thaddeus stevens in the weeks before he died. he felt a deep sense of failure, not of the failure to convict johnson, but his believe that reconstruction as it had been set up, was not strong enough, would not last. to a reporter he would say, my only regret is that i have lived so long and so uselessly. is there a moral to all of this? everything,oral to .he so what question and the answer to that is, in there are noce, final victories. the battles in america must be fought over and over again. it has always been that way through my lifetime, my parent'' lifetime and their parents' lifetime. we need to remember that it is not just then, but in all times, in all ages, it is a never-ending task to see that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. thank you. [applause] i guess we have time for .uestions i have a two-part question. is that you referred to the number of republicans who voted for acquittal as those brave man, and plied what they were doing is correct. i wonder if that i

what one thing could they have done that would have made thaddeus stevens feel better a few days before his death? what did they miss that could actually be done by the radical republican congress? driving it from a legislative what could those guys have contributed realistically, that they didn't? >> let me offer one suggestion. i put my life and to the two worlds of being a historian and a law professor, doing both, teaching constitutional law, teaching history, and now being president of the college which is a different life experience. but my sense of the failure of a failure ofn is imagination on the part of northern republicans. that is, northern republicans, whether they were crude and ben wade, as he was known, and when challenged for a duel in the 1850's he excepted, and said i would choose a squirrel guns at 10 paces, and that ended the duel , because know what is going to do that. are a big you frontiersman like him who was rough and tumble, or as refined and sophisticated as charles sumner, i think almost no republicans could envision the thein which, once defeated, south co

to come to washington to speak great the henry wilson, schuyler colfax, that he is stevens -- thaddeus stevens. it goes on to say, basically all republican senators in congress invited her and she speaks. congress is not in session so she is not speaking in session but she is to get in she's the first woman to do this. they put a platform on the stage and she is giving the speech. and now -- she is way left of abraham lincoln. she is critical of lincoln. she hates confederates. she hates copperheads. she also think lincoln is being emancipation, and he has just issued clearly lenient plans for reconstruction and she does not like that. she is more of a wade davis type of republican. she is up on the stage with all these luminaries there and she is giving lincoln a hard time. in?on -- who walks abraham lincoln. checklike she did a quick on her testament. she ends up endorsing lincoln after giving a lecture on him. afterwards she meets with lincoln. not to quit being a thing to death, she is now 21. she will be allowed to vote in just under six decades. yet people invited her and they cared what