So thank you for supporting book passage. We are an independent bookstore one of the few remaining independent bookstores. [applause] thank you. We are very proud of that fact. Thanks for coming to our location. We also have a beautiful store in the building in San Francisco if youve never been there. Its a beautiful store. Go in by a few books and go have dinner in the city. Its a wonderful way to spend your evening. Remember book passage is so much more than just a bookstore. We bring to you probably a thousand author readings every year if you can believe that. In addition we also have all kinds of classes, language classes, writing classes. We have a group simply of childrens classes and finally im proud to say we are going green. We have been introducing a paper newsletter which i know some of the received in the mail starting in march. We are going to do email only so if we dont have your email and you arent getting our email letters please sign up. You can register at all the registers and put your name down will get you on the list. We have Event Promotions in the store. We rent our space too so i know that there is some event or Corporate Party planners out there. Come talk to me afterwards and im happy to give you any information regarding our event spaces for rent. But passage has a mission to enrich, engage and inspire and we have been a wonderful family owned a area institution for over 40 years. Thank you to our patrons. We want to keep the doors open for another 40 years and serve you. [applause] in his newest book the First Congress south bay tells the story of the most momentous and Productive Congress in American History. When the members of the First Congress met in new york in 1789 the new nation was still fragile , torn by differences hobbled by competing currencies, crushed by debt and justtogether only tentatively by the constitution. The constitution provided a set of principles that offered few instructions about how the system should best operate. Leaving it to congress and the president to create the machinery of government. Had congress failed the United States as we know it may not exist. Abraham lincoln was a nation that congress directed the civil war, defined history written by an amazing storyteller offers a riveting history and the book argues convincingly that congress in the end got it right. Fergus bordewich is the author of seven nonfiction books. He has also published an illustrated a Childrens BookPeach Blossom spring and wrote a script for pbs documentary about Thomas Jefferson and edited an illustrated book of a 1989 tiananmen massacre. Hes a frequent look reviewer for the wall street journal and other publications. Fergus bordewich was born in new york city and when growing up he often traveled to indian reservations around the United States with his mother who served as the executive director of the association on American Indian affairs. Then the only independent Advocacy Organization for native americans. His early experience help to shape his lifelong preoccupation with American History. The settlement of the continent and issues of race and political power. Today he lives in San Francisco with his lovely wife who is also here joining us and it is my greatest pleasure to welcome to our book passage stage a master storyteller, fergus bordewich. [applause] thanks. How is the sound . Thank you thank you to book passage for having me here and my commendation to the store for sustaining a thousand writers every year poor desperate hungry writers who are gasping for an ear and also for sustaining the writing life and keeping books available to people in an independent venue so you dont have to go to that place on line that we all know about. Im going to be speaking tonight about my most recent Look Congress at war and i appreciate the shout out for my last book which came out three years ago and in some respects i wouldnt call it a prelude but it led to this book. This is as you can obviously tell a political history. Personally i find politics fascinating dynamic and dramatic and im interested in writing the kind of books that i like to read. Thats to say i think theres no excuse for her a book about politics being boring. You might read it and you may not think ive accomplished it but i have striven all the books ive done to him made challenging material accessible. I think what i would like to do and this by the way right now this minute is the first step in the launch of mike look. This is the first event. This is the first talk. Thank you. [applause] im not entirely sure what you are going to get here but i will do my best. I go tomorrow to washington and im speaking at the National Archives and library of congress in washington after this. I want to read a very short section here from the book to create the mood. This is washington in early 1861 and then i will take off from that and talk more generally about the book. A pall hung over washington at january. Rain turned pennsylvania avenue into a muddy trough. Even in the best neighborhood yard sank to the future fighting household fluff. The rooming houses where most numbers of congress lived and the capitol itself smelled of wet woolen clothing cigars and charcoal but struggled to warm under heated chambers of congress. Slavery pervaded the city like the of horse manure in every room and down the streets. Although free blacks are in the Capital Investors in human flesh nearly crossed the Potomac River to shop. The 3100 enslaved men women and children were still inextricably woven to the fabric of Washington LifeHolding Doors driving carriages hawking oysters tending tables waiting toting drunks reminded whites in return the institutions that were fissures in the nation was