Why wouldnt the government have protections . It just wasnt done why wouldnt the government have a pension for officers and everybody else and not the president in fact he had very little money he had to borrow money quite secretly to pay for the move back home. This is not well known a doesnt mean he didnt have money but he needed cash to cover all of the expenses to move out of the white house. When he got home, in order to provide income he undertook the writing of his by autobiography in memoirs which no other president had ever done except for Herbert Hoover but his time was much briefer than trumans and his covered far more tumultuous history. So to undertake the twovolume that more was a major and ambitious task. And then he built his library. Now it was a previous president ial library but it was established after he died in officer truman was the first one to officiate over the president ial library and again he was beginning something one of the things i try to emphasize in the book is that truman was a very creative public figure and presidency he had been a builder all his life he built roads and court houses when he became president he built the famous truman balcony on the back of the white house under a great flurry of criticism and then he rebuilt the white house entirely the white house today is the house that harry built except for the outer shell which was maintained the original outer shell the entire is the reconstruction of the original house. He took part of every detail of that reconstruction. He loved building and creating and in a larger way his presidency is marked of innovative acts as the Marshall Plan and the truman doctrine. And so to be a builder in this last chapter of his life appealed to him tremendously. And building the library, having his office and taking people around that was his life except for his travels. Cspan did you meet him . I know i met him as a youngster i was very starry eyed i got a job in a magazine called Sports Illustrated i was coming home from work one night we lived in brooklyn i came out of a subway stop to see the st. George hotel and it was a small crowd waiting and then the governor stepped out i had never seen a governor before so i was quite excited and then out stepped president truman former president truman. I was astonished i remember thinking he is in color. Because we only had black and white television. Black and white newspapers. And i think the fact he had very high color he radiated good health made him seem a person. He certainly didnt seem like a little man to me. He was 6foot eight but i never spoke to him or met him. I often have thought went up be interesting if you could go back in time and i could reach out and touch them on the shoulder and say mr. President i will write your biography some day. Cspan knowing what you know about him what would he think . Im sure there is some of it he would like because after all it is an honest attempt to see the complete man. But i would hope that he would think i understood him better than other people have. He was a much more complicated and complex and keenly intelligent and thoughtful and considerate man than the stereotype implies. And playing give him hell harry just like that down home missouri will rogers. And all the people i have interviewed who knew him and worked with him in the white house, they all say please understand this man was much more than that. How many interviews . 126 that range across the Broad Spectrum some hardly knew him at all or saw him coming go as neighbors or people and independents but those that are so important i interview them many times over during the ten years of took me to write the book. Who did you spend the most time with . I would guess in total either Margaret Truman his daughter and Clark Clifford and some of the secret Service People who werent valuable because they were with him all the time many had never been interviewed before about him. Cspan her secret Service Allowed to talk after the fact . Apparently so. And they are wonderful because they saw him on one on stage and in all conditions and on under enormous pressure and with that assassination to the secret service men walked me through the whole event from inside and outside warehouse where it took place to spend the better part of one saturday doing that im sure thats never been done before so my account of that is based on material that can only be had by reaching that time through living people. And their devotion to harry truman is a very compelling thing to listen to. Thats true at all levels. I did not find a Single Person who want to tell me what the terrible backstage temper was or whether it was ungrateful. And the closer people were not just they like tim but they were devoted to him. And hoping i was hoping some people who didnt like him and had some skeletons to pull out but that never happened. Cspan why did you start . Ten years ago 1982. Cspan what was the reason . I was looking for a subject. I started working on a book of Pablo Picasso i had to go around there and i quit the book after a few months because i found i disliked him so. He was a repelling human being. He really didnt have a story at the time that interested me he was successful but he never went very far or had any adventures so to speak and immensely important painter and introducing modern art for the treatment of his family and attitude toward women he was not somebody wanted to spend five years with