[applause] i will give david a moment. Thank you all for coming and for your patience. What a Beautiful Day it is to be here. Im the executive director of the Library Association and on behalf of the board of trustees we welcome you to this gorgeous day in what promises to be a memorable hour with one of americas greatest authors and historians david mccullough. [applause] for those of you that might not be familiar, we were founded in 1929 by the ohio first lady. She was an avid reader who thought there should be a collection of books i ohio writers were about the subjects in the residence and symbolized the idea. Today through its collection, publications, but the words and festivals, it connects readers and writers and promotes the state as one of the truly great literary centers of the united states. 2019 marks the 90th anniversary of. Can you think of anyone who would be more perfect to add luster to your celebrations of van David Mcauliff . [applause] we presented the award to david for the right brothers. How many of you read that . Almost everybody coming yes indeed. David told us at that time he was working on a new book that he was particularly excited about, and we said we hoped when he finished that he would come back to share it and we are so grateful that he has coming in as a bonus about this lovely wife. Welcome. I want to say a special thank you to the sponsors and to the Capitol Square foundation which im pleased to say is bringing his friend and fellow historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to this very room here three weeks from tomorrow. Thanks also to those that helped with all of the copies ofov the pioneer, simon and schuster, the publisher, and to cspan pitch as you can see back there is recording this event live to air on tv. And finally, a special thanks to the first lady shes been on back the founder. Thank you. [applause] play oic thank you i want to note that we have francis and i might add that hope in francis rput the former governor strickland, thank you for coming. [applause] we are bringing people together of all parties. Some of you say with such unity maybe we need to draft him for 2020. [laughter] we had just began putting together todays event, and frank told me that she and the governor were both huge fans and said let us know if we can help and we are so grateful you have. I asked when mike introduced david was an enthusiastic yes so im very delighted to introduce todays guest is my pleasure to introduce someone who served in many capacities and since january as the 70th governor of ohio. [applause] thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. We are delighted to join in celebrating the libraries 90th anniversary. If you havent been to their book festival, it will be coming up again next year. Dont miss it if you love ohio writers and want to meet some it is a great opportunity. I didnt have my schedule correct but i guarantee i will be there next year. Its our great pleasure to welcome david and his wife and r Research Assistant to the state of ohio. The welcome though thats probably not the right word for this pittsburgh native who while researchingur that mag the magnificent prairie, spent a great deal of time at oneg of their print shops and a the archives at wright state ghuniversity. This pittsburgh native is also spent many days at the College Library and many nights and one of my Favorite Places in the late of ohio that is the Lafayette Hotel on the banks of the river. He did not working on his new book which all of you are holding as ive walked around i think everybodys got one, the pioneers. David said it best himself. I grew up on the ohio river in pittsburgh where the story begins. So, it is in my blood stream to. Hes a twotime pulitzer prizeti winnewinner, and winner of natil tube of Award Recipient of the president ial medal of freedom. For over 50 years, he has informed us, inspired us and introduced us to fascinating characters and brought new insight and perspective to the understanding of historical figures whom we thought we already knew that he told us a lot more about them. We were very delighted to have him here today. It has been said few men could write history with the lucidity and character of david. He writes history as effortlessly as if he were telling a good afternoon antidote. One reviewer once referenced the apparently unquenchable thirst that has made this book so compelling. And although he writes with a novelistst scale come he never resorts to the license to invent, never draws a conclusion more factoid artifacts. His books are filled with fascinating subject matter, research and detailed graceful prose. One of my favorite quotes, one of the truths of history that needs to be made clear to the student is that they never had to happen the way that it happened. Probably a good thing for politicians to remember. It doesnt always have to happen that way. My wife loves these pros but also i think has fallen in love with this place. She ha puts to listen to him red the books and i must tell you that i began to worry at it and become a little jealous when she started listening to your renditionri of the book for the third t time. I love your voice, too but i was a little concerned, a little concerned. [laughter] we are thrilled that in the Pioneer Committee was once again defended his talent to tell you truly ohio story. Hes taken the story of the earliest settlers and brought them to life. These remarkable americans in the early ohio pioneers risked their lives by leaving the comfort of their new england to be part of the settling of our state. I must admit and this may be a surprise to some of you that my Favorite Book is about. Truman. He writes a stirring account of trumans account from behind inmpaign in 1948. 