alive and thriving in the capital. Though its still tentative semi urban quality much of the city. The western end of the National Mall really just a field where sheep and cows grazed where is the ugly stump of the aborted Washington Monument like a finger lopped off at the first joint abandoned for lack of financing. Little had changed since 1849 when the visiting Charles Dickens sarcastically described the nondescript dwelling as wide streets that peter daut in empty fields is a city of magnificent instances. Nothing more aptly epitomize the unfinished city and the capital itself surrounded by the marble block strewn around the building like a symbolic fragment of the nations peace. Washingtonians felt a sense of doom. The city Jefferson Davis since wife marina and her husbands last days in the senate was like some kind of mausoleum was no one visiting, no dinners for parties just a sullen gloom and pending over all things. On january 27 ohio representative clements landing ham wrote to his wife i am able to do no good here. No man can so we said end of obliged to sit condemned as one who watches over the couch of a loved mother slowly dying with consumption to see my country parish. Americans who had taken their nations immortality for granted new that things would never be the same again. The empty seats in the house of the senate spoke of a revolution in terms more graphic than any of the stormy words that have been spoken during months past. With the departure of the southerners gloom shaded inexorably to fear that events were spinning out of control and the worst might really come to pass. With rumors flew through the air that the defenseless capitol would be attacked by a virginia mob and a coup detat would come any day and unexplained fires around the city were part of the terrorist plot. Landing ham warned his wife that the uprising was so likely that he might have to send her to safety somewhere in the mountains. They often send their wives and children to philadelphia or new york. The nations entire army of 16,367 men view were stationed into the Mississippi River and most of them were in the states. Even the armys general in chief Winfield Scott who loath president buchanan made his headquarters in new york city. Sky quickly recognized the gravity of the danger to his capitol however although washington hosted several Militia Companies they were more social clubs than military units and many of their members were sympathetic to confederacy. The National Rifle in particular had quietly been armed and of artillery by disloyal secretary of war and its commander openly at knitted feet attempted to prevent Union Volunteers from reaching the capital. Government spies often reported to plot by the Government Department including the treasury to inform the provisional government. Three companies of light artillery were ordered at to the frontier into another contingent from west point that would take weeks for it to arrive. Where would the crisis and unnerve citizens asked each other. Representative John Mcclaren of illinois worried not only will states receive from the union but counties of states and cities and towns and this is the work of disintegration and dissolution will go on and on until the whole frame of society and government will be indulged in a bottomless and boundless chaos ruin. Panic wasnt limited to washington. Coastal shipping shrink by half the shipyards and ironworks went bankrupt. In new york city commercial firms paid off hundreds to collect entirely the south disintegrated. Bond secured by property enslaved crashed. Commercial traffic began to hault the mississippi. Grain prices fell by 20 and cotton further. Even the ice industry would ship new england eyes to the south crippled by the disappearance of southern order. Banks all of the midwest eventually including nearly half of those in wisconsin and as many as threequarters and alumni. Financiers prayed for hope it found then. Rumors applied to this pro Southern Organization and would seize the armies breaking the banks of prominent republicans. New york iris jorns templeton recorded most people give up all hope of saving the government and anticipate general bankruptcy. Revolution mob blog chaos ruin. In the white house president buchanan remains opined. Had this old mollusk become vertebrate this theory of darwin would have been confirmed strum rotini echoing halls of Congress Republicans and the remaining southerners were too angry or too ashamed to speak. So this is what it felt like on the cusp of the war. When we think about the civil war most civil war writing frankly is about but happen on the battlefield and remarkably little about what happened politically. Most of what happened politically is about Abraham Lincoln. Its easy to understand why we want to read so much about lincoln about more books have been written than any single person. As they say thats not hard to understand but there was much more happening in washington and there was more happening politically and most of what was important that was happening was happening on capitol hill. Politics led to the war. It drove the war to a revolutionary conclusion and it was a revolution and gave a lasting meaning. The story of how that happened is epic, at least i think its an epic anything taking place between the opposing army. Its also a human story about men very few of whom face the worst crisis in the countrys history. Representative albert riddle who was a radical republican from indiana in the days of when indiana elected radicals albert riddle wrote mr. Lincoln his cabinet in the 37th congress were like good to do anything come everything fight the greatest civil war history. In came upon them is an utter surprise. Congress