as a roommate so to speak. My editor at Simon Schuster suggested i think about doing Franklin Roosevelt because at that time there was not a good one volume biography. On impulse the visceral way i said no. If i do a 20th century president it would be roosevelt it would be harry truman. He said well why not harry truman . I looked into it and there was not a good biography of truman of a complete life and times this last chapter that you talk about that side has never been written before. It comprise 20 years of his life a very important part of his life. And beyond that there was a minutes collection of letters and diaries that he poured himself on paper all of his life and he left a very revealing record unlike of any president ive ever known and im sure will never have another president that has anything like that we dont write letters like that anymore and we dont keep diaries. He did both his whole life long before he ever realized he would be a figure in history but in one month in 1947 when he was president and his wife passe passed, harry truman wrote to her 37 times it wasnt just a simple how are you but these are real letters. They were all in longhand. Wonder for low clear straightforward handwriting but it was very legible so theres never a problem reading his handwriting. Seldom ever a problem when he was talking about. Cspan and last chapter you point out at some point he and his wife best call their daughter margaret every night in new york . Yes. They were very very close. The same people those secret Service Agents and white house staff and domestic staff said they were probably the closest family they have ever known in the white house. And they dont want to be quoted but they all say truman was their favorite president. The first president ever to walk out to the kitchen the first in their memory to think the chef or the cook for the dinner that night. And then coolidge come out once and they thought that was to see if anyone was stealing food. Truman knew everybody by name on staff, new about their families. He was a politicians device and thats the way he was the whole give him hell harry on the job in the white house with the lowest level or the highest level he never gave anyone helen never raised his voice. If anything he is remembered for how considerate he was. With small favors and courtesies he would do. John adams was born in 1735. He lived until 1826 nearly to the age of 91 lived longer than any president in history. He has been commonly thought of as a rich boston bluebird he was not any of those he was not rich or blue blood he was a farmer son who because of the scholarship to harvard discovered books forever. John adams was the most broadly read american of his time and lets remember it was john adams the second president of the United States who signed legislation to create the library of congress. So to talk about john adams and remember john adams is all together particularly appropriate on this occasion. A man of genuine brillianc brilliance, also a man of great art and humor and devoted to his country , truthful, devoted to his wife and famil family, hardworking, godfeari altogether the bravest patriot in history abrasive sometimes temperamental, sometimes tactless, sometimes overly concerned with his own position or place and also a man to his credit and also to his disadvantage that never considered popularity his mistress. He never courted popularity he was a man of principle his courage was his convictions and one of the most vivid and important examples of his principled behavior and conduct is he is the only founding father who never owned a slave as a matter of principle. We know thats important to judge those in the context of their time. That is correct and fair and historically the sensible thing to do but lets not forget john and Abigail Adams were also of their time and they opposed slavery. Abigail even more ardently than her husband at one point she says i wonder if all the travails and suffering we are going through our gods punishment for the sin of slavery. This San Andreas Fault of slavery that runs through our country story begins well before the revolution. Just as the revolution is too many people seem not to understand began well before the declaration of independence. The declaration of independence and John Dickinson was in many ways launching into a storm in a skiff made of paper what made it more than just a piece of paper was the fact we succeeded in the revolution, in the war we fought for and succeeded to gain our independence. And john adams and he would say independent and free you have to have independence and that is a way of life. And that was religion that is of the utmost importance to understand that time and that age and moment in history and those protagonists. And the separation of church and state and they all did two. But in their time and mind and eyes and spirits does not mean the separation of church. So we have to understand their life and their whole outlook and what would happen next. Long distance communication a lot of time and travail and is almost beyond our recognition to get a letter from philadelphia and boston or where the adams lived took at least a few weeks. And then they separated the cumulative lead ten years and that separation was created by the Atlantic Ocean and to communicate across the Atlantic Ocean took upwards of three through six months. And what did that mean cracks it meant both it and personal