235 pages devoted to this thrilling victory. Its simply riveting. A lesson for Anyone Running for office that you truly can be your own person. You can do it your way and despite what the experts say when they tell you you cant win, you can. Please help me welcome back again, david. [applause] thank you. We have had since we arrived in ohio several days ago to begin our talk about the pioneers down at marietta and down back here in columbus. The generosity, the good spirit, the modesty, the honesty, decency, that so many of us were brought up on is so prevalent and apparent and part of the everyday life of your state that i hope you dont ever take it for granted and keep it going. Youre wonderful. Thank you. [applause] dont get too big for your britches. I think that the dedication to communities and to families which are so important are still major objectives in this wonderfull society civilization, whatever you want to call it. That our predecessors and all of you still believe in. I came upon this subject quite by chance, i often thought that somebody ought to teach a course about the role of luck in history. The role of luck in life, good luck, bad luck. I had very good luck of being invited to give the commencement speech at Ohio University in 2004, i was very complemented and first accepted and i realized i knew nothing about Ohio University and so i began to do homework and i was told or read that the oldest building on campus is called cutler hall, who was cutler i wondered, i soon found out and what they found out i became entranced with a mans career. The fact that he had gone to yale where i had graduated, the fact that he lived in massachusetts where i lived, the fact that his first job after he graduated from college was a ship supply store on virginia island in the fact that my wifes family have been part of markers under Marthas Vineyard for five generations and the fact that his son was born on Marthas Vineyard and the fact that in order to get to ohio yot have to go to pittsburgh. [laughter] but as rosie said you have to write that book. And it turns out its even story. Circled to the the first copy of samuel shepards two wonderful books of marietta and the pioneers were published in cincinnati but then it was decided i dont know by i samuel or by whom that they needed a National Publisher and the First National publication of the two books was from new york, my firm called a. S. Barnes. He was my wife rosies greatgrandfather. So there is a connection that we cannot deny and cannot take for granted. Big change, the big sudden revelation that here was something was when i eventually finished the Wright Brothers and got down to marietta because i heard there was a collection of wonderful material there. And my assistant a gal that is probably the researcher in america today. And i saw this breathtaking collection, i knew we had opened contacts to him. Let me just try to describe why it was thrilling. It is not just that theres so much of it. There are literally thousands of letters, diaries, memoirs, unpublished journals, maps, data of all kinds, drawings and magnificent oil paintings. But is the quality of it all, the quality of the rating and the quality of the thinking, the quality of the honesty expressing what they were brokenhearted about and what they were fearful of, how they were suffering, and the work that they had to do. In the onset of epidemic disease and the natural fiascoes of storms and earthquakes and all of it happening one after another. One year they almost starved to death. Compared to them, we are all a bunch of softies. [laughter] truly. I can go on for hours about the lessons of history and why history is so beneficial, so important. So enlarging of life but i think two of the most important lessons to be learned and passed on to our children and grandchildren, the first is empathy. If you could put yourself in the other. Persons place and to imagine what life might have been like then and what they went through. Its the same for people in our own time you have to understand why other people feel as they do about things. Put yourself in their place. Empathy. Secondly gratitude. Gratitude for all the other people do for our benefit or haveve done or did long ago. We should never take that for granted, we should never say thats the way it is. One of the things that we unfortunately sometimes do take for granted is the Public School system. Another thing all men are created equal. That is just on paper but in fact those two parts of her life arof our natural life began her. First Public School system anywhere in the country began in ohio. Why . Because of one man. The north west ordinance, 1887, 1787, states very clearly, there will be public education. There will be complete freedom of religion, there will be attitude toward the native americans that is fundamentally respectful and decent. And, and, and there will be no slavery. Now remember, there were slaves and every one of the original 13 colonies still. So it was all men created equal that yes we are 150 slaves living over here in the slave quarters. No, it will not be that way in ohio. E and that was the primarily practicing entirely to Vanessa Cutler who wrote the basic of the northwest ordinance and to his son abram. She was a polymath, somebody who knew a lot about everything and was interested in everything. She was a doctor of law, doctor of medicine and doctor of amenity. All three was a practice all three. Heat was probably almost certaiy leading american of his day, he was an astronomer and interested in languages she wa he was interested in everything and he believed in the importance and the necessity and the good life to learning. He had a love of learning like very few americans or anybody ive ever come to know or read about. He never lived here. He came out to see where he was going but he had too much going on back home in hamilton massachusetts with his jus whicf washington. His church and parsonage are still there in superb condition. The place where the first hundred wagon left to come to ohio is still there. And, his son came out here with his wife and four children and their young and hopeful and they know how to dress themselves of hard work but nothing even the most difficult daily tasks of a farm in the rocky ground of new england was not going to be anything comparable to what he placed her. They came out, on their way just coming down the ohio river two of the children died ofoh disear they had to be buried on the banks of the river where there is no settlement or anything. Imagine, they are right here, and mrs. Cutler stepped off the barge at one point and turned her ankle badly. He