he changes his mind about john adams and john adams right to a really supportive letter when he is havinghis difficulties in the troubled presidency because of the war of 1812 and on top of that. >> on john f. kennedy's profiles in courage features john quincy adams because he abandons the party of his father and joined jefferson and madison, madison, secretary of state for jefferson because of -- john quincy adams felt he knew he was going to lose his seat in the u.s. senate in massachusetts, cussing with the madisonians. he did so nonetheless. his father was wholeheartedly behind him in making that political shift. john adams for gave thomas jefferson. they have a beautiful, more than a decade of postpresidential correspondence. madison deeply respected john quincy adams. so there is no simple answer. their ideas, their opinions, their personal hatred changed over time and you see that a lot. >> we don't want to sugarcoat john adams either. he rubbed people the wrong way at times and we include that in our book. one of the things that is important for understanding the founding generati

adams entered a contest. in 1824 win then secretary of state john quincy adams is seeking the presidency they captured the foot race into this day of a presidential portrait this is relevant even tonight with the kentucky derby. john quincy adams is the head and with a military uniform coming up fast standing at the front of the crowd cheering on his son while spectators place wages on the outcomes. this is democracy at its worst in the spectacle the election campaign is about philosophy or policies. the excitement is what matters most. in 1828 adams lost the election and found himself not only running against a national hero but a far better organized jackson party machine van buren was the guru to build on the earlier new yorker hamilton's playbook his admirers tried to put them into the air of washington and the efforts failed because jackson was known to those concerned as autocratic. promoted with a lavish campaign the first of its kind the rash arbitrary behavior as a cardinal virtue to exhibit boldness and man the vigor but to be over the cerebral. there is something even darker at work. john quincy ada

it wasn't just john adams. other delegates were starting to get this message from their constituents. on friday, june 7 on friday, june 7, 1776 this man, a member of the virginia delegation introduced the first formal proposal for american independence, a resolution to declare that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states. they are absolved from all allegiance to the british crown, under all political connection between them and the state of great britain ought to be finally dissolved. two days of intense debate followed richard henry leaves revolution-- his revolution. the outcome may not be the result you're expecting. richard henry lee, john adams and other delegates in favor of independence didn't have the votes to carry the day, at least not yet. so members did what congress has always done best. they kicked the can down the road. they delayed a final vote and instead agreed to step up a committee to study the issue. this is what they agreed. resolved that that first r

john adams described him as being as honest as an angel. but roger sherman spoke and wrote like he was still in the 17th century, and his colleagues found him strange, if not weird. [laughter] a shortt john adams, lawyer who was an outspoken advocate for independence, and thomas jefferson, the tall, sandy-haired planter who had a reputation as a writer, but who had barely set a word on the congress floor so far. john adams later recalled that these two men actually bickered and argued about which one of them shouldn't do the work. [laughter] and who should lead the drafting. and to reconstruct that exciting conversation, we are going to do some theater, live on c-span. up to,ing to call randomly-server acted volunteers -- randomly-selected volunteers. chuck, catherine, could you come up? give them a round of applause. adams later wrote a reconstruction of the conversation, the bickering and arguing that supposedly happened andeen thomas jefferson john adams. the remember correctly, conversation again like this. >> will you write? >> i will

one thing about john quincy adams, and this is the dilemma. hn quincy adam, old man eloquent, was wonderful on the question of abolition when he goes back to congress. but john quincy adams was absolutely as racist as thomas jefferson. his letters, his diaries, he was a racist. but he understood not everybody who was anti-slavery was anti-racist. but he understood that slavery was wrong, and he actually worked against it. so these racial attitudes, this is something that is very, very tricky subject, and it's something we don't think about that much. but it was as much the currency of the day as altitudes about genter, about men and women. >> let me ask you something about executive power. it strikes me that throughout history, you know, and i understand that congress had its moments during the 1800s, but what i sense is that there has been a gradual erosion of power from the congress to the executive. and you know, what strikes me is, for example, the president obviously as commander in chief, there have been presidents that pretty much on the