life and in diplomatic and official life that one had to be more responsible than we understand today for ones own decisions. Abigail adams at home running the farm to balance account accounts, and keep good people working to make the farm work. To educate the children, making decisions whether to get smallpox shots. Had to make those herself. She cannot pick up the phone and ask what should i do. That is a part of life. The assumption of responsibility to ones self. When adams was serving in france and netherlands and as a diplomat to make momentous decisions on his own that would affect the course of events but also career. And he made it because it was necessary. And we think of communication and transportation is two Different Things no faster than a sailboat that is the difference. Because they lived in a different time. A very different time. And a very interesting time. I tried to read not only what they wrote but did they write. Neither john nor abigail was capable to write a dolt sentence or a short letter. [laughter] and just between the two of them they wrote a thousand letters to each other that survived. Shirley more than that all the Massachusetts Historical Society and all on rag paper as a consequence they are as good as the day they were written. You can hold them in your own hand and you hold that letter the same distance from your eyes as they did as they did and believe me something tactful and something very visceral important happens when you work with the real thing. Is not the same to see it on microfilm or reproduced in the book. The humanity, the vulnerability to come through since five in the morning. But nearly always to insert into the letter a wonderful quote from her favorite poets and always getting a little bit wrong which so she did not look it up she wasnt taking it off the shelf to copy it. And that was a part of her. And an equally rewarding experience. And those that are required to read those english courses and hope and swift and the novels of samuel richardson. Had to be reminded of how terrific they were. What wonderful writers. We talk about progress in heaven knows we live with the benefits of all time when we go to the dentist. [laughter] not a tooth in his head. [laughter] they had them all pulled. Long before novocain. But we have a search and vanity but when you read what they wrote in the 18th century, i dont think anybody does it any better today or as well. And i will tell you Something Else that will make us all set up and shape up that the Literacy Rate in massachusetts was higher in their time than it is today. What a disgrace that is. And what good work and a lot of work still has to be done about that. The books that they read, that affected their lives as they do our lives and our time , they affected the notion of truth, heroism, right and wrong and how you write a letter he advised Young John Quincy dont strain for thrills and fancy affect, right the way you talk. So when you read his letters and to a very large degree you hear them talk and one of the things i have done in my books and in particular this book one of the ways i approach biographies is to let them talk as much as possible. Most of life is talk. How they talk, the words they use, vision figures of speech the cadence is a reflection of personality of style and the person and abigail is hugely influenced by the writings of richerson which is one of the most popular novels of the 18th century and she wrote a very interesting letter to say you read clarissa and write your letters they are in the novel the whole novel is just letters. That is all it is people writing letters back and forth but they are written to the moment what is happening right now and thats the way abigails letters are written. All those that she wrote to her husband were written a large part because they were separated for so many years and they are suffering and because of the separation is to our advantage as a consequence we have the letters. But even when she wasnt separated from her husband she would write to somebody else, her sister, some the best letter she ever wrote but she needed to write. She needed to work her thoughts out on paper her feelings out on paper and this is a very important point about writing for all of us, you sit down and you start to write something and find you have insight or thought you never would have had if you did not require to write something about writing focuses the brain in a different way. We have some video of your home and your writing shed. Where is it . First of all brian it is not a shed it is headquarters. Thats our home in massachusetts the village and the center of Marthas Vineyard the house as part of the 18th and 19th century that is the back porch over the acre that we own where we have gardens and a nice reach back to bordering to a neighboring farm that has been in the same family since it was first settled that measures 12 by 8 feet and that window is on all four sides i love it and my faithful typewriter that has since 18 1965 every book ive ever written on that. Theres nothing wrong with it. It is an example of a beautifully made american machine and then as 750,000 miles and runs perfectl perfectly. Cspan but sent john adams in this room . Everything. Part of that was with richard in charlottesville we live there a better part of a year when i was doing research at the library at the university of virginia. But essentially all of it was written here in that