thomas jefferson. good afternoon. back in march of 1775, when this convention place, the capital, virginia, is still located down in williamsburg. so you may wonder, why did this meeting take place here in? richmond instead of there? and the answer is quite simple. lord dunmore, who was the royal governor of virginia at the time, had dissolved the house of burgesses, and as he was against this extra legal meeting, the meeting was moved here to richmond to be away from the governor's power. you see the 50 miles that separate richmond and williamsburg would provide ample time for the delegates and the attendees of the convention to disperse should the governor decide that he wanted to send troops. now, as andrew mentioned, the town of, richmond at that time was a small town of about 600 souls. and henrico parish church. this building here was the only building larger to handle all of the delegates who would be arriving from all over the state, not to mention myles selden, who was the rector of henrico parish at the time

tyler once had dinner with thomas jefferson not long after he graduated from william and mary. jefferson impressed upon him that a successful politician, particularly an virginia needed to establish himself in the legal profession. in fact a legal career jefferson said to the young man was a virtual prerequisite to a political career. so, much like there's no doubt he would attend william and mary became pretty apparent is going to pursue a legal career. shortly after he graduated his father and another tyler relative took him on his legal apprentice. a little bit later when judge tyler was elected governor of virginia could no longer supervise his son's legal studies, edmund randolph stepped in. randolph had been attorney general under george washington and really presented young tyler with a challenging way to approach the law. tyler passed the bar in 1809 at the age of 19. now this is interesting because in virginia the law at the time they do had to be at least 21 years of age to pass the bar exam. to even sit for the bar exam. but apparently the examiner could not ask tyler

and you know, one of the people that really begin to codify all of this was thomas jefferson's slave hamilton, i'm sorry, james hamilton -- james hemmings, who jefferson brought to paris when he was an 18-year-old boy, train him in some of the finest kitchens, brought him back to the states, and used him as a political tool, essentially. hemmings cooked for some people like george washington, and hamilton, and adams, and leading politicians of the day, and diplomats that came over for dinner. and he had -- he was a wonderful, intuitive cook. they cooked over an open fire, which is difficult, and he had a real technique. his story is kinda fascinating to me. you know, there is all of these little strands. i love the way that jackie kennedy, for example, based her entertaining on that of king louis the 14th, the sun king. and very intentionally used delicious food and wonderful entertainment as a way of brokering diplomatic deals, or business deals, or even marriages, and it was a way of keeping his friends close and his enemies closer, and jackie use this probably better than any othe

this is all a little bit too much for thomas jefferson, right? it's a little bit too much, to allow a president executive to command the of representatives, the people. so he ends the practice. now, incidentally thomas jefferson's, not a great speaker. he's a great writer. the final thinker. he's not the best at public oratory. so that may also have had something to do with him ending, this tradition. but, you know of george washington. don't die easily, right? think of the two term tradition that up being written into the constitution. nevertheless, this jefferson is able to this tradition when stops appearing before congress. it'll be well over 100 years before another president will appear before congress to deliver the state of the union. now, here presidents are freed from the burden of oral delivery, and as a result, they become more verbose. jefferson's first state of the union had just. 3000 words. this would swell to 10,000 under our friendly fillmore, who appears, from time to time, irregularly in this class. it would average about 19,0

thomas jefferson called him a dangerous man, and john quincy adams once said jackson was a barbarianho could not write a sentence of grammar, and hardly could spell his own name. jackson's defender such as ehrenberg described him as a man of intelligence and one of those prompt, frank, ardent souls who out love to meet. in his mid-20's, he met and fell in love with his landlord's recently divorced daughter, rachel donaldson. while she was described later in life is a dowdy woman who smoked a pipe, in her youth that she was considered both beautiful and popular. she and jackson married in 1791 and later adopted a son, andrew jackson junior. shortly after their wedding, they learned that her divorce had not been finalized. despite their legal remarriage in 1794, the couple he was greatly ostracized in social circles in the years that followed. in fact, the scandal surrounding their marriage provided much fodder for jackson's political opponents during his first presidential campaign. when his wife died shortly before his inauguration on december 28, 1828, jackson blamed them for her un

azari: let me back up a little bit, george washington livered this in person to congress and thomas jefferson was the one that decided to shift it to writing. there are theories why jefferson did that, that he was trying to downplay the role of the executive, or there are some theories that jefferson wasn't -- speeches weren't his domain. he was more a person of written letters. but they were written and delivered to congress usually at the end of the year through the 19th century, through woodrow wilson. and woodrow wilson was the first person to address congress in person. this was prior to the radio area -- radio era. there are two thoughts why wilson made this decision and one is philosophical that he saw the state of the union as a vehicle to make congress deal with his presence, and create a media story around himself as a part of the legislative process. the other is more pragmatic, that wilson saw a lot of political problems at that time, the weakening of traditional political parties that had worked as a spokesperson for the administration and ships and media patterns. he was trying

