[applause] good evening and welcome to the New York Historical society but im the New York Historical president and ceo and thrilled to see all of you this evening in our beautiful Robert H Smith auditorium. Tonights Program Gives me liberty, history of americas exceptional idea is a part of our Bernard Schwartz established Speaker Series and as always i k like to thank mr. Schwartz or his great generosity which is enabled us to bring so many fine speakers to this stage and i also want to thank all of our Chairman Council members who are in attendance as evening and to thankk you for your great suppot which enables us to do our work. Tonights program will last about one hour and it will include a question answer session but you should have received a note card and pencil as you entered the auditorium and this afternoon or this evening and it is not my colleagues going up and down the aisle with note cards and pencils in the note card will be collected later on in the program with your questions. Following the program there will bee a book signing in our ny history store and copy of our speakers books will be available for purchase. Tonight we are thrilled to welcome richard rook back to the New York Historical society. As a senior fellow at the National Review institute and a Senior Editor at the National Review and the author of numerous books including john marshall, the man who made the sabine courts and Alexander Hamilton, america. Sorry. I got to know him when he was our historian chief historian curator and on the blockbuster show Alexander Hamilton, the man who made modern america way back in 2004 and he and we were way ahead of our time in the hamilton craze but it caught up with us. Richard rook was a awarded the National Humanitarian medal by president george w. Bush in 2008 and his newest book, give me liberty, was published just this week. Congratulations. Our moderator this evening is our own trustee, sterling professor of law and legal science at yale university. Before joining yale faculty professor [inaudible] clerked for judge now associate Justice Steven breyer when he was on the u. S. Court of appeals for the first circuit. In 2017 professor amar received the Bar Foundation annual outstanding Scholar Award as well as the howard art lamarr award and is the author of numerous books including his most recent, the constitution today. We are grateful the professor amar is our very own, as i said, a trustee at New York Historical. As always before our speakers begin their conversation id like to ask that you make sure that anything that makes a sound like a cell phone is switched off and now please join me in welcoming our speaker this evening commack. Good evening. Its great honor and personal pleasure, a treat to be here with one of my heroes. Rook i have admired richard ever since the first time i saw him it was my very first week at yale college and i just turned 18 and that week and listened to rick hold forth the Political Union and ive been following his word ever since. His latest is, as a part, this book, give me liberty a history of americas exceptional idea and its dedicated to the american people. It is up it is slender and has your trademark with and in fact in your decisiveness but also a big book in a way because most history books dont try to take on such a broad sweep of time. Talk a little bit aboutf the choice that went the basic training of the project. Writes, i am making an argument in this book and i am saying that the characteristic of american nationalism is our concern with liberty. That is the thing that makes us not to canada and not mexico and not whatever. This has been going on a long time and it began before we were a country and began in our colonial past so in this book i take 13 episodes, each of which produces a document of some kind and the first one is 1619 and jamestown and the most recent one is 1987 in berlin when president reagan gives the tear down this wall speech. Its not quite 400 years but for centuries of concern with this concept of liberty to defining it, fighting for its and announcing it. You know, three of the episodes are colonial. They are the four independents or the declaration of independence because of this concern of ours goes back that far. You have to trace it back that far to begin to get a grasp on it. Now, you wont be surprised to expect to learn that there are 13 different episodes, he described them as snapshots in an album, a marital album of over these 400 years but we cant do all 13 probably in the time we have today so since this is the New York Historical society we will focus on the new york aspect of my story but why would you, just before we focus in on that line tell us what is the 13 episodes are, if you can and you do all their team. Okay, the 13 are the first are the minutes of the first meeting of the General Assembly at jamestown. Jamestown colony in 1690. Number two is the flushing remonstrance, 1657. Number three is the trial and particularly the argument to the jury at the trial of john peter singer in 1735. Number four, the declaration of independence. Number five is the constitution of the New York Manumission Society and that is 1785. Number six is the constitution, 1787. Number seven is the Monroe Doctrine which is 1823, number eight is the seneca falls declaration of sentiments, 1848. Next is the gettysburg address, 1863 and next is the new colossus which is written for the pedestal of the statute of