room. Cspan wendy wright quick. All day every day. Im not writing all day. Im reading or correcting im going over notes there is no telephone. No music. There is a nice view but i have my back so im not tempted by it. And to see general washington with those soldiers marching along. I hope they show that want to show that at the end theres a guy at the end i identify with always a little slow. Hes catching up. And then i look at him and with that example. So why work out there when the children were young we didnt want to walking around. And as a call to me as we work and thats how we got interested. From the adams letter to abigail and then as indicated there. And those figures that are at home. And of course its very important. And in the john adams book. I take everything a wonderful crayon drawing of a french artist. It is one of the best representatives of him. I love drawing and painting and the only way we can see those people of the utmost importance. And those are letters of George Washington. And those dug up on the propert property. How long have you lived in that house . In 1965 and pay less than you would pay for a car today. And we so one slowly began to restore it off the street. And our writer in residence and spending the aggregate of half the year at least working on the truman book. This is where all of the paraphernalia for communications are located the fax machine, coffee machine, computer it says no cell phones permitted. And then to have lunch. That is a photograph smoking one speaking of the joint session of congress. And then some grandchildren. Rosalies grandfather. And the house on Marthas Vineyard. And those around the house and one from the hotel room. How long does it take . They were done pretty quickly as watercolors. That was a sketch of it. So something we always love to do and the oldest daughter melissa and granddaughter and her husband thats the Public Library across the street where i serve as a trustee and then to get to the library that so far i have to go i would say would you want to go to library for brandy and cigars and then we would walk across the street. [laughter] that is the church where some of the children were married. Cspan i have in my lap what you are talking about. It has the creases who was in the photo . It is a picture of my mother. Mother on the left and my aunt on the right it is such a wonderful. Cars always take photograph i was put a car in the photograph you will know when its taken. And when they graduated from yale and then shelby foote and a lot of other people and i didnt know it at the time because i began to sense what i wanted to do as a writer i had a lunch with several friends in new york and the two friends that are both engineers enable started talking about the boulder one of the builders to create this unprecedented structure. My first book had been about the johnstown flood which is a study in human shortsightedness and human irresponsibility if there is a theme its really that it is perilous certainly extremely dangerous because people are in positions of responsibility they are behaving responsibly and with a mistake they all are making a johnstown at the cost of 2000 lives. It wasnt an act of god but the fault of human beings so what happens in life and publishing your very quickly typecast and then to have two publishers approach me one about the chicago fire the one about the San Francisco earthquake. [laughter] at the age of 35 hours typecast of bad news mccullough. [laughter] and i did not like that so what i really wanted at that stage with my outlook on the human condition was a symbol of affirmation because we are not always shortsighted and from what we know and the imperfect people working together can achieve noble creative works. And listening to these men talk about the Brooklyn Bridge i suddenly thought thats it that is the symbol of affirmation ive been looking for. And i came out of that restaurant working as editor in new york and waiting at the office and i just forgot completely i was so excited about the idea and so motivated i went immediately to the 42nd Street Library and i took those marble stairs up to the third floor where the card catalogs were and i was just to acquire the structure and design in my head and all i want to know that i pulled out the drawer there is over 100 cards on the subject of the Brooklyn Bridge but not one not wed i had in mind i knew nothing about bridge engineering or physics or mathematics in the process of if you are motivated and if you unravel yourself and struggle to understand on your own that you will never lose it how we learn things and how we teach people today and traditionally so much is handed to a student. And then to study for the exam for days and days and we do fairly well and then two months and two years. And i could go 30 years later to take a test of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and then do extremely well because part of me will always be part of me to work it out myself its one of the reasons we need more of that Lab Technique of teaching the humanities and then the home in white plains it was a beautiful saturday afternoon its in glorious count on color there was almost no one there. Mustve been a football weekend and the library which is an old church so i went to the desk and said we are here to look at the collection and she said we are so shorthanded today i will just give you the key and if you go to the top of the stairs