i will say a thing about john quincy adams, he this is the dilemma. he was eloquent on the question of abolition. when he goes back to congress. john quincy adams was an absolute, as racist as thomas jefferson. his letters, his diaries, he was a racist. but, he understood, not everybody who was antislavery was antiracist. but, he understood that slavery was wrong. he actually worked against it. his racial attitude, this is something that is very tricky as a subject. it is something we do not think about that much. it left the currency of the day as attitudes about gender, men and women. >> let me ask you something about executive power. it strikes me, that, throughout history, and, i understand that congress had its moments, you know, during the 1800s. but, what i sense is, there has been a gradual erosion of power from the congress to the executive. , what strikes me is, four example, the president, obviously, as commander in chief, there have been presidents who do much, on their own, it made the decisions to go to work, whether it was the mexican wa

so who cares that john adams tried to limit free speech? well, it is important to our conversation today about what is hate speech and what should be allowed and part of the discussion online. it takes making those connections for them that they may not make themselves. host: what current political issues or figures are the most talked about among your students? eleanor: donald trump is person number one. they will always come in and say miss, did you hear, did you see, can you believe and then we get to talk about the historical significance and those relationships and we get to put those things into context. with the 2016 debate, we could go back and watched the 1960 presidential debate and look at how cordial they were to each other. nixon and kennedy were so nice to each other. we could trace where those things shift. not holding about andopponent's youth inexperience against him and laughs with him. we can track when things become more partisan. it is not just about saying, here's something crazy that just happened, but how did we get

john adams wrote, all the old women and children were going down to the jersey shore to make salt. 400 gallons of seawater was needed to boil off a bushel of salt which required stacks of forward. it's pretty hard. virginia spent more than 6000 pounds to build evaporation along the chesapeake but collected only 50 bushels probably the most expensive salt in the world. those problems substantial as it were, hardly matched britain's problems. the thousand tons of bread required each month to feed british shoulders in new york often arrived boldly and infested with irish rats. soon infested in staten island. for the winter of 1776 and 1777, then 16000 cords of firewood. 70 tons of candles, the daily allowance of a jill of rome, that is 5 ounces, that's about a gallon a month. it took an enormous amount of shipping space. the british navy board needed 400 transport and ships to move the supply in july. it was triple the tonnage at the peak of the war. let's talk for a moment about george, our last king. he is an intriguing adversary. queen elizabeth the second as brad mentioned opened up t

seven cares that john adams tried to limit free speech? it is important to our conversation today about what is hate speech and what should be allowed and part of the discussion online and so it takes making those connections for them that they may not make themselves. what political issues are figures are the most talked about among your students? >> donald trump is the person number one, they will always come in, miss, did you hear, did you see, can you believe? and we get to talk about the historical significance and those relationships and we get to put things into context. , we could016 debate go back and we watched the 1960 presidential debate, how cordial they were to each other. kennedy and and were so nice to each other. we can trace were those shift about not talks holding his opponents and experience against him. we can trace were those happened, where they become more partisan. it is not just about saying here is something that is crazy that happened but how did we get here? how can we figure out and navigate our way back? >> w

his works on john quincy adams, john quincy adams's republicanism, and obstacles that stand before usas

and when you sit down, the papers of john adams or abigail adams, you really get to know them becausehey are pouring out all of their innermost ambitions and worries and fears and suffering. that word suffering isn't just that they got hurt or that they worried excessively about their -- excuse me -- safety for their children. they were suffering. there's so much that they didn't have that we have now that we take for granted. they had no sedatives. they had no band aids. they had no chainsaws. they had no -- well, a lot. and we should never just say oh, yeah, that's the way it is. we're lucky people. and i've come to feel very strongly. we're a good people. we're a good nation. and yes, we make mistakes. and yes, there's evil. and yes, there are people who cheat and lie and people who have nothing but selfish ambition. but they are the minority. they are the exception, not the rule. and it has been that way right along. >> well, i don't think there's anybody who has taught us more, and i mean in a really engaged way. david, you have had a career in which you have made history excitin

as john adams wrote to jefferson, what do we mean by the revolution? the war? effect iny an consequence of it. founding elite scrubbed the war of us rest violence from their histories. theirs was the good revolution, the moderate revolution, the gentlemanly revolution. but adams's revolution was not the one its victims remembered. , no doubthistorians influenced by our post 9/11 worked to bridge the gap between the revolution's rhetoric and its reality. but highlighting the violence is not enough. we must seek to understand it social and political causes and effects. if not, we will continue a narrative of the american revolution divided into two halves. on one side, the war, district of and repressive. on the other, idealistic and unfinished. it requires making a connection between revolutionary political and revolutionary violence. theorthcoming book centers war and is horrors in these debate about the character consequences of the american revolution. it argues the political had the unintended theequence of transforming war which to achieve it. by making the

