that's about as bad as i've been in my life. >> they threw you out for having too much pine tar. >> here's the rule. i guess this is a different rule. this would be 18 inches to the beginning of this label, rig