was suffering from disease himself when he arrived here. They know no one. And so it began as everybody else by hard work. But they had no idea how hard this people worked every day night and day. And all the children men women and alll the children worked right away. Now abram cutler, had not had the education his father had because he had been raised by his grandparents who were farmers in connecticut. This is very important to keep in mind because what he then did. Abram cutler while i was asked in an interview the other day, here in ohio of all the scenes in my book, which do i wish i couldve been there to have watched firstperson. And i knew right away. There was a big movement that came after the election of thomas jefferson, the jeffersonians will call it because they did not really have a party name yet and sometimes as ugly as those republicans. But they decided they were going to get rid of the role that would be no slavery and introduce slavery into ohio. Two people in the legislature relatinge the fight and leading the charge to stop that. To keep itth from turning into a slave state. One was general who was the leader of the group that came out to settle here. Along with abram. Cutler. In the other with him himself. He was young at this point. And hes absolutely devoted to stopping this change and he gets quite ill. He could hardly get out of bed and there was some question if you would ever survive or live. The day of the vote that was going to take place, he came into the room, the boardinghouse room nearby and he was old enough to have been his father and he came in and he said you must get well, be in your place or you will lose your favorite measure. According to one account, he and another man carry to the convention on a stretcher but there is no reliable evidence of this. Cutler himself wrote only i went to the convention and moved the strikeout the obnoxious matter and made my objections as forcibly as i was able. It was an act of fortitude and the result was never ever to be forgotten here and it cost me every effort i was capable of making, he wrote. It had passed by a majority of one vote only. Because he had got up from his sovereign and gone in there and voted it was stopped and there would be no slavery, no slavery in ohio but all the northwestno territory which included indiana, illinois and michigan and wisconsin. Now imagine if slaves had been admitted, imagine what wouldve happened. There wouldve been no underground railroad, thereth wouldve been no here it, uncle toms cabin, the most influential powerful influential novel ever written by the market. To if this had been a slave, there probably would have been no Abraham Lincoln or uss grant, the whole picture would have been different. This one man, there is no statue of him, he is not mentioned in any of the history books and he is been totally forgotten. So imagine the excitement that we felt that here were all his letters, all his private correspondence with his wife and others in the collection alone was well over 1000 pieces. And, then came the others that i had the privilege of writing about, joeeg barker, a wonderful carpenter, and builder who became the first architect and all the northwest territory, very gifted architect in his own writings are simply marvelous and quite amusing and intentionally amusing. They did have a sense of humor. They did like to sing and dance and drink. Of course alcohol, whiskey was only anesthetic they had. If you had a toothache, giving birth to a child, if youre suffering from awful wound, they could not just give you the kindr, other than that comes in a glass and taste pretty good. [laughter] we forget how important whiskey was in for one thing it was a currency. They did not have money they use whiskey. I think that we have to in this particular world that we are so actively involved in, we have to realize that nobody ever lived in the past. There was no past, there is no past. They lived in the present and that was their present. They did not know any better than we do how it was going to turn out. They di did not know how theyre going to cc. But they did not give up. They did not come here, this particular group to make a lot of money, they did not come here to become famous, or own a lot of fancy possessions to show how much money they had and how important they were. They came mt here to create a d society based on theirir background. And they came here to create a good society for their children, their families, the community and the family that mattered most in the highest of all. And, they did not come here tomorrow on, they came here to settle here, stay here, to work, live in lat raise families and e here. In one of the joys of this wonderful concentration of material and marietta she would go out the door of the street and theres the graveyard they were all buried. Just beyond the remains of the mounds society is part of the cemetery and it was rufus who said we do not preserve this, how can we preserve it, how can we keep from developers coming in and tearing it down so they decided to make it a community gravure, cemetery. Its the first example that i know of inner country of historic preservation. So they had history on their minds. And, they had an idea of education. Which was not easy. And which was led once again by abram cutler. Abram served in the legislator for a long time and toward the end he was finally in the senate. He was communicating at that time constantly with his wife back home in marietta. Her name was holly and h she was the second wife his first wife died in like the death of her children it was the cost of coming here. He tended to overwork. Except on sunday. One day he was up in the legislator and he was reading the bible all through one morning and he was contemplati contemplating, somebody saidti abram you know what davises and he said sunday, and they said no itsks not. So he mistakenly thought it was sunday so therefore he went into his traditional ritual of recognition of the sabbath. Otherwise he always worked. And he succeeded off and what he attempted to do and very often he didnt. And he would pour out his anguish, frustration, your tatian to histr wife sally and ill give you an example. I