and that was in a when thomas jefferson was president, mayors, when thomas jefferson was president, he created something called the gallatin plan to build the infrastructure of america. over 200 years ago. the -- the all kindses of things -- canals, bridges all the thing this is again matching the louisiana purchase. all the things to build america the erie canal the cumberland road. all of those things. 100 years later, teddy roosevelt in honor of that did his infrastructure plan. the initial park service. and then you in we have president biden's plan. whether we talk about infrastructure for parks or transportation, infrastructure for safety, infrastructure for justice, infrastructure for in this bill, there is a 40% what is the title. >> justice 40. it would be justice in how infrastructure is built. we are very prud to be part of the justice 40. per of this legislation. so let us thank president biden for his great leadership and thank and welcome again mr. secretary of transportation special advisor to the president and send or friend in the labor movement in every capacity that

that is what it's come to. >> thomas jefferson high school in the d.c. area used to be a phenomenal school and has been taken over by some of this dei methodology and doing things like not telling children enrolled on their school how they did in the national honors exam which could affect where they're applying to school, where they're applying to college. they've engaged in -- like that's happened in a lot of northern virginia schools. they've engaged in racist practices to limit the number of students that come from what the school feels are racial groups that they shouldn't come from. that's the thing that people need to understand about these dei programs is how racist they are and racism is something the country has struggled with throughout its history. it's been a tool for elites to control other people. right now, a lot of these programs are ways for powerful people to retain control, but the american people don't like racism. they don't like hatred. they don't like what these programs are teaching about how to hate your own country, how to have

so it's more it's also more inspiring because as we tell the standard story and we're thomas jefferson, that great man stated, our ideals, we also have acknowledge he enslaved his own children. right. and that's a little bit of stumbling block. but if you're like john bingham, charles sumner thaddeus stevens, those are our heroes you don't have this baggage that you need to deal somehow. and it's true that no story is going to appeal to everyone. right. some people were like, i can't myself in that story. but the people who have difficulty seeing themselves in the standard story are the people who are uncomfortable with enslaving your own children right. the people who want to say, i don't think that i can make the compromises with slavery, that founding demands the people who are uncomfortable with the reconstruction centered story are the people who identify with confederates, right? they're the traitors who fought a war to protect slavery. so if the choice is do marginalize the people who are uncomfortable with slavery or the people who are uncomfortable with the end of slavery. muc

well the house had the previous question rule and thomas jefferson was kind of behind that in 1801 when he left being vice president as the presiding officer of the senate he became president. he established a rule book for the house as a congress and the peak the pq motion as it's called. was not used a lot and i believe was 1810. there was a situation where there's a senator or representative called for rent gardener and he was a rather long-winded speaker, and he had been known to speak for four or four four or five hours and what jefferson would call superfluous topics and and the book and there was a situation there was a measure before the house and gardener was speaking and another. representative said i'm going to make the previous question motion to get him to stop speaking and the speaker ignored that that representative and it representative. asked the question again, and the speaker was said to the entire house. so you guys decide what's going on here and they established the president to end floor debate. to have a motion in place to actually stop guard near from speaking w

well the house had the previous question rule and thomas jefferson was kind of behind that in 1801 when he left being vice president as the presiding officer of the senate he became president. he established a rule book for the house as a congress and the peak the pq motion as it's called. was not used a lot and i believe was 1810. there was a situation where there's a senator or representative called for rent gardener and he was a rather long-winded speaker, and he had been known to speak for four or four four or five hours and what jefferson would call superfluous topics and and the book and there was a situation there was a measure before the house and gardener was speaking and another. representative said i'm going to make the previous question motion to get him to stop speaking and the speaker ignored that that representative and it representative. asked the question again, and the speaker was said to the entire house. so you guys decide what's going on here and they established the president to end floor debate. to have a motion in place to actually stop guard near from speaking w

i read thomas jefferson's. it's in the song. it's there. he notes denial. but we don't deny it's there. we can't look at it. we can't look at it. and i my students always say to me, well, where did you get this from? you know, i gave talk about three months ago. and after i finished this extensive talk before, a primarily white congregation woman came on and she said, do you have an notes? how many pages? so i said, know what's what's interesting about your question that i'm do i have footnotes? but. right. but a white person would not the exact question those that that have the control of history are not asked do you have footnotes. i am i simple by the way because i know that's going to be a question a third of the book is footnotes and it is that is when you read books, think it's a really long book, but then it's done. so. yeah, i mean, and it's there. i mean, i purposely i didn't want to light about what george washington was saying or what i heard about george washington and say. i went to his letters. so when he says that he's someone for 80 years, t