visits was to go to quincy and stand on the sidewalk and look through the neighborhood in which john adams birthplace is now situated. and imagine that abigail stood there and looked out at the seat of boston while her husband was at the continental congress, that was amazing. then we went to plymouth and stood there and thought about our four ancestors who came over on the mayflower so my 10-year-old grandchild is very steep now in american history .. >> .. r >> washington five every morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span .org. we now take you to the arab center for a discussion on iran. the growing tensions between the u.s. and iran. live coverage on c-span2. >> today we

when someone insisted that john quincy adams had every right to discuss an anti-slavery strutted john dawson over to the fellow and said adams had a right to discuss an anti-slavery petition and said, do that again and i'm going to ear.our throat from ear to message received. southern slaveholders attempted to silence debate and for a time this worked quite bad -- quite well for the south. in the late 1850's, the dynamic changed and the violence peaked. the issue of slavery was undeniably and aggressively ever more at the center of debate. second, and to me particularly intriguingly, communication changed. at the same time the nation's growth was keep slavery front and center, the telegraph made matters worse, transmitting information at breakneck speed. so just as the conflict began to , news spread faster than ever before and without much congressional spin. exaggerate hard to how the invention of the telegraph changed politics. one congressman pulled a gun on another congressman and there anda stampede, confusion after the episode was over, a senator from new hampshire student and

as john adams wrote jefferson, the war, that was a part of the revolution, it was only a cause or only in effect in consequence of it. >> adams and his peers in the founding elite scrub the wars violence from the history of theirs was a good revolution, the moderate revolution but, adams revolution is not the one it's victims remembered. 's story from patrick griffin, to name but a few, no doubt influenced by the post-9/11 world, ongoing confrontations with critical revolutions in political violence breed terrorism, has worked to bridge the gap between the revolutions rhetoric and reality, unearthing shocking levels of violence in the process. highlighting this violence is not enough. we must seek to understand the social, cultural and political causes and effects. if not, we continue to accept a narrative of the american revolution divided into two halves on the one side, the war, destructive and oppressive and on the other a political revolution. idealistic although unfinished. raking on the barrier requires making the connection between revolutionary physical change and revolutionar

visits is going to quincy and stand on the sidewalk and look through the neighborhood in which john adams ' birth place is situated, and imagining abigail stood there and looked out at the sea of boston while her huston was at congress, that is amazing. and, we went to plymouth stood there and thought about our ancestors who came over on the mayflower. my grandson is very steeped in american history. monticelloop will be to study about sally hemmings, timer surface and -- thomas jefferson, and we will go down to the first permanent settlement in the continental united states and study that. this little family is learning history. guest: [laughter] that's a very inspiring story. i think it points up the role that grandparents could play in this. the nuclear family, getting in the station wagon and heading to the historical sites, which people did in the 60's, 70's, and 80's, if that is not as common right now, certainly grandparents who have grown up in the 60's and 70's, that is a great mission, take your kids to the places that inspired you and you are a child. there is more modern inter

we have heard your voice on the john adams series and ken burns. we have heard david's voice telling the stories that telling the story on a page requires a certain mastery of language, a certain sensitivity, sensibility towards the rhythm of a sentence tell us about your approach to language itself. >> i have always felt to be a writer you have to be a rewriter so i write everything i write many times over. i also believe in writing for the ear as well as the eye because if someone reads it back to you for you in some cases read it yourself you hear when you were repeating words for your sentence structure is repetitive. my wife rosalie reads everything that i write aloud to me and we were working on the last chapter in my book about the adore roosevelt. this i will never forget. she came in and she said there's something wrong with that sentence. i said was repeated again. she read it again and i said no, there's nothing wrong with that and she said oh yes there is. i said give it to me. i read it to her and i said see, there's nothing wrong with