faced a multitude of existential challenges. How could the north mobilized for this war of unimaginable magnitude with congress, with the president responsible for leading the war effort . Could the republicans are completely managed to govern. Should the war be fought with respect for the sanctity of southern property with or the ruthlessness that would bring the seated states to their knees . But the constitution survive the suspension of civil rights in the name of national security. How would the work be paid for . With the financial burden break the northern economy . What should white americans do about slavery pics could republicans prevent their party from splitting between antislavery radicals and those who are willing to tolerate slavery as long as i was contained in the south. Bear in mind the democrats had already broken the deal. Should africanamericans be recruited to serve in the army . Would white soldiers refused to fight alongside them . After the war was one assuming that the north ramp should the Southern States be broken up . Should confederates be prosecuted as war criminals . There was no consensus on any of these questions and many others. The decision of Central Government in general in the strong executive and particular and embedded traditions of the states rights in the north as well as the south threatened to undermine the countrys ability. Deep racism threatened any attempt to emancipate the. Many unionists especially in the border states like missouri maryland delaware. Many unionists regarded any kind of tampering with slavery a threat to basic copyright representative of john kurtz filled a proslavery unionist from maryland declared if you take from us today our rights to hold slaves how long will it be before you will take from us some other constitutional right . He was a unionists. The southerners gone to republicans for the First Time Ever held the majorities in both houses of congress and by the spring of 1861 both chambers were abandoned by an members who defected to the confederacy. Their absence opened the gates to legislative activism that would change American Society beyond recognition. During the next four Years Congress would help win the war, reinvent the nations Financial System and an act forwardlooking legislation that had been locked decades by southern intransigence. It in the course of doing that congress laid the foundation for the strong activist Central Government became fully into being in the 20th century. Permanently it also permanently evolved into a relationship with the state states and federal government in ensuring the protection of civil rights as a responsibility of the federal government. Measured by the urgency of what they faced in by their astonishing productivity the two wartime congresses of the 37th and 30th were among the most effective in American History. Ohio senator john sherman a republican the brother of general William Tecumseh sherman rejected the many laws they passed would be a monument to good or evil. They covered the vast sum to delegate or regulate such vast powers and so farreaching in their effect generations we will be affect did well or ill by them. And to act in incrementally series of laws to turn abolitionism into Public Policy work on the homestead act change the face of the west it was the largest and most expensive Infrastructure Project undertaken in the United States at that time and of the last three that i mentioned are not commonly recognized it was the war that made them pathetically possible. Though widespread monitoring created a precedent private communications and unpatriotic political activity. Congress also began a racial and economic revolution to transform 2 million slaves from pieces of property and culminating in the 13th amendment. As Frederick Douglass said at one point during the war the angel of liberty had one era of the nation and demon of slavery on the other. Although shouted into the ears of congress as it fell forward. In this book i trade congressional politics with the endless seeking compromise and the mutation of popes into politics i generally try to keep the story within the present by that i mean i want you to feel the anxiety and uncertainty as well as the patriotic fervor and the irrational confidence to characterize every stage of the war when nobody knew when the outcome would be. Emancipation was never named or the reelection this isnt a book about politics in the abstract but the men who practice it. I would like to be able to say that men and women but im out of luck. [laughter] i tried to capture the sound of their voices of those issues that still stir concern and emotions. Most members war professional politicians they were opinionated eloquent and combative the house of representatives james bling wrote there was no other reputation previously acquired or for eminence were so little consideration was shown by the failure of the feelings of beginners he gains by sheer force of his own character with the loses and falls back he must expect no mercy and receive no sympathy in matters were only notionally better in the senate if you read the debates and the letters that members were writing i build the story around format three republicans and at least two were outspoken radicals Thaddeus Stevens of pennsylvania was the fiercest abolitionist as well as a master of parliamentary strategy and a de facto majority leader in the house then wade of ohio was a driving force in the senate with a hard war against the confederacy on the conduct of the war which oversaw the Union War Effort and the representative from maine was cautiously aligned himself with the radicals the more than any other man was responsible for the legislation that enabled