liberty and i paired the two. The poem has to be seen along with the statue but the poem was written in 1883 and the next is the cross of gold speech, 1896 and the penultimate one is the fireside chat on the arsenal of atdemocracy, 1940 and the last , as i said, we tear down this wall speech berlin, 1987. Wild hundred 13 out of 13. [applause] we will not talk about 6019 in jamestown but we are going to talk about something that i will be honest with you, i had never even heard of before you help teach me about it, the flushing remonstrance. What the heck is that . This is when new york is still new netherland. It is still a dutch colony and it is being governed by a man who turns out to be the last governor, Peter Stivers and. I lived on 16th street and third avenue near stuyvesant park and they have a splendid statute of peter and it really captures the mans personality and he looks vigorous and he looks energetic and of course he has a wooden leg and lost it in the wars against spain and looks like he would not want to cross this guy. Hes very much wants to be in charge of everything. Although he did a lot new yorkers can be a lot like that. He reminded me a little bit of giuliani. [laughter] but somewhat crazy but also effective. Despite all the good he did for new netherlands he was a bigot. He was a dutch calvinist, his father had been a minister and he wanted to impose that on his domain here in new netherlands. He tried to throughout lutherans and jews at different points but because there were jewish investors and directors in the Dutch West Indies company which employed him he was told to back off and let them alone. Then he decided to pick on quakers. There were no quakers on the directors of the Dutch West India Company so hideous freehand for a while. Quakers then were an extremely countercultural religion. They did not recognize [inaudible] and they were not doffed their hats. They used the same forms of address for everybody. They let men and women preach equally because they believed everyone had access to the inner light and so this made them very very peculiar and frightening, certainly to Peter Stivers in. They started appearing in new netherlands and he handles them in various ways and he expels a couple of them and almost whips to death another one and then he decides okay, we cant have any of them in here, we are just not going to let them in at all. He then we will send it back and anyone here who harbors one in his house will be a crime. You cannot let a quaker in your house. He promulgates this. And then 30 men in flushing which then is now same place it is now and that was part of his domain and they sent him a remonstrance im a public letter puand they tell him we cannot oy this order of yours. And they say its for religious regions. We would do on two other men as we would have other men do unto us andey this is the law of chuh and state and this is what god and the prophets tell us to do. They send thiss letter to him ad its a remarkable stand for freedom of conscience. What moves me most about this and you can find this online, six of them could not find their names. They did not know how to spell their own names so they made marks. But they lay down a marker and they were standing up to this guy and he leaned on them. He had them arrested. He brought in the guy who was the actual scribe of the document a man named edward hart and the dutch kept very good records so we have the record of his interrogation of edward hart and its like he told you to write this and no one told me to write this and well, how did you come to write it and i was just listening to the sentiments of the people. Where did they express their sentiments . No place in particular but where did you write this . It waser in so and sos house. Its an interrogation and no beating up of him, no torture but its really an interrogation. He made them all crack. He did make them all crack. But quakers continue to come in in defiance of his order and he decided to send one to amsterdam to be tried and he wasnt going to do it here but would send them across the ocean and then finally his boss even though there were no quakers among them decided lay off these people too. They said to him we dont like quakers anymore than you do but we want population so if they are willing to come in mind, let them come in and he finally does back off. Speaking of thinskinned people running new york like you mentioned Rudy Giuliani but the next one is the trial of john peter singer and we have another thinskinned person, now the governor or royal governor, english. Yes, english royal governor but connect tell us the story. Thats right. The english, of course, concord, New Amsterdam and then in the 18th century we had a series of royal governors who have been sent over and some of them are worse than others and the New York Historical society owns a portrait of one of them in womens dress because he allegedly that should be a Rudy Giuliani saturday night live,da just saying affects connect this man allegedly would lurk on the street corners at night and tugged mens ears and womans dress. This picture depicts him in drag although its probably a forgery done by a hoax, done by his enemies, political enemies but there was another man, william cosby, who becomes governor of new york because he married the daughter of an oral and when he gets his appointment it takes him six months to get over here from england. Arena time the job of