just returned from attending a meeting of our committee and all this hush and slumber in the adjoining room in the boardinghouse. The difficulty making thickheaded mortals understand plain questions is sometimes this is on the issue whether Public Schools and therefore taxes. As necessary to make that possible. But this evening the committee had to contend with art and avarice combine, there is nowhere to be found needs for designing than the legislature were designing scoundrel fort was suspicious words and mirror looks they calculate to entrap the unwary like blood suckers leech and suck the public. See how things have changed. [laughter] he was fed up, truly tired of it. My head and hands and heart ares engaged in the labors before me but by no means did he consider giving up. With his new england background, his devotion to the cause of learning was no less than ever. I am not without hopes he assured with affecting a change in her system with taxation and getting a law passed for establishing School Districts and encouraging the schools and he succeeded. And along with that he succeeded in creating the First University, Ohio University. The First University west of the mountains i cannot overestimate the importance of that success cause, the crusade of his. And all goes back to his father, who believed that the establishment of the university was of utmost importance and was plain to everyone as to concern. It was a first object as he later told his son. He laid with the great weight of wisdom on his mind. It is thela principal thing read the ancient directive and paul were there for yet wisdom and elegant understanding, i happen to feel very strongly that the people who are doing the most important work in our society or our teachers, our professors, there is nobody doing work that will mattered more in the longs run. [applause] and i do not think that we can forget that or underestimate the importance not just paying them more, but giving them more of our gratitude, more of our respect, more of our sense of appreciation, i am very proud to say i have a son who is a teacher and im very glad to say i have a soninlaw, daughterinlaw who runs the School Preschool back in england. The oldest preschool in the country. And i am very indebted as i know tach and every one of you are to certain teachers in school and in college the uplift our sense of a possibility of life or encouraged us when we needed encouragement. And i think, i have to say i believe strongly in required courses. I think it should be a history, particularly American History as a quantity of english which would include writing should be required. At all levels. I think it is important because its essential to education and its important for young people to be reminded that the new, some things arepe required. [laughter] [applause] now, i have to return a moment or so, the connection i knew how they were raised and educated with those people who first established education. The Wright Brothers as many of you know were raised in a home, you could put four of them in this room easily. They had no central heat, no indoor plumbing, no indoor water system, no telephone, they had very, very little at all but it was also a house full of books. And there was books selected by their father who is in a minister. And there was mark twain, shakespeare and they were good books. And he brought them up to read books and to read above their level, in other words if you dont understand shakespeare all the more reason to read. And he told them, learn to use the english language correctly and effectively both on paper and on your feet, no matter what location you intend to pursue. Those two abilities will carry you farther than you would gain otherwise. Either of those two young men either went to college. But that stress that the father made was without any question a lasting importance. The first time i started reading overwrites letters, the great collection in the library of congress i thought, whoa. What a vocabulary. What a mind. Doing my work on my book about americans, which is the book that preceded the Wright Brothers, i had been researching into which americas were in france at the turnofthecentury and deciding whether to continue my book audience of the 20th century. And lo and behold iran into Wilbur Wright thought what the hell is he doing in paris. He is supposed to be in ohio. And then i read what he was writing about, there was letters back to his sister,t and father in which he described as a excitement overseen the great paintings. He went every chance he had and he went to study the interiors of the great gothic cathedral which are reaching up into the sky which is exactly his ambition. And i thought, this is not the way most of us think of him. And i will pursue this and then i found out about catherine, his sister who is one of the most remarkable americans i have ever come to know. And of course she went to overton and one of the first women to go there and her letters to them as well as of others letters were extraordinary. One of the greatest lines in my view of everything the great brothers ever said, Wilbur Wright observed no bird ever stored in a call. What does that mean . He is saying, if you take it literally, you cannot take off into the air if there is no wind blowing at you. You have to take off into the wind. The way he is saying you are never going to amount to much if you never have to face any adversity. If everything is easy for you, and that is exactly the lesson to experience again and again, in the development of a community at marietta in the lives of these principal characters inf the book i wrote called pioneers. Suffering, david brooks has a new book out which i find very interesting and he talks about the good that comes out of suffering. And that is a story. In the high purpose involved their father told them that the good life was in doing work of purpose, worthy purpose. He never worried about how they were going to make money and things like that and that was never on their mind much at m a. And again, the old verities, the old values tell the truth, dont lie, dont cheat, dont get big too big for your britches. Be loyal to your friends and your cause