he grew up admiring henry clay, she knew henry clay. the lincoln family hated slavery, the todd family owned slaves, they met in springfield, illinois. >> one d was good enough to spell god, the todds needed two. >> he told me, ms. todd, i want to dance with you in the worst way and that's the way he danced, in the worst way. >> on the issue of poetry and politics, they had nothing in common. whatever you have read or heard before, it was mutual attraction and admiration than never waned. and this in their exact words, their family photos and other period pictures is their story beginning in 1858. >> i have come to the con conversation -- >> in our little country in springfield in the days of my girlhood, we had a society of gentlemen who have since been distinguished in the political world. choice choice spirits -- but my greet and glorious husband came first, a world above them all. mr. steven a. douglas is a very little, little giant by the side of my tall kentuckian. >> nothing new her except my marrying, which to me is a matter of

system of canals facilitating commerce, built with, you know -- built through the public sector and henry clay's american plan and all of that. the whole land grant system, abraham lincoln's biggest achievement, other than perhaps winning the civil war. you know, the idea, the idea that the best thing that government can now do is get out of the way, is maybe a sad truth and the symptom of a deep disease i don't think we can live with in this country. i'm putting it as starkly as possible. if you don't agree, please say so. that's why we're here. >> i think, too, what we're seeing is a forcing of business leaders to pursue double bottom line initiatives. that you're trying to run a business you're starting to run enterprises like they're a government. facebook is going to be china. a billion people with some centralized command. it can communicate to its citizens in a very efficient fashion. what do governments do? they have to defend their citizens. facebook honestly is concerned about its citizens safety and security. it raecreates currency. facebook is creating its own currency. we're startin

whether it was and some of it -- whether it was building the roads and the canals that henry clay wanted to build that didn't really help create wealth in america, all the way down to the gi bill or social security. and so the question is not an absolutely equal distribution of income or a wildly unequal distribution of income like we have now. but something more moderate, if i may use the word moderate. and it seems to me that people who are progressive are fundamentally in favor of moderation. which is they do not like the extremes of inequality that we have today. and that's where the argument is. and so i don't think the argument is fundamentally -- and this is just a political disagreement with the gentleman who asked the, i don't think it's about the size of government. i don't long for a government of particular size. i don't think most progressives do. they do want government to do certain things which leads to a government of a certain size. and it's more tested by what you want government actually to accomplish than by some abstract sense of, gee, it would be much better if gov

and the ancestors he chooses are alexander hamilton, henry clay, abraham lincoln, and theodore roosevelt. and what i'd like to assert is contrary to what some of my conservative friends would argue, the notion of a strong and influential federal government that was essential to american economic growth goes right back to the founding of the constitution was not created to create a weaker central government. it was created to create a stronger central government because our founders understood that the situation of the articles of confederation to which on some days i think governor perry wants us to return, was inadequate to the needs of a great nation. and i think that by going back to t.r. rather than fdr, president obama was underscoring that there is a tradition of national action in our history. and it is the tradition that on the whole has served us better. what did t.r. talk about in the osawatomie speech? is it irrelevant to today? well, he had a whole lot to say about the influence of corporate money on political campaigns. and if you go back and read what he said about that and

calling each other names and the same thing happened back in those days john tylers opposite was henry clay he had no claims other than he wanted to be president and did everything he could to undermine john tyler things have not changed. >> he referred to your grand father, robin hood living in sherwood forest he turned the name of his home to sherwood forest. >> when he found out john tyler was leaving washington, he said the outlaw is retiring, like robin hood is retiring to his sherwood forest at that time sherwood forest was named walnut grove because of all the magnificent and beautiful walnuts planted in the early 1700s that surrounded the house and john tyler changed the name from walnut grove to sherwood forest. >> a competitive spirit there. it has been a pleasure to talk to you today, the grandson of our 10th president, john tyler happy president's day again to you sir. >> i thank you bye. >>> i love that accent. >> extraordinary. >> amazing. >> he could run it all down i have it all here. >> he made it very clear because when you are reading it is like what? essentially his gran