to the attic and the light switch and if you turn left there is a door to the top of the stairs. We went up the stairs turning on the light switch the stores create it was like stephen king we get to the top and turn to the left it wasnt a closet but a room with shells from floor to ceiling jammed with material old boxes of letters and photographs all kinds of notes. And that you could tell the shoestrings had never been untied. Thirty years later have never been untied. And then to be in Brooklyn Heights everything imagined it look like something in somebodies closet and an addict. But it was the volume and said oh my god and said oh my god. When rosalie looked at it. There goes three years of our lives. [laughter] when this is the proverbial trunk in the attic i dont know how many times but it did take three years to go through the material and write the book and they were the three best years of my writing life. And then i was saying before when this event started so if you write the book the subject is done so everything that i want to say about this and you really dont want to turn back to it but that is never been true it is and structure and i work of the greatest and it is a lesson of so many times in a brief way that i can just talk about that so it is a great urban event a great expression of the ideal of the city. Of the committed to the ideal of the city and it stands at the very gateway and particularly from that day in the 19th century it was the gateway for millions of immigrants coming up to the new world. There is nothing like it in the new world is nothing like it in the country and those that dont seem like very much today but the taller structures on the north American Continent taller than the capital them here in washington and they were the expression of the beginning of highrise it appeared that it would not grow out but up. And that concept was new and in the Brooklyn Bridge with the skyscraper of urban america. Right there because it has the heroic scale and steel and structure new york at the structural steel anywhere so it would transform this country and with that social revolution and economic revolutions that created by the advent of cheap steel is one too little written into little understood with this nature and complexity of the country. And the bridge are so contained in its design a concept a work of engineering is performing a service to the quality of life in the city. If youve been to the Brooklyn Bridge or walk across you know exactly what im talking about its the boardwalk its how you walk over the bridge. Instead of putting putting sidewalks or putting them on the outside around the polluter the designer put them inside that great net of cables and above the vehicular traffic so when you walk across the Brooklyn Bridge you feel contained in that network of cables so you are not on the edge so all the fears that could go without are gone. Furthermore you can enjoy and no other bridge that i know and those that were designed and those who designed the bridges who spend weeks and months and years studying so when it goes across in the car you cannot see anything. [laughter] [applause] and then that original prospectus on a sunday afternoon or weekend to go with the family her boyfriend and to walk up out of the city of higher than you have ever been in your life because those that are about five stories and 119 feet and its the title straight of salt water four to 6 feet there are sharks this eagles fly under the bridge and the bridges so high up because built in the age of sale they want the ships upstream to do so and only the very biggest could do that and the steam on the river. And enjoy yourself and have the thrill of knowing you were in new york city you were in brooklyn and the greatest metropolis that failed to be on earth. The revolutionary war era the 18th century was more important to who we are and the way we are and what we hope to be and our american and secular faith than most people realize. And unfortunately to a very large degree it has portrayed so often almost as though the people that were involved and the protagonists were figures in a costume pageant. The renditions of jefferson and washington and others and the paintings lend a theatrical quality. We dont see them in photograph photographs. We have no recordings of their voices. We cant see film footage on case that fought in the war we have no on the spot drawings by the correspondence first of all over who covered the civil war so its almost impossible to reach them as we could in the civil war or the First World War except for what they wrote what they wrote in diaries and letters and orderly books of one kind or another and memoirs and autobiographies written after the fact newspaper coverage was nothing that we liked no correspondence covering the war or to be published in the country. So by and large we have to conclude we dont know what they look like but we do know what they look like. In part because of the deserter notices when they went home and went to the other side, notices would be published and Country Stores and they were very descriptive because they hope to find these people and what comes through in those descriptions is the realization how different they look and very few who fought with washington wore uniforms. To think that was part of the role as a leader and then to look like the general but those wearing everything imaginable and not supplied for replacements so