the north to pay for the war. Im not sure how time will work out but i want to give you a snapshot of these three guys i love them. I loved writing about these men. And i think one or two lines are insufficient. So first the chairman of the joint committee northeastern ohio. Boss bed remained restrained until now at 60 et al. Angular man with high cheekbones and sharp eyes and a manner of bulldog and in debate he looked at the contest with the eye of gladiator his style of speech was offhand and frequently profane his gray hair was visibly bristled his voice arose to a roar he would unbutton the vast yank off his caller hold his arms high and then jump onto his heels bringing his arms down. He was uncompromising for i know no high or low or black or white or created by one god he declared. That is ben wade. Who looms very large in the boo book. The next paragraph talks of both about both Thaddeus Stevens. As chairman respectively of the Senate Finance committee and the house ways and Means Committee responsibility for creating financial machinery commensurate with the governments need most men understood better than the secretary of the treasury that had a strong and trusting relationship between the treasury and northern money men was imperative. The combined energies in the field the two had much in common with skillful tacticians singlemindedly committed to the union and from the same new england soil. Stevens made his career in pennsylvania both could be harsh colleagues sometimes referred to stevens as chairman of the committee of means and ways. [laughter] while suss and then was no patience and no tolerance. The selfcontained access and then was i seen us of stevens by contrast although not gregarious was one of the most flamboyant men in the house a driver and bitter with a sarcastic blasting wit while stevens was notary notorious as a great mogul he was called he was called a pragmatist on the subject of slavery but could be unexpectedly touched. In july a visitor from the small enslaved child who chatted for an hour for his intelligence the thought that it was owned like a dog by one of the fellow preachers hads fresh mallow dictions so these are the men that are driving the warfront. The forest figure was a northern democrat and a leading advocate and a spokesman for the antiwar opposition came close to treason and although this is very repugnant in particular he was nonetheless one of the most provocative dissenters of American History a selfdescribed martyr to squelch the Union War Effort. He would have surrendered by the way just to be clear he was a man of private honor and appalling public values. So far i havent mentioned Abraham Lincoln. Where is he . Largely an off stage presence there is an abundance of excellent books of his presidency and many others. No need to enter the pile that also regarded as our greatest president and more skillful than any of his contemporaries but in 1861 no more prepared for war than most americans in less than some members of congress. And remained a work in progress. Although lincoln attempt to govern executive order than any predecessor he depended on republicans in congress who led he more often than followed him that the power to shape the course of the war presided on capitol hill and not the white house for. I have a strong suspicion that one or several of you does this have anything to say about Todays Congress or politics . Yes and no. [laughter] since this book is history there is a rather long epilogue beyond that its not polemic its not about the present day United States although it is often said in the way of which it is written. Truth i have written this elsewhere to be distorted on behalf of our present concern by changing moral values and to be very cautious to draw conclusions of the past but these people ive been talking about so tell how the government can function added best and that made the crisis stronger. And the racial divide in the meaning of the constitution so they offer this bluntly and profoundly and to be completely absent from politics today. Men were trained to commit to persuade and they oratory was a spoken art like a windbag its not windbag by a large even those that we agree with but also tacitly a reefer congress and Representative Government to spy all of its frustrations and disappointments. So in that strange and disturbing moment the appeal of the authoritarian style takes on a new life. Not just here but elsewhere and contempt for congress has grown according to some polls less than 10 percent of americans profess confidence in congress and almost one third of Young Americans said they dont think its important to live in a democracy. Disdain for congress flourishes the presidency is always the main engine of government rather than an office whose power is circumscribed by the constitution. Nineteenth century americans including those of the civil war era by contrast believe power is in congress, not the white house. During the civil war, democrats in congress repeatedly attacked Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant even republicans questioned his confidence but as beleaguered as he felt lincoln never claimed congress lacked the authority to challenge actions or decline request for information. He recognized congress as a primary repository of the peoples will and understood the founders never intended the president to be beyond the reach of authority. So to us congress may seem quarrelsome and inefficient but it is working if you think of the cacophony of our american voices to have a cadre of 535 representatives and senators. The senator in my book understood it was selfinterest seasoned with passion and to accomplish anything was creative skill and tolerance