his works on john quincy adams, john quincy adams's republicanism, and obstacles that stand before us was published by the massachusetts historical society in 2014. his book-length study on the tenant general james longstreet's -- lieutenant general james longstreet's performance at the battle of gettysburg was published this year by mcfarland press. currently, he lives in maryland with his wife and two children. without any further introduction, i would like to present to you mr. cory pfarr. [applause] cory: thank you. all right. good afternoon, everyone. thanks for coming. thanks to the gettysburg heritage center for having me here. we will get right into it. f,t after james longstreet's january 1904, "the new york tribune" made able tradition the record would be rectified when it came to have a general's wartime record and performance at the battle of gettysburg would be regarded by future generations. they asserted "we do not think that history will sustain the contention of general longstreet's critics. he will be classed by open-minded critics as one of the ablest, most intellig

but, november 1795, john adams says in his diary, george washington had dinner one week on four different occasions with different delegations of indian chiefs. this is 1795 when the united states is, has already won, the war for ohio. washington is not having dinner every other evening or afternoon with indian delicates because he liked having dinner with indians. i can assure you that. he is doing it because it matters. because the nation is still young him a still fragile, it is still threatened by foreign powers who are not friendly. written to the north. and it is still threatened by still formidable indian power. so washington understands that his foreign policy, the foreign policy of the uni-, the new nation must involve not only france and britain and spain, but also indian nations. that is something i think we have forgotten. what george washington new. this story did not have to unfold this way. so, if we go back to the middle of the 18th century, a non- indian view of north america looks like this. again, no indian nations there. but look at all that blue. in the middle of the

it is interesting that john adams would make the nomination. and as he was making the nomination his cousin, samuel adams, was sitting over there looking like he had eaten the cat he had such a smile on his face because samuel was convinced that his cousin was going to nominate him to be the commander of the military. but he nominated george because that brought virginia into the struggle. the most populous, the biggest, the most important colony. and by doing so it broadened the conflict from new england to the mid-atlantic and the south. other questions? >> when did the official recruitment or soldiers begin and was it george who initiated that? >> no. the continental congress issued a plea for soldiers. throughout the war, the continental congress was constantly year after year making pleas for soldiers and offering different contracts. as we read about joseph plumb martin, he time and again would reenlist and would get some reward for doing so. some soldiers would reenlist and jump their contract and blend into the general public again and

i'm picking up on john, adam and jonas just said, melting all of them, i do think if there's military intervention, it's bad. especially that if another country steps in and says wait a second, hong kong is supposed to be basically separate but equal for the next 50 years or so and not only america from other countries have made some rumblings and said wait a minute, you're infringing on this agreement. it's not right what's happening. building on what jonas says, it strengthens the u.s. and points out how weak china really is, they are not capitalistic at a all. they are somewhere between socialism and communism that the crackdown on hong kong like th this, is as well, america is to invest. >> military intervention, i think the hurricane thing welcome and go. hopefully. i know we are thankful but this is maybe a bigger issue. >> there is no country that will do what you suggested because as nuance as this is, hong kong is part of china. there's no country that's going to step in and say hey, you must stop. >> if there's a violent response to the protests this weekend, that's the end

unlike john adams and abraham lincoln and woodrow wilson. he didn't imprison any journalists.nlike fdr and lbj, trump hasn't unleashed any stomach anyone against a single publisher. trump hasn't surveyed "new york times" columnists or fox reporters. and yet, they hate him. why do they hate him? because he's pro-american and they are anti-american. that's the only explanation. that's it. >> sean: you have to pay $0.50 or less for those books. >> mark: well, whatever i paid was too much. >> sean: number one "new york times" best seller. it's called "on freedom of the press. right here on the fox news channel. when we come back, while making mac and cheese last night, congresswoman ocasio-cortez issued a dire warning. fix the climate crisis or trapped diseases will spread from melting glaciers. wow. this is worse than ever. straight ahead. chair is just a chair. that a handle is just a handle. or... that you can't be both inside and outside. most people haven't driven a lincoln. it's the final days of the lincoln summer invitation event. right now get 0% apr on all lincoln vehicl