as the year wore on the clothing became tattered dirty and eventually and rags or worse. At times themselves the era in which they live with so much harder than we understand. And even in peacetime was armor standards very uncomfortable with danger and threats and disease and that physical destruction that comes from work. There were no cosmetic surgeons to say the least that Nathanael Greene would walk the rest of his life with a limp coming from an accident. And then the great painter signing of the declaration of independence and then when washington returned command of the end of one dash returned his power to the congress. He only had because of a childhood injury. And henry knox had part of one hand blown off in a hunting accident and people were missing teeth or a cast in their i or a way to hold their head on the shoulder because something happened life is dangerous and difficult and people were resilient and strong to a degree and its something we should seldom forget. We and our time were softies by contrast. It is hard for us to imagine what it would be like with the dysentery or typhus so were typhoid or smallpox sweep through our city and take the lives of hundreds of people and when the war came and that tragedy and the sorrow it cant be measured with any statistics Abigail Adams says future generations will have a little idea and imagine what we have suffered on their behalf and she was right. The war was the longest in history except and eight and a half years it was also very proportionate to the population. 25000 americans were killed those that live with the brutal statistics of the 21st century and to suffer worldwide 25000 doesnt sound like a great deal and that is 1 percent of the population of 2,500,000. And if we were to fight a revolutionary war today with our population that would be over 3 million killed. So in their time it was a horrible war. It was extremely costly to the people who had to make do without their husbands to work the farmer to be the breadwinne breadwinner. I would like of these deserter notices. They are very colorful and picturesque in a way they are describing people who are immediately identifiable and very much like the characters and then 5 feet nine and half inches tall age 17. And to do something on the right shoulder. Thomas williams was an immigrant and not the old man from the country. And to do english a saucy fellow and then ruffled shirt. And from colonel brewsters regiment sent a notice in the gazette one simeon and by trade about 5 feet 4 inches high. And the black long and eyes the hermaphrodite fashion and to be predominant likewise a small a small and has a younger look on his face to say i swear. And then he has 22 coats ones read in one screen although he has something of a sober look at likewise along shouldered fellow and shoemaker by trade and had a green coat and lost some of his four teeth and to largely be anonymous and to get that hard marching and fighting again the month after month and with those noble ideas of the declaration of independence more than a declaration more than just words on paper. When we celebrate the fourth of july those opening passages of the declaration of independence. And then to be equal with life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But that would have been possible through 1776 and beyond. And then hundreds deserted and thousands deserted as time went on thousands more went home they only listed for a year and when the time came to go home there was nothing to stop them and many just marched away. When the army was down in many were without shoes and winter was coming and the british were coming in beyond anything and the good equipment. And that enlistments for 2000 and then came up and they marched away. Washingtons army was down at 3000 thats all that were left so quite literally we know what we have and what we are and hold sacred to men that would not quit. Because in part they were led and George Washington was not that gray intellectual like jefferson or adams or hamilton. And that fellow virginian patrick henry. But George Washington was a leader. He was a man of phenomenal courage and to spot great talent and give them a chance and two of the best with two weeks after first meeting them and henry knox and despite the fact they are new englanders and disliked them ardently. [laughter] and thought they were the best he had. Those two men greene and knox with washington that stayed the entire length of the war would not leave or quit. When writing my book about harry truman i love the idea he went out for a walk every morning. I thought maybe i should try that. As a way to tuneup your head. And then if youre not walking. So last summer when the comments being made by the republican candidate were to me not only appalling so what could i do to provide to give a point of view to this . And and the anniversary of the white house with that Memorial Service in dallas which i was asked to be the speaker. And the commencement speeches that i had given with particular locations to the importance of other organizations or universities. And found there were many that i was voicing what really matters to me and it was fascinating. And as a means to a large and this experience to stay alive so why should we have this little bit of time . When we can have access to the whole room of the human story going back hundreds of thousands of years. And with those speech and might be appropriate and with