governor was filled by a substitute. When cosby arrives he says well, you owe me my back salary for these six months i wasnt here. And they dont want to pay him and it goes before the local courts, presided over by a manned name lewis morris, the judge of the local supreme court. Rules against cosby. So, Cosby Byers Morris and puts in morris place a much younger man, last name of delancy as in the street down on the lower east side. And what morris does to fight back iso he hires an immigrant named john peter singer, german immigrants, to start a newspaper. Newspaper culture has already started in the 13 colonies. There are the Franklin Brothers have started a newspaper in boston. James and benjamin who later, much more famous than his older brother. Every sniffing into town along the coast has one newspaper, at least one newspaper and out new york has two because the previous one was the official one. It would print all the official notices and laws in what not to. Obviously it was in the pocket of whoever the governor was but now there is a rival one, the weekly journal and for a year and campaigns against governor cosby. Against governor crosby they run bogus ads for one of cosbys supporters and cosby doesnt like it so finally on his own sayso he has peter zenger arrested come issues of the newspaper burn and does grant him a trial. So the supporters higher from out of town the best lawyer at the time in british north america was a man named andrew hamilton. No relation to alexander but hes a lawyer in philadelphia who comes up to defend his client. As a law professor you would be very interested in the courtroom drama here. Because the law, the relevant law is the law of seditious libel which atva the time it waa recognized law in angloamerican law, and it criminalized criticism of rumors on the grounds that that could cause violence and upheaval and rebellion. Obviously we dont want that so, therefore, we will not permit criticism of rumors. And that is the law of the land, both in england and its colonies. So what hamilton does, and its a brilliant performance, hes basically asking for jury nullification, asking for the jury to ignore the law. He cant say that and are times when the judge pulls him up short, will you make a certain argument. What hamilton always does come hes twice as old lady knows his way around the courtroom, and so he will apologize and then you make the same argument later in a slightly different form. Its a brilliant performance and is also a very eloquent performance. He is saying what other recourse to friedman have if their big miss ruled . They have to have the right to complain because how else can anything be redressed if nobody knows what it is and nobody can talk about it . And if you dont allow this, the only alternative you are allowing is revolution. He mentions the overthrow of the roman kingdom by the first brutus. He mentions the english civil war, but he keeps coming back to this point that the right to complain to oppose and expose this rule is something that every free man has. The jury agrees with him. A leave the box for for a veryt time. They come back, these 12 ordinary new yorkers, id give their names, its an impressive group. Weve never heard of any of them, but they again didnt lie myth of flushing basted up and they quit acquit peter zenger. The effect of this is colonial governors will not bring actions for seditious libel after this because no jury is going to bring in a conviction. So the effect is pressed in colonial america would be the freest in the world. So this is in 17 1735. You say you said you mentioned the names, you do that threat. You want us to know these names and some are recognizable but today, many are not. Theres a name you mentioned before, you mention the name of lewis morris. Right. He is the backer. The next chapter isnt really completely a new york story. It happens down in philly, declaration of independence but my copy of the declaration back since a look at the next and you have them, theres a lewis morris they are. Same guy . Grandson. Grandson, okay. Theres going to be another Family Connection that you will tell us about. So were going to pass over the declaration of independence. You focus especially on the odes to liberty in the declaration of independence and there are other aspects of as well. Declares independence, for example, which has International Law significant and all the rest but we will jump over that becauseal we cant do everything so you just have to read the chapter for yourself to get his views on the declaration of independence. But now lets leapfrog to the constitution, not of the United States yet but the constitution of the new york its evenrelated come like the New York Historical society, whats up with that . Some of the chapters in this book are about filling gaps. Because i argue that this concern with liberty is centuries long and it is central to our experience but, of course, we also violated it in numerous ways and bad to correct those violations over the course of our history. The largest most inflamed because the issue didnt finally in in the civil war most painful was human chattel slavery. I wanted to do a chapter on a Northern State because we forget that this wasnt just a southern thing. New york was a slave colony and it was a slave state after independence. I learned in writing this book that new york city had more slaves than any American City except charleston. Thats partly a