thomas jefferson probably said it best here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may ber tolerate any reason les reason is to combat it. later expressed a number of ways. the concept is usually the best answer to objectionable speech is not more speech, not silence, i mean not less speech or silence but more speech. and that's why we journalists practice. report all sides of a story let people make up their minds. straying far from that in journalism and politics and in our national discourse today, bret. >> bret: that's true, brit. those n "new york post" stories prosecute censored. still to this day inside that laptop that were not russian disinformation. normal response in the recent history of journalism to that story. follow it up. and see if you can get your own version of the laptop and see what you can find out about it and piewsh sue it exactly opposite what most journalistic outfits did. the didn't follow it. they discovered at it. poorer for it. all the stuff coming out now could have come out some time ago. of course, it was very close to an election. sensiti

if i had to guess. >> none. >> i would suggest your viewers really read the thomas jefferson "wolf by the ears" letter that he wrote to a friend. it's not about should we sort of abolish slavery because it's the right thing to do. he's making it an economic question. really it's like how will we continue to make money if we let all these people go? >> it's literal. literally he would have been bankrupting himself had he ended slavery, which is why in his will he said his wife could manumit the ones under her that were inherited and he did that after he and she were both dead and they didn't even let them all go. the world view desantis is putting forth, he literally is sort of an old fashioned southern governor style. it's also this fixation on trans. that's also weaving throughout the party. is there something that ties in his anti-blackness narrative to this kind of obsession with fixing disney and taking the gay characters out of disney and making it magical in the ways he thinks it should be and getting rid of drag shows. is there anything that ties it together? >> there is. there

it is the new frontier, and they explore a story beckoning to what thomas jefferson called the inimitable freedom of the human mind. the poet john gillespie mcgee. understood that exhilaration as to a lesser degree, have all who flaunt and attract a new frontier and a new place surely felt and understood by our own beloved colleague bill nelson, who only such short days ago experienced the various fame. and he wrote all i have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on a laughter silvered winged sunward. i have climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun split cloud and that one did things. you have not dreamed of, wailed and soared and swung high and sunlit. silence hovering there. i've chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft through fruitless halls of air up, up the long, delirious, burning blue i've topped the windswept heights with the easy grace where never lark or even the eagle flew and why i was silent lifting in mind i have trod high on trespassed sanctity of space put out my hand and touched the face of god with hearts heavy and trauma and deeply f

number one, thomas jefferson's gravestone mentions that he was the author of the declaration of independence and president of the united states. true or false weight. andrew's going with paul's going with true andrew is correct on this one. he actually wrote the epitaph for his own grave purposefully left off that he was president of the united states. i wonder what he was nervous. it wasn't going to go down well in history. i don't know next question. number two harry s. truman rose before dawn each morning for two hours of piano practice. little piano, a little poker. you guys are both going with true. yeah it is. okay i had a feeling little bit of a truman enthusiast, if you will. your father? yes, a couple of his biographies and interesting then you might know this next question. i already see it. and i know the answer. speaking of president truman, the s and harry s. truman stands for shirley. true or false stands for nothing. i wanted that to be true stands for nothing. it stands for nothing. just thought it would sound better, more professional and he for a long time didn't even put t

of my guys you know, no one ever had a better posthumous friend, a friend posthumously than thomas jeffersonad of abraham lincoln, because it was lincoln who elevated the declaration, who elevated jefferson's works, who was spoke beautifully about jefferson, particularly in the great 1859 letter back to massachusetts, i think, where he says that jefferson had the coolness. foresight and capacity to insert into a revolt document in internal. i'm now paraphrasing and so so the fact that lincoln could not fully embrace an egalitarian future where native americans where black americans stood equally with white, is part of the american tragedy, it is a 19th century context, but we have plenty of problems now. and so one of my big arguments about biography is that we shouldn't look up at the past adoringly or look down on it condescendingly, but try look it in the eye so that when we look in the mirror, perhaps we'll see ourselves more clearly and know in another 100 years, others looking at us the exact same way we're looking back. then. any better to think differently than we do of ourselves and

thomas jefferson decided to ship them into writing.re are different theories about why jefferson did that, then he was kind of trying to downplay the role of the executive or there are some theories that his last speeches were not his domain, he was a percent of written letters. but they were written and delivered to congress usually at the end of the year through the 19th century, through woodrow wilson. and woodrow wilson was the first person to address congress in person. this was prior to the radio era. there are two thoughts why wilson made this decision and one is philosophical that he saw the state of the union as a vehicle to make congress deal with his presence, and create a media story around himself as a part of the legislative process. creating a media story around the part of the legislative process. the other is more pragmatic, that wilson saw a lot of political problems at that time, the weakening of traditional political parties that had worked as a spokesperson for the administration and shifts in media patterns. he wa