the help of my daughter who arranged all these and kept the records of what i said. And punish it to put it down and hes writing in the times because they might be apropos. And i have heard you say before, historians dont really have a war with one a role with current politics. And none of these were written. And then to think what is the paragraph or the point hes trying to make and then to be taken to heart right now. And then each time i was looking and that might be taken to heart that might be elected president , who knows. I wont do each one but 12 out of 15 and the first speech. And in 1989 you quote him and to review joe mccarthy. And why that political victory the four horsemen and that smear is interesting word. Know you could have a sense of humor. [laughter] can you imagine somebody reading that and the current Political Climate . Wouldnt it be wonderful . And she is a woman and rare cases and have no idea who Margaret Chase smith was. One of the most admirable political figures we have ever had. And how many are standing up now . I dont know. 1998 and other patriots of that time of the original signers of the declaration and what matters most of human relations to say in the book that this is his quote candor and gentleness and disposition to speak with civility and listen to everybody and then you added in 1998 words to the wise that perhaps more than ever. Benjamin rush is one of my favorite and to be remarkable 1h century thats interested in almost everything. One of the first people to encourage and not just to get in the way. And then to go into places that commitment with yellow fever epidemic. And one of the signers of the declaration of independence and when you sign that he was almost 30 years old. We forget how young they were and jefferson at the declaration of independence was 33. Imagine in washington when he took command of the Continental Army was 44 years old. And with their white hair. And they were very young. And to be part of that story. I ever know enough about the American Revolution and by the way so the museum of the American Revolution has just opened in philadelphia and is a must for all of us. It is marvelous and to take your children and grandchildren and it is brilliantly organized and spectacular rubber. Excuse me and then where the historic neighborhood is it is just down the street from independence hall. And to live in the boston area to take that reality of the miracle of that era. And that is good and thats great. But i love kennedys profiles in courage i read that the what i want to do with my life. I love his regard for john quincy adams. And im not here to comment but what i like so much is the word civility which is lost are in the Public Discourse and the sense of comity that exists to show the common goal its gone. And with that deep chasm of division. And then the two sides seem oppose. And that was trumps policy with the National Goals and party goals martin matter more. Leadership of the best kind to have the courage to stand up for their convictions to have the backbone to do whats right irrespective of what it means to their political future for the chance to be reelected then they have to come mainly from the people and the government of the executive and the fourth people and when we stand up no more of this. And there is a person right there who says the right thing and then to make sure that is decisive. Is somebody reads about Margaret Chase says thats what im going to do. And then to survive. And then to expect that. And we are a centrist nation. 3545 or 60 percent are in the middle to get something done. Absolutely. We aint doing it. We have come through very hard times and baffling times and pessimistic times and inappropriate behavior and then come through them all and very often when we come through these difficult times we start clouted times and when we do come through we are better to say thats a simpler time back then. No it wasnt. Thats a thing that has never been so bad are so dark or foreboding. And if you dont understand that you dont understand reality of our story. I like to point out the influenza epidemic that your parents went through 1918, 1918, 500,000 americans died. And then to go away or how to cure it. If that were to happen today, today, proportionate to the population 1,500,000 people died in less than a year. So imagine to even be more terrified and then just as the depression in the civil wa war, horrible times but we come through them. And then because we understood and with those consequences and thats what they have to understand. That big sudden revelation that eventually after i finish the Wright Brothers and got down to marietta. And my assistant was probably the greatest researcher in America Today and i saw this breathtaking collection, i knew we opened king tuts to it was thrilling. Let me just to describe why it is thrilling not that theres so much of the literally thousands, thousands of letters and diaries published journals, maps, data of all kinds and magnificent pages. But it is the quality of it all the quality of the writing in the thinking and the quality and the honesty of expressing that they are brokenhearted about and tearful of and how they are suffering and the work they had to do. And this epidemic disease. And that natural fiascoes. Happening one after another. Compared to them we are all a bunch of softies. [laughter] truly. So i could go on for hours about history and why that is so