function of our size. We become the largest city but still that is a startling and shameful statistic. So after the revolution there was a scandalous event where some free blacks living in new york were about to be lured or shipped or take into charleston or the bay of honduras were a lot of slave trading went on. New york and other free towns were prey to man steelers or black birders, they were also called, people looking for runaway slaves but if he could find a runaway slave they make try and pick up some free blacks and carried them off into slavery. The authorities had stopped of this. It was a scandalous event and so there was a meeting in new york of an interesting combination of people. There was the elite of the city and of the state, governor George Clinton was part of this turkeys the first post independence governor. John jay, the great diplomat patriot and the young 20 these ranks, Alexander Hamilton who had a very good war, washington step and you can see them musical. But these men were also working with new yorks quakers who appear appeared several times in this book and they are always, always on the outs, always outsiders and by their own choice, because their own religious vision is so radical and to what extent should they participate in what the rest of the world is doing. This is an ongoing debate within the quaker community. But at this moment the two of them see a common interest in trying to rectify new york situation with respect to slavery. They feel that this is a violation of the principles of the revolution, for which some of these men have fought. Not the quakers obviously but people like hamilton did. And they want to set new york on the path of manumission. So they wrote, they write a constitution which is very eloquent. It resembles the famous opening of the declaration of independence. Its much more explicitly religious. Jefferson talked about the loss of nature and nature is god. Speaking to the benevolent creator and father of men. And says it is our duty as citizens and christians not only to sympathize but actively work to enjoy the same rights as ourselves so can our brother and. Its a very sweeping statement many members of society colon slaves but they were willing to put themselves on record and willing to go to work to end this const to tuition one to end this constitution no slave or when slave could be sold outside the state. A number of slaves where they are and they said they should all be free they also established a system of schools for black children because they felt they were ignorant so they started off and then girls were allowed a few years later ultimately this is put into the School System in the 19th century than the final result is john j the first president of the society elected governor and in 1799 signs a bill to end slavery by 1727. People reading about this come to it for the first time say they are really dragging their heels. But the other side is they got it done was in the culture they wanted to get it out and someone has to do it you cant say it will go away but you have to work and thats what they did in 1827 finally the last slaves are free july 4th i and the chapter with another hamilton who is a black man selfproclaimed journalist and an eloquent essay about the end of slavery in new york which he praises the society as the main engine of the process. Let me give one distinction for the freeing of individual slaves going back to antiquity and they have regimes but actually it is the americans that develop the idea to abolish slavery itself. Abolition to free the slaves. It may not be that many existing slaves but then not at all or ever. One final thing as you talk about john j with this abolition law. He is so opposed to slavery that he buys some slaves. What is up with that quick. So when they work off their price they will be free. That sounds all head to us but i would also may be in his defense say he tried to get anti slavery language in the first constitution during the revolution. He helped to write that and he failed in this respect than three years later he wrote until we do this our prayers to heaven for liberty will be in pious. Thats pretty hard to saying. The next chapter is a different constitution. Its not quite new york because in the drafting gates and lansing basically defect at a certain point leave new york without a vote so now he can talk that cannot cast a vote on behalf of new york. But there is a new york angle for we have to move quickly there are more new york stories. Another morris comes into the picture. My favorite so tell us about governor morris and then a few observations about the ratification process in new york led by those on the other side so give us the new york take. Governor morris is also the grandson of lewis morris who is the half brother of the lewis morris that signs a declaration. It is an active political family. I love him. He had a pagan leg he was a ladies man. He was brave. He would go on to be minister to france during the reign of terror. He sticks to his guns and hold his own when those are at the guillotine. In terms of the ratification struggle new york is a musthave state nine out of 13 states ratify it goes into effect but they know they have got to have certain states the biggest of massachusetts pennsylvania and virginia. They need new york not so big yet but growing and centrally located. So there is a lively press controversy. We have all read the federalist papers