just as the civil war was ending, the letters of law robert e. lee wrote to his wife saying i wish we could buy stratford. is the only place in fused with local law for me. where we could go. i wonder if it is for sale. so the leaves of stratford hall. >> host: tell the story of how richard henry turned a disaster into great accounts, his terrible accident. >> guest: that was a terrible year for him. he was out shooting swans. if you go to stratford, go to washington's birthplace four miles up the road, hope's creek. the house is gone but it is so beautiful it is like going back, like going back to the americas that -- when you work through the woods you see the deer scampering away the way pigeons get out of your way, the potomac at that point is about seven miles wide so it is spectacularly beautiful. the potomac forms into these little beige -- when we went there, there were thousands of geese and hundreds of swans and overhead if you can believe that a bald eagle. it was like it had been set up by hollywood. when i set out to describe this i like

first because it really removed this myth of invincibility that attached itself to robert e. lee and the confederates. it also imposes terrific costs on the confederate army which loses heavily. never really regains the initiative again. and above all it gives lincoln that opportunity to come to gettysburg and utter those 272 words that we all know as the gettysburg address. >> those words are so important on so many levels. i want to pick out one level you've written about. which is it was a rebuttal to those who thought that the american experiment, the american revolution and those ideals that had been manifested in europe as well were failing and were -- and that the civil war was evidence of their near failure. >> all around the united states in 1861 were monarchies, empires, czars, emperors. from the time of our american revolution until the civil war. the idea of democracy, the idea of a republic, of people governing themselves, had soared upwards and then soared downwards, especially with the example of the french revolution. in 1861, the united states was really the only

and when they were leaving the house, when robert e. lee was three years old they couldn't find him. he was in his nursery kneeling in front of the fireplace saying good by to the cherubs who had been his companions. so, just as the civil war was intending you know the letter that robert e. lee wrote to his wife saying, oh i wish we could i stratford. he said it's the only place that is infused with love for me, and i wonder if it's for sale. so the leisure stratford hall. >> tell the story of how richard henry turned a disaster into great account. his terrible accident. >> oh, that was a terrible leap of faith. he was out shooting swans. if you go to stratford, go to washington's birth lace which is about four miles of the road, hopes creek. it is so beautiful. it's like going back to, it's like going back to the america that the settlers came to. when you walk through the woods to see the deer scampering away the wave agents get out of your way in the park. and the potomac at that point is about seven miles wide, so it's just spec pakula

where we celebrated robert e lee, stone wall jackson, and martin luther king, jr. on the same day. >> big day. >> right. [laughter] >> week. >> it lasted until the year 2000. [laughter] they celebrated lee, jackson, king day until the year 2000. it goes to what gary was speaking about. how can you do that? how can you lump martin luther king, jr. in with robert e. lee and stone wall jackson? you depoliticize him. you rob him of the words he spoke and wrote and the fought he fight during his lifetime. you can do whatever you want him. but martin luther king is not alone in this. we depoliticize everyone. we depoliticize american history. when your country is arrogant as the united states to claim that you are the greatest nation on the face of the earth, in history, you need a history are in tiff of history to match that claim. and so everything becomes depoliticized and everything becomes a symbol of american -- so this is why you can have people on both the right and the left praising both fdr and ronald reagan and not see the inconsistencies of, you know, that. th

because i grew up in virginia and in virginia we had lee jackson king day, where we celebrated robert e. leestonewall jackson and martin luther king jr. on the same day. >> a big day. >> right. >> like a week. >> that lasted until the year 2000. this was a celebration of lee jackson king birthday until 2000 this goes to what gary was speaking about. how can you do that? how can you lump martin luther king jr. in with robert e. lee and stonewall jackson when you do politicize him. you rob him of his actual legacy. you rob him up the words that he spoke and wrote and the fight that he fought during his lifetime. and you can do whatever you want with him and martin luther king is not alone in this. we depoliticize everyone. we be politicize american history. when you are a country as arrogant as the united states to claim that you are the greatest nation on the face of the earth in history you need a history, a narrative of history to match that claim. so everything becomes depoliticize and everything becomes a symbol of american exceptionalism. this is why you can have people on both the right

with robert e. lee and stonewall jackson? well, you depoliticize him. you rob him of his actual legacy. you rob him of the words that he spoke and wrote and the fight that he fought during his lifetime. and you can do whatever you want with him. but, i mean, martin luther king is not alone in this, right? we depoliticize everyone. we depoliticize american history. when you're a country as arrogant as the united states to claim that you are the greatest nation on the face of the earth, in history, you need a history -- a narrative of history to match that claim. and so everything becomes depoliticized, and everything becomes a symbol of american exceptionalism. so this is why you can have people on both the right if the left -- and the left praising both fdr and ronald reagan and not see the inconsistencies of, you know, of that. because they're not political figures anymore. they are symbols. they represent the greatness of the united states of america. and so that's what king has come to represent even as he was fighting against pretty much everything

in with robert e. lee and stonewall jackson? you d politicize him, you rob him of his taxable legacy, you rob him of the words he spoke and wrote and the fight he fought during his lifetime and you can do whatever you want with him but martin luther king is not alone in this. weedy politicize every one, american history, your country as arrogant as the united states to claim you are the greatest nation on the face of the earth, in history, you need a history, a narrative of history to match that claim. so everything becomes the politicized and a symbol of american exceptionalism. this is why you have people on both the right and left praising both fdr and ronald reagan and not see the inconsistencies of that because they are not political figures any more. they are symbols. they represent the greatness of the united states of america so that is what king has come to represent even as he was fighting against pretty much everything america stands for. we can look at the march on washington itself that brought us the dream speech.

lee, and condense it into one. one of the e-mails is from robert durando. here are some of the maps they're showing. most of the main i-95 traffic goes forward. this e-mail is telling. it gets to what the whole tone of this is. in this particular e-mail, i don't know if you can make it bigger. particularly upset that no one either civilian or had the curtsy or neighborhoodly intent to call either the mayor's office or fort lee police department about testing a new traffic pattern. this document again from the general manager from the george washington bridge, everyone is looking a at the mess that this created, there are hundreds of e-mails calling the port authority saying, what are you doing? my commute took three hours today. how could you do this? how could there not be advance public warning. this shows an agency that was besieged. they're all trying to figure out with the media inquiries, a and what to do with folks who are threatening to go to media, and you have david wildsteen a chris christie appointee who responds to this, we're going to continue this test another day. four days it went.

roberts. we way for chris christie to step up to that mike. those e-mails and the texts that have been released showed that aides to fort lee for north endorsinglly wrote time for some traffic problems in fort lee. he replied wildstein, got it. it turned the town of fort lee back into a parking lot for four days, slowing emergency response time, including ambulances, perhaps contributing to 9 death of a 91-year-old woman in cardiac arrest. texts do appear to show that aides mocked the results of the actions. wildstein responding no. and here is the mayor of fort lee responding to the revelations last night on msnbc. >> i have to read this to you and get your response to it. we have david wildstein who has since resigned, saying it will be a tough november for this little serbian. got a response to that? >> david wildstein deserves an ass kicking? sorry. there i said it. >> if you think this doesn't translate beyond state politics, thing get enagain it carries over 102 million vehicles each year. what would be the result for chris christie, he carefully calibrated brands and aspirations for the oval office? >> somebody on our staff had done thi