mercy otis warren was the wife of a patriot, james warren, the sister of another patriot, james otis, from a very well connected

otis warren. she was the wife as a patriot, james warren, the sister of another patriot, james otis, from a very well-connected political family of massachusetts. but her brother, james otas, had been very active in the revolutionary cause, the resistance cause in the 17 sixties and then he went insane. unlike most women, mercy otis women had been highly educated. she was educated by a private tutor along with her brother. she kind of stepped in his place and began writing plays and poems and political tracks that attack the british tyranny and they are actually published in the newspapers in massachusetts and they were circulated throughout the colonies. so she was really important i guess you would say instigator in the coming of the revolution. interestingly enough, too she then wrote one of the first histories of the revolution published in 1805 she was a friend of abigail adams and john adams and john adams actually encouraged her authorship and venture to history so she is someone that again has been forgotten but at the time was unknown because she was instrumental in promoting the revolutionary cause.

but her brother, james otis, had been very active in the revolutionary cause, the resistance cause in the 1760s. and then he went insane. and unlike most women, mercy otis warren had been highly educated. she was educated with a private tutor along with her brother, and she kind of stepped in his place. and she began writing plays and be poems and political tracts that attacked british tyranny. and they were actually published in newspapers in massachusetts, and they were circulated throughout the colonies. and so she, she was really important, i guess you'd say, instigator in the coming of the revolution. interestingly enough, too, she wrote a three-volume history of the american revolution that was publish inside 1805. she was a friend of abigail adams and of john adams, and john adams actually encouraged her authorship, encouraged her venture into history. and so she is someone that i think, again, has been forgotten, but at the time was well known to americans because she was so instrumental in promoting the revolutionary cause. and on the front of your book is this painting, draw

it's really from the lower house is that the legislature you get people like patrick henry and james otis and john adams and samuel adams who came out and attacked what they thought were innovations in the british policy that were oppressing the colonists and if you recall the major slogan was no taxation without representation but it's those delegates that were on the forefront of observing that. they were elected within each colonies of virginia has a legislature, such as its common and hampshire has a legislature and these new houses have delegates that were elected from towns and counties but there was no sense people should have more representative. it was still on the basis of geographic units so one county in virginia but sent two representatives whether it had 1,000 people were 2000 people. what happened when the state's quote their constitution and they did that in the american revolution from 1776 to 1780. some of the states began to experiment with a new form of representation in which representation was a portion of the population. so more people in a certain area would get mo

conversation on our c-span facebook page -- otis says -- host: that is the discussion on our facebook page. back to our phones. on the line for independents, jamesst. charles, missouri. go ahead. caller: good morning. i wish everyone in the country could watch "washington journal" every morning. in regard to harold ford, jr.'s op-ed piece over his disagreement with obama about the oil and gas drilling, i am for it, but in a little different sense. apparently, we pumped back into the ground, under pressure, a lot of natural gas that would otherwise be burned off and wasted, which we have been doing for years and years on every gas and oil project -- every oil project, anyway. that should all be compressed. we should build another pipeline for natural gas. it's already there. it would be lost. bring it down to the lower 48 for an energy source. it is a cleaner form of energy. it is abundant. we could do the same thing with all the natural gas from oil wells and the gulf. host: james, let me get your response to part of harold ford, jr.'s op-ed. he writes -- your thoughts? caller: my thought is -- we do not have to do anything extra. all we have to