seeexample, i can almost john quincy adams. he would have been sitting over there. came to the house notably after he was president of the united states, and i can almost hear him literally bringing the house down around him with his own aggressive stance against slavery. theing at what used to be face before the speaker's theform, i can almost see massive brawl that took ways between armed northerners and southerners in 1858, largely having to do with the institutions of slavery that ended only when one congressman yanked the to pay off of the the headhe toupe off of another congressman. slapstick is eternal. now, to get a real sense of the space and action, i want to offer you the words of a congressional clerk named engine and brown french, who described a typical evening session in 1836, including both its highs and lows. he wrote, when fully lit at night, the light in this hall is equal to that of at least 1000 candles. the beautifully painted roof, the vast pillars, the red drapery about the speaker's ,hair, and between the columns all appear richer if possibl

put fdr first then george washington, thank you george i was very glad he was president and not john adams or jefferson. he was fantastic. lincoln, believe it or not in high school, i was absent the week they did civil war soil not [laughter] >> how did that turn out? >> rank fdr as a wartime presidency of a smaller group to compare with here. how do you rank him as a war president? the short answer is number two after lincoln. >> two things are really important i feel. one is we are really lucky that he was assistant secretary of the navy under wilson not because he was the greatest assistant in history which you may or may not have been but he watched wilson so closely that he saw all of the mistakes that wilson was making. just in case he did not notice those mistakes, he had this mistake sort of continuously narrated to him by his distant cousin t he had those mistakes narrated to him by his distant cousin theodore roosevelt who hated winston at roosevelt was still alive during world war i as i guarantee had fdr's here, in case you are ever president, don't do it the way woodrow was do

henry visited or dined with cabinet secretaries, congressman john quincy adams, john clayton, john crittendon. he attended a white house levy in 1847 where he met polk, quote, the great man who encouraged future visits. once assured of funds and a permanent place to exhibit natural history specimens, he went on to high an assistant and curator, spencer fullerton baird, who played a crucial role in the early decades of the organization. henry hired baird in 1850, but their correspondence began in early 1847. henry informed his wife that month, april of 1847, that the commissioner of the land office will also instruct those engaged in surveying the lands of the government to make observations on the variation of the compass so that without expending but little of the funds of the smithsonian i find i can do a good deal for the cause of american science. he persuaded the u.s. army to cooperate with the smithsonian in reporting meteorological observations. as henry was a strong proponent that the smith sownon should patronize original research, he allowed henry schoolcraft to continue his observa

unlike john adams and abraham lincoln and woodrow wilson, he didn't shut down any newspapers.any journalist. unlike fdr and jfk and lbj, trump hasn't unleashed the irs against a single news publisher. unlike barack obama -- oh, the great barack obama. trump hasn't a surveilled "new york times" columnist or fox reporters are 20 associated press reporters, yet they hate him. why do they hate him? because he is pro-america, and they are anti-american. that is the only explanation. that's it. >> sean: do you to pay $0.50 or less for those crappy books? >> well, whatever i paid, it was too much. >> sean: [laughs] number one "new york times" best seller, it's called "unfreedom of the press," lays it out perfectly. sunday nights, 10:00 p.m., right on the fox news channel. when we come back, making mac and cheese last night, congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez issued a dire warning: fix the climate crisis or diseases will spread from melting glaciers. wow. straight ahead ♪ -meg! there you are. did you take a picture of the cake to put on our website? i mean i would have but i'm a c

john adams, the sedition act. he put journalists in prison. he shut down newspapers.t was a big problem. jefferson ran against this. jefferson won. jefferson got rid of the sedition act. you have abraham lincoln during the civil war. they shut down 300 newspapers. put a number of journalists in prison for a variety of reasons. you can argue one way or another. but that's what they did. woodrow wilson, an accidental president in many ways. he had a new sedition act in 1918. an extension of the 1917 espionage act. he put a number of journalists in prison and he put a number of political opponents in prison. fdr used the irs to go after the own of the enquirer. and they went after kennedy, lbj used the irs. and barack obama used the fbi to go after james rosen, and the associated press reports. he knew of nothing by the. so to say this president by calling a reporter or news organization fake news is like a dictator is so absurd and outrageous. i'm not aware that he used the fbi other irs other sedition act. if you ask them about fdr, they love fdr or woodrow wilson. pet