injured church andds your family and your country. And try to make yourself useful, Vanessa Cutler established a school and built a hold third four on top ofes the parsonage n massachusetts. To create a school, a private school. Not only the minister of the church but the schoolmaster. And the theme of the school was to be useful. And all of that is so fundamentally true and so obvious but we tend to forget it. Now, i had to confess or fess up, i would say im a short range, shortterm pessimists with a longrange optimist. I think history shows up. I think historyin is essential because it reminds us so vividly of not only what can happen that is devastating or disastrous or cruel or unkind or costly but what superb accomplishments can be made. It reminds us or should remind us and shouldsh be taught and written about, not just as politics and the military. Yes politics are very important and yes the military is very important. But it is hardly the whole of it. I dont even think its half. There is art and music and science and medicine, i honestly firmly believe in 50 years when there looking back at our time and what we did or did not do and what we come pushed to do, importantsay the most time was medicine. And we dont even talk about it. But when you think what has been accomplished just in our lifetimes, what is been accomplished almost every day. We each had a brother who is sadly inflicted by polio. The discovery of the dna and all of this is major change in automate the stil deal very good about our time. And proud of the fact of how much has happened in this country because of education. So we should all, not just appreciate those that came in contact with an education but how much of a responsibility we have two make it even better. And to make open to everybody and to make it possible for everybody. And when i see a college like marietta, i have to tip my hat to that wonderful little colle college, what they are doing there in the library there innd the fact that their belief in the liberal arts and the belief in the humanities and the emphasis on the humanities is honorable in the extreme. And i know that you have in this wonderful state like 137 colleges and universities, imagine. In superb universities, major universities and superb colleges and marietta is certainly one of them. And that is something for all you ohioans to be extremely proud of and i amm very proud to be part of the ohio story. And i have to tell you as a told governor earlier. I wrote my first love older and ohio. [laughter] i was at camp and i just finished high school and is about to go off to college. I met this girl, princess from afar and i wrote her a letter and she and i have been married for 65 years. [applause] and we both feel were off to a good start. [laughter] and she is my editor in chief and secretary of the treasury. Committee,. Ethics [laughter] and my polar star, would you please stand up. [applause] [applause] the speech that i gave at Ohio University in 2004, 15 years ago is one that they put a lot of time and thought into. I want to close my remarks thiso morning with the same remarks that i closed that speech with. I still think thereha are valid5 years later. This was a vice to the graduating class. It was there on that beautiful campus, i will never forget it my wife my son bill and i went back to the campus just before driving appear to columbus to see how beautiful this and to be reminded of that turning point in my life. And heres what i said. When bad news is riding high in despair and passion, when loudmouths and corruption seem to ownnt center stage and when some keep crying that the country is going to the dogs, remember it is always been going to the dogs. [laughter] remember its always been going to the dogs in the eyes of some and that 90 or more of the people are good people, generous hearted, lawabiding good citizens who get to work on time, do aor good job of their country, pay their taxes, care about their neighbors, care about their childrens education, and believe rightly as you do and i do in the ideals upon which our way of life is founded. Thank you. [applause] thank you. All week we are featuring book tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan2. Watch historians, pundits, policymakers, economists, journalist and scientist discuss their nonfiction books. You will see authors of bookstores, fairs and festivals and on our Signature Program in depth and after words. Enjoy book tv this weekend and every weekend on cspan2. Heres a look at whats on book tv tomorrow night. Robbies book panic attack, looks at the rise and millennial activists in the u. S. Then joshua talks about the reemergence of socialism around the world. Also former george w. Bush Administration Senior advisor peter offers his thoughts on how to reverse what he calls the downhill slide of americas political system. Watch all that and more tomorrow night starting at eight eastern here on cspan2. The cspan city store is on the road. Exploring the american story. In many ways in the county is a lens in which montana is changing. It is one of the fastest micro politician areas in terms of growth in the country. With help of our spectrum Cable Partners we take you to montana. The most famous wor formatior dinosaurs is the health creek formation where we go to find triceratops and t rex. To the most iconic dinosaurs are known from the reef formation and we have that in montana. It is an incredibly loved author and montana. And i think he really gives voice to the working people of montana. Watches cspan city tour of bozeman, montana on 6 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2 booktv working with our cable affiliates as we explore the american story. There is more book tv coming up next with elizabeth who writes about Harriet Tubman as a nurse, spy and cook for the army during the civil war. And later, New York Times editor clay rison, takes a historical look at the rough riders of volunteer cavalry deployed to cuba in 1898 to provide military support during the spanishamerican war. Good evening everybody. My name is Leah Connolly and i with the missoni and associates. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the program Harriet Tubman unions