and immense heroic patients. With its frustrating turbulence and to government and that i would not have a perfect quiet always in a republic especially you never fight find quiet except under a tyranny. I will leave it there i think i brought it in on time more or less. Thank you. [applause] there are 3100 slaves in 1861 and so how do you determine that fact . Is public record. This particular book is two years. So i pillage the congressional globe which was the forerunner of the congressional record. Its all online. And then to realize how little the debates had been exploited. Do you do your Research Online . Happily the congressional globe was online which is the immense resource and so you ponder thousands of pages it is pretty brutal eightpoint type to read this thats why it hasnt been used all that much. I did research in ohio a small town near cleveland that is a great collection so the society flung their doors open for days and days i was in the basement reading Thaddeus Stevens but then got into more funky little libraries. Its interesting that you seem to imply and im sure i will read about in the book that it was the war that cleaned out the congress and allowed for some clever decisionmaking and would it have happened but then the southerners all left. And then they left for four years and a few sprinkling of a few members of the house the first and really the only time in American History congress has dominated to be dominated by radicals not coincidentally and elsewhere in the midwest are also from new england. With this multi democratic atmosphere. The heartland of abolitionism. With the homestead act or the Transcontinental Railroad had been bottled up and then she expected the war to what it became so the fact that it metastasized conflict that it took 750,000 lives every Single Family was touched far beyond any other war in our history. None of that was anticipated and for them to stay in that and fight that is politically heroic and very difficult. And those had to be borrowed every inch of the way and then to glaze over it doesnt have that natural vigor i have rambled a little bit and my answer that doesnt tight it was passed overwhelmingly. And then that starts with a bunch of bill with different members in the house and in the senate and then to be voted on separately then little by little the real deal makers and to determine what can be passed and why cant i cant generalize about most but a lot of stuff got canned with one vote. So let me simplify it. So it does show you how hard the members emphasize lincoln. So it took a long time before congress could sustain habeas corpus. And then defeated several times before passed the good majorities could be crafted. And a varied a lot. And then it was so large he got what he wanted. In no small part because its one of the very few points in history roosevelts new deal majorities in Lyndon JohnsonsGreat Society majority and Civil War Congress it with the National Legislature was dynamic. What about the required quorum for congress to not have the southerners walk out . That is 10000. Yes that was a dire issue. It is a complicated question. So what exactly do we call a quorum. This is not entirely kosher. Its a very interesting debate i figured there was a finite amount of patients. The senates rules have traditionally been much more rigid so that was a tough question. Very pragmatic that is a great question. What are Congressional Elections like and that incumbents tended to get reelected it varied states render elections very differently so to talk about massachusetts or Lower Manhattan or where my ancestors come from. And incumbents. There was much more mobility than there is today. The senate with a great deal you will remember the direct election of senators didnt happen until 1913. In those days senators were selected by state legislators who ever had the majority. There were some interesting exceptions. So the senate turnover was quite substantial. I think the longest serving senator in the war was about six terms i believe. He was exceptional and from vermont two or three terms sometimes half a term sometimes want to be talked out another one put in not typical but it happened. In the house very common for Party Leaders to dump somebody they had lost confidence in our that wasnt representing the powers in the district. We were told the north word win because of the government and that lincoln did a terrible job selecting his generals so the war went on longer than it should have so why wasnt stevens doing more to change that . They were doing a lot actually. Fullsize believed there would be no war or a short war. Each believed either side was bluffing there were some exceptions and thats why i read you that opening descriptive sentence with a moment of trauma people cannot believe this is really happening. What will we do . Nobody knew where it would go. The south certainly thought it would win. They were convinced through 63 they would win the war and Jefferson Davis was convinced when he fled richmond dressed in womens garments hightailing it to georgia. He was delusional but there were many points at which it seemed the northern public commitment would slide and give up. I wrote about that it was touch and go a number of times very significant and violent Antiwar Movement burning down draft offices and shooting officers murdering recruiters and things like that there were gangs of deserters hooked up with copperheads armed who fought off federal troops in the north. So just to give you a sense imagine the anxiety this created all happened in the south by the way. Why do we have lesser people now . We dont. From my own experience by large is the own caliber of people regardless of my opinion about