the author argues that president lincoln was a racist his political mentor with senator henry clay, a kentucky slave owner. this program originally aired in did ges about an hour long. >> lebron bennett jr., what does you get?th >> i thought the book captured the essence of what i was trying to say in the sense that lincoln, from my standpoint was driven, forced to a glory that he resisted every step of the way.adam one of the great critics during the civil war, he and washingtoi rode a paragraph which said that he was literally whip into glory. i felt like maybe forced would be a betterr term for the covere so i settled on forced in the glory. it, again, captures my idea and while the basic areas of thisoo book, all these extraordinary men and the lemon, many of themh white in washington, 86 to 63,g ofe american people to avoid the not know anything about any of the. l ashley, zechariah chance andas let, salman, all these people, t say, and that try to detail it. it really pushed reason to glory lincoln himself said i was driven to it, literally driven e to a. >> he said that abraham

present as madison received a queue of notables in that room from thomas jefferson to andrew jackson, henry clay, daniel webster and very many young men of learning. madison's niece wrote that jennings sighed for freedom, was enamored with freedom. well, you bet. those young men of learning, they would answertize about spending one evening listening to the father of the constitution hold forth. jennings, like part of the wallpaper, was present for hundreds of such discourses. and in the book i develop the thesis that jennings was able to absorb the theoretical underpinnings that would support his innate yearning for freedom and allow him l to identify it as a natural right of man. late february, 1837. jennings prepares the madison city house in washington for future use by the widow, dolly madison. paul jennings had returned to lafayette square for the first time in 20 years. james madison died the previous summer, and mistress dolly decided she would make use of her city house in washington and sent jennings ahead to ready the dwelling. it was still february, but in anticipation of a new admini

home of henry clay, the great compromiser.y question to you is, do you need another great compromiser or an abolitionist? we have people on the national stage running for president who like to preen and pretend they are for limited government. there is only one champion on the stage of limited government. who is that? >> ron paul. >> when ron paul came back to congress, the wall street journal said this. his refusal to compromise was legendary. [cheers and applause] there is only one man on the stage who would truly preserve your freedom, balance the budget, restore value to our currency, and save us from this debt bomb that is engulfing our country. there is only one man on the stage where the troops trust. only one man who has received more contributions from active duty military than any other candidate. that man is my hero and a candidate for the presidency of the united states, ron paul. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. thank you. [cheers and applause] [chanting "president paul"] [cheers and applause] you are such a no

i would say henry clay. william jennings bryan pushed the democrats in a more liberal direction.e had enormous impact. in a different way, at least even sen, the democratic nominee twice in the 1950's. he pushed in a direction of what we might call it gentrification of the democratic party. i am not sure it helps the democrats a lot. gentility and abandoned is nice. it does not have the punchy campaign that truman was capable of. we have lots of references to a true man now. finding the real truth is hard under the mythology. if you were a democrat in the senate now he would be considered a left winger. host: the caller mentioned our "the contenders" series. go to the website and scroll down to the bottom. the contenders is there for you to take a look at. there is lots of stuff to take a look at on this president's weekend or any time. c-span.org. we have a weeks -- a tweet. as the professor to briefly explain what the 17th a manicure, such as states with no senators. guest: are you say that because there is a direct election of senators, the states do not have senators? host: h

the oratory of henry clay and daniel webster still echoes through these halls. at arm's reach of where i stand right now, once spoke franklin roosevelt, ronald reagan, douglas macarthur and winston churchill. yet in their long and ill lust res you lives, not one could claim to have sacrificed more for his country than these young men like victor do. lincoln was right that no meager words of ours can add or detract from their deeds but shakespeare was also right that their story, should the good man teach his son. for that reason i'm proud to join a unanimous delegation from california in proposing that the post office in the town where victor lived and loved and returned as a fallen hero be named in his honor. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, for five minutes. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. oregon lost an amazing pioneer with the death of gail ackerman last weekend. at the moment gail was drawing her last breath, her husband was telling me the story