for example, i can almost see john quincy adams. he would been sitting over there. he came to the house notably after he was present in the united states. i can almost hear him literally bringing the house down around him with his own aggressive stance against slavery. looking at what used to be the face before the speaker's platform. which would've roughly been over there. i can almost see the massive brawl that took place between armed northerners and southerners in 1858. largely having to do with the institution of slavery that ended only when one congressman gained that to pay off the head of another man. reducing the room to laughter. which goes to show that slapstick is eternal. to get a real sense of the space in action , i want to offer you the words of a congressional clerk, named benjamin brown and french. he described a typical evening session in this hall in 1836. including both highs and lows. this is from his a diary. "when fully lit at night , the light is equal to that of 1000 candles. the beautifully painted roof , the vast pillars, the red drapery

so when john adams asked how do we drive to laws.he said not from common law but from the law of nature. in america it was not conquered but that he discovered country. he also had america was not going to buy the king the great but was very dearly earned by the planters in the labor lead and treasure with which they expanded and subdued by cultivation. you say americans have not by the rights with them by shipped from england rather they had it as a work found them in the wilderness. this is quite interesting. i'm in a gray area between these two camps. what you say to people when you say the colonists of the founding generators. one of the reasons they rebuild as they felt they were being denied what they called their ancient english rights or liberties. the american is the english man left alone. [laughter] is there no room for this was an evolved thing that the american nations was a nation before it was an idea. becky did evolve. americans began their restive and eventually violent resistance to the british thinking they wanted

so, for example, i can almost see john quincy adams. he would have been sitting over there. he came to the house notably after he was president of the united states, and i can almost hear him literally bringing the house down around him with his aggressive stance against slavery. looking at what used to be the space before the speaker's platform, which would have been roughly over there, i can almost see the mass brawl that took place between armed northerners and southerners in 1858, largely having to do with the institution of slavery that ended only when one congressman yanked the toupee off of the head of another congressman reducing the room to laughter, which really only goes to show you that slapstick is eternal. [ laughter ] >> now, to get a real sense of the space in action, i want to offer you the words of a congressional clerk named benjamin brown french, who described a typical evening session in this hall in 1836, including as you're about to hear, both its highs and lows. so french wrote -- and this is actually from his diary -- when fully lit at night, the lig

it's why the congress authorized john adams to throw up a list of talking points for negotiations with france. it's why congress dispatched benjamin adams -- benjamin adams? congress dispatched benjamin franklin to paris later that fall. other can watch this and american history programs on our website were all our video is archive. that's c-span.org/history. >> next on american history tv. for former apollo aero flight controllers and engineers discuss the lunar module landing operations during the apollo 11 mission to the moon. this panel was part of an event john: good morning everybody and welcome to the 50th anniversary of the apollo moon landing. [applause] i will say that periodically throughout the day so that people will applaud. you can here that atmosphere is charged and the dingling in the background. [laughter] special day, very auspicious day. we are honored to have with us today a panel of important engineers. my personal heroes growing up. 14 when you all did th

the land of john adams. so they were using this information for different things. they had an early on against florida, they came away with 13 bales of cotton and they freed them. not a lot there. in april 1863, the union attempted that. marines on board, army ready, they were spoiled by underwater mines for the south used to mind harbors in the area and they were raked by the agility themselves. others were heavily damaged. that's because these tornadoes were very deadly weapons. so what happens the next month in may of 1863 is that someone begins playing. the trail is kind of cold. the newspaper reporter, class and decision, change of plans, look out in the company forever. hard to believe they could be undertaken without careful planning. not only because he had to get 300 men armed but you had to figure out a way around the underwater mines, a drawing of the underwater mind and what they like. more often to the bottom, sometimes different race in the which they were more in some create a more very to pending on how big the area was to pocket. it was depicted in

those are emts john adams campus. >> president nakajo: okay. thank you for that as well. my last comment, as many of the commissioners chimed in on the chase drill, we do what we need to do to be prepared. as you have always said, we take care of business and part of that is being proactive. i look at it as that. we are the san francisco fire department and we will respond. so i appreciate whatever we need to do in terms of that particular preparation, whatever it takes for us to do that and let the citizens of san francisco rest assured that the san francisco fire department is on the job. thank you for that, chief. >> chief nicholson: thank you. >> president nakajo: as in our tradition, we don't have any other report from you, chief? we will call up chief of administration. as tradition goes, after chief velo gives his report, we ask public comment and the questions and comments from the commissioners. >> may i interrupt? if my command staff would like to take their jackets off -- it is hot in here. you may take your jackets off. thank you. >> president nakajo: thank yo