beneficial and important so enlarging of life two of the most important lessons into their children and grandchildren but the first is empathy to put yourself in the other persons place and what that went through that is the same for people in our own time to understand why other people feel as they do put himself in their place with empathy and gratitude. Gratitude for all that other people do for our benefit or have done long ago. And we should never take that for granted. But one of the things that unfortunately we do take for granted is the Public School system. So that all men are created equal. So those two parts of the life to began here the first Public School system anywhere in the country here in ohio. And the charter the northwest ordinance 1987 and 1787 it states very clearly there will be Public Education and complete freedom of religion. And and and there will be no slavery. Of those original 13 colonies that all men are created equal but we have 150 slaves. And that was due primarily to wrote the basic tenets of the northwest ordinance. And with the 18th century that wrote about everything and was interested about everything. And as a doctor of law and a doctor of medicine and of divinity and almost certainly a leading american botanist of his day. He was interested in languages and everything. And he believed in the importance and necessity of the good life to learning. And that love of learning like anybody i have come to know or read about. He came out to see how everything was going then he had too much going on back home in massachusetts and his church and his parsonage are still there in very superb condition. Where the first covered wagon left to come to ohio is still there. And his son came out here with his wife and four children. They are young, hopeful and how to address themselves to hardware, but nothing, even the most daily test of the rocky ground of new england is not anything comparable to what they faced here. They came out, and on their way just coming down the ohio river two of their children die of disease. They have to be buried on the banks of the river were there were no settlements or anything. Imagine. They arrive here, mrs. Cutler she turned her in goal badly he was suffering from disease himself when he arrived here. They knew no one. So they have to begin as everybody else had to do, by hard work. Oh, we have no idea how hard they work. Night and day every day and all the children worked. Men and women and all the children. Efrom cutler had not had the education of his father because he was raised by his grandparents who were farmers in connecticut. This is important to keep in mind. I was asked in an interview the other day in ohio of all the scenes in my book what do i wish i could have been there to have watched in first person . I knew right away. There was a big moment that came after the election of thomas jefferson. The jeffersonians we will call it because i didnt have a party name and the jeffersonians are here to decide they will get rid of the rule that there is no slavery and introduce slavery into ohio. And to people in the legislature are leading the charge to stop that to keep it from turning into a slave state one is general rufus putnam who is the leader of the group. Along with ephram cutler himself. He was young at this point. He is absolutely devoted to stopping this change and gets quite ill. And he could hardly get out of bed. And there was even some question if you would even survive. And the day the vote was going to take place, rufus putnam came into the boarding house room nearby. He was old enough to have been his father. He came in and said cutler, you must get well, be in your place or you will lose your favorite measure. According to one account, putnam and another man carried him to the convention on a stretcher. But there is no reliable evidence of this. Color himself only wrote i went to the convention and moved to strike out the obnoxious matter and made my objections as forcibly as i was able. It was an act of fortitude and the result was never to be forgotten here. They cost me every effort i was capable of making and passed by a majority of one vote only. Because he got up from his suffering, he was stopped and there would be no slavery. Not just no slavery in ohio but all of the Northwest Territories which included indiana, illinoi indiana, illinois, michigan, wi. So imagine if slaves had been admitted. Imagine what would have happened. There would have been no underground railroad, no Harriet Beecher stowe, uncle toms cabi cabin, the most influential and powerfully influential novel ever written by any american. There probably would have been no Abraham Lincoln or Ulysses S Grant the whole picture this one man, the one man who is not mentioned in any of the history books and is totally forgotten. So here are all his letters in private correspondence. And the putnam collection alone as well over 1000 pieces. Nobody is prouder to put this to the left and the donald because to get back to focusing on the issues that matter like if we faked to the moon landing. [laughter] what really happened in roswell . And where are biggie and tupac . And that corrosive impact they were having at the people of the fbi and them to do their work so i felt that they understood more about the organization and what kind of people are drawn to the fbi and how we make those decisions that we do with specific legal authorities and priorities and policies