Current Events in washington the caliber is not low you may be disgusted by their behavior on an issue or another. For some are those are impressive. I am emphasizing they are very similar. And that is very interesting. And the challenges to any group how they cope. And there were plenty who were susceptible to demagogy. You find the same kind of temptations. Where the radicals sympathetic to the idea you had to go slow to keep the border safe or did they think it just wasnt necessary . The radicals pushed very har hard. That was hotly debated. Several of them including Thaddeus Stevens who i admire so much were very hard on lincoln and wade was disgusted. In fact if you are reading the book i want you to feel how lincoln is seen by his contemporaries. We look back with hindsight with this extraordinary man who grew that as a given we dont need to keep reiterating that. But the opposition to him even from republicans was intense. Really intense and in private letters that contempt for lincoln as a weakling and hopeless was very common and very shocking to those living 150 years later rightly considering the most towering president of all with fdr being pretty close so many radicals wanted somebody else and wanted him out there were attempts in 1864 to unseat lincoln they failed. It was touch and go. Who were some of the leaders in the house and senate you would compare to make things happen quick. I mentioned a couple of them Thaddeus Stevens absolutely in the house. A remarkable parliamentarian he was regarded as the best lawyer in pennsylvania even before he was in congress and chairman of the ways and Means Committee and responsible in the house for anything that involved money. And even though he was a radical nobody was more radical than stevens but he created majorities pretty much for most everything he wanted to do but i have talked about wade chairman of the joint committee which it is a cumbersome title but it is a powerful committee 262 generals and officers called in to be interviewed and they pushed very hard. Sometimes successfully to get rid of the dead wood in the officer corps its a disaster the blood of many men were on him. Zachariah chandler michigan senator is another one towering and toughminded figure businessman from detroit from the underground railroad. And ashley who piloted the 13th amendment stevens was too ill that he would have. He just couldnt do it he was old and sick so james who looks like beethoven. [laughter] young and masterful parliamentarian. I could list a bunch of them but there were quite a few but this is a tough game in congress that they didnt last Charles Sumner probably the most famous singlemember as the senator from massachusetts but he was a great antislavery martyr he was tall and handsome and gray hair nobody paid any attention to him on the stump. You said there were politicians for those that had seceded and how that worked . There are two tennessee congressman. And was strongly unionist. Because i think there might have been which i believe there was a virginian and they were allowed to remain but as rapidly as possible as the union armies marched into the south and members were elected fairly quickly with controversy if they had any business. One more question. You started the talk giving a picture so could you describe that a little more . It was of washington dc with the blacks doing the cleaning and alexandria just down the road. Those are beautiful pictures but i cant put it to gather. Virginia is a slave state. So there was quite a problem what to do where slavery was legal in areas that were loyal to the union. Northern virginia was occupied instantaneously by northern troops. There was a problem whether or not to intern the slaves because they saw blue uniforms and they were off. Something like 100 or 500,000 or 700,000 slaves became fugitives and took refuge with the union army during the war. And washington dc historically allowed slavery from the beginning. It always had it was less controversial and in another book of mine i wrote about the debates over that. I will not go too deep in the weeds but the number of enslaved people steadily declined because frankly its becoming less and less acceptable or tolerable in polite society. And in 1862, the federal government enacted a policy. The one policy that could have ended slavery without civil war in the United States and it existed to purchase the freedom to appropriate money by the federal government to purchase the freedom of enslaved people. It was proposed. A nonstarter. They didnt want them free they like to slavery they believed in it. They thought it was great. Read what they say about it. But in washington a policy was enacted it was only 3100 people and the maximum payment was 300 apiece. Fairly modest. But northerners and unionists consider that an absolute disgrace that slavery was permitted at any terms on the National Capital so it ended there. We are done. Thank you. [applause] thank you for coming his book is for sale. It has a lot of the stories that he talked about i know you can think of three or four people who are not here tonight that would like this book he will personalize ampersand and inscribe books of beautiful complementary gift wrapping and we ship everywhere in the country. Have your book inscribed to your loved one they will get in the mail and opened it up. Get one for yourself and people you know that would enjoy it and thank you for coming tonight and supporting your independent bookstore. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [applause] hello everyone. By the this we will be behind the curtain. [laughter] welcome to the book event i am the executive director of the Writers League of texas the largest organizat