john adams was the original realist. we don't go in search of monsters that destroy. ever since bill wilson was president, every american president had to incorporate idealism in their foreign policy. so when something is happening in hong kong, every american president until now would say we side with the people of hong kong in the pursuit of liberty and human rights. that was the city on a hill that america represented for people around the world. as my old boss john kerry used to say, people don't wake up at night worried that we're involved. they wake up at night worrying we're not involved. if you look around the world and wherever we leave and withdraw, as we are doing now, they're never replaced by a better actor. >> let me stop you. is that still true? >> i think it is true. there are no other actors, not better acts. when wilbur ross said it's an internal matter the foreign minister of russia and china were dancing up and down. what nobody talks about, because trump doesn't understand t. he's moving us to a sphere of influence world. that's the 19th century w

and i think that the presidency from the very beginning, john adams wrote in 1790s that the presidentbe the object of all eyes, the object of all attention. john kennedy said it was the, you know, vital center of action. it's always been this central place in our culture and our politics. we can argue whether that is a good thing or a bad thing but it happens to be historically true. right now we have a president who appeals to the darker forces as opposed to our better angels. >> jon, you also write this. trump's failure to do much more than tweet over the weekend of the attack followed by his listless and unconvincing remarks about hate in a speech most notable for its implicit defense of guns stands in stark contrast to other presidents in other moments of crisis. we heard that contrast yesterday from candidates like cory booker, from joe biden. but help me understand historically the power base of america. why so many are standing with the president and saying, his policies work, when this massively important tone in how he leads this country seems to be falling short. >> look, th

the care of seamen and marine in hospitals established in 1798 legislation, signed by president john adams. or the medical attention rendered to civilians by the short lives after the civil war. however, for the most part, congress has resisted initiatives to involve the government in offering health care or insurance to any but the ilitary. few americans realize it was the vociferous republican president theodore roosevelt, who was the first to successfully, but passionately, advocated for health insurance and the 20th century. later, his cousin, a democrat, and still lyndon johnson and bill clinton, pursued a role for the federal government in providing health care to all americans. johnson's medicare and medicaid offered some relief to vulnerable populations. but not until the obama administration did the federal government offer a fresh path to relieving the anxieties of those shut out of health insurance and the health insurance market. however, many issues remain. so where are we now? how can history help us? the united states of america has the richest country on the globe has still

maybe capture that heated symbol of the rebellion that split the land of george washington and john adams the use information for different things. then early on was arrayed againt jacksonville, florida and came away with 13 bills of cotton with 30 men, not a lot there, next month in april the union attempted at fort sumner. but they were foiled, by the way carefully planned, lots of ships, army at the ready, but they were foiled by underwater mines that themi south used arod fort sumner and by artillery in the south. a brand-new ship was sunk and others heavily damage. that is because these tornadoes were very deadlyec weapons. what happens the next month may of 1863, someone begins planning arrayed at the combi. this is where the information becomes parsed in the trail is k cold. it is announced by a local newspaper reporter and it's hard to believe it could've been undertaken without careful planning. not only because you had to get 300 men for an assault but you to figure out a way around the underwater mines in the drawing of the underwater mines, this is what they look like they wer

john adams said you cannot guarantee success, but we can do something better. we can deserve it. our exceptionalism doesn't guarantee we will always make the right choice. the price today of the wrong choice is deep. after writing three books i have been christened, by the new york times, no less. quite heavy stuff for an old newspaperman. one thing historians get to do is quote abraham lincoln, sort of like getting your union card. [laughter] john: in 1838, for seeing civil war, lincoln told his countrymen, "of all the armies of europe, asia and africa combined, with all the treasurer of the earth, for the bonaparte's of the commander cannot by force take a drink from the ohio river. if destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. as a nation of freemen, we will live all-time or die by suicide." nixon taught us that, teaches us that now. why nixon now? it's only a beginning, always, he said on the east room the day he relinquished the presidency. the last year, i was invited to lecture at vanderbilt and a om is, university of chicago, mary washington, mo