with the blast on the pro constitution side. Yes. These are oped pieces writing 750 words twice a week these were 2000 words coming out three or four or five times a week. But they were very eloquent essays on the other side and new york state of actual riots there was one in albany another in new york but it shows you how high the passions were. You think its important with that you mentioned society and in the end will be the swing vote so they may agree on something and alexander hamilto hamilton. It is a fascinating story. So now we go upstate and tell me about seneca falls. This is another gap. Obviously women mostly do not have the right to vote. But in new jersey through 18 oh seven women who met the property qualification could vote that was because the language of the first new jersey constitution talked about inhabitants and not free man. People noticed and there were enough women meeting the property qualification the joker in the deck that married women their property belong to their husbands but if you are single or widowed and you met the property qualification you can vote in new jersey over those 31 years so they were called the petticoat vote recognized as a block but that ended 18 oh seven so this chapter is the most important individual is a woman from johnstown new york Elizabeth Cady stanton. Her interest in politics is from her youth. Her father is a judge serving a term in congress. She was his law clerk. She marries a man who himself is very involved in politics and then in 1840 she and her husband go to a worldwide abolition conference in london where the issue is are the women in attendance allowed to vote. This becomes an argument and the conference votes and says no they shall not be allowed to vote. Then the Young American gets home and says to her friend why cant we have a conference on womens rights . And ultimately moves with her husband to the seneca falls and there she has tea with some friends of hers. Life was stressed. She and her husband are prosperous and her father helps to support them but three little boys. The husband is away politics and she runs everything. They are talking about the situation and the husband of one of these women says do something about it. So they decide to have a conference on womens rights. They have to act quickly because there is a noted women or raider visiting seneca falls going home soon so we have to put out the word fast and get a venue for go they get a wesley and chapel which is an anti slavery section of the Methodist Church for go they have a two day meeting one of the more famous people that attendance is Frederick Douglas comes back from rochester new york the only nonblack person all of there are 12 people we know nothing. s there probably were others what is interesting is even here the issue of womens voting was controversial. Because they were quakers and by this point are thinking the whole political system is corrupt. It supports slavery, why have anything to do with it . To participate is the devils game. She says no if you are not voting you are not represented and you have no guarantees to protect your own station and write for go she is guided by the fact her father was in politics and her husband and she has been observing politics all her life. She knows the importance she wins the point for can i will skip ahead a lot of years. Obviously the civil war sucks up everyones attention. After the civil war the Western States and territories individually allow women to vote before the 19th amendment was passed new york state one year before lets women vote. Elizabeth cady stanton has yet died but one women is still surviving 102 years old from seneca falls lived all her life and only two houses that she went with her father to the Seneca Falls Convention when she is 102 she is taken to the polls to vote. I hate to jump over the gettysburg address but that doesnt have a strong new york angle tell us about the statue and the plaque. Yes. The statue of liberty was a gift to this country from france. It was a gift from a particular slice of a french nation. Wringing your hands over american politics look at france sometime. [laughter] they really always have a tougher time than we have. They are reactionaries and so much further left than ours but there has always been in france a centrist liberal strain which has honestly admired republicanism to sustain the American Revolution. And pushed for republicanism in france. Lafayette the most famous of the beginning so during the second empire napoleons nephew in the middle of the 19th century as an authoritarian state as one of the liberals named edward is very interested and favors the union side and interested in emancipation and after the passage of the 13th amendment wouldnt it be great for france to commemorate emancipation of a colossal statue and where he floats this idea one of his guests is a young sculptor learning his trade in france he is interested in monumental sculpture he goes to egypt to the monuments of the ancient world are Still Standing he has some very interesting theoretical things how you should do this you dont want too many details dont distract the eye it should be as simple as a sketch. These to get together when france becomes a republic in 1870 republicanism is now the official position of the french nation they offer the gift to the United States. But they will not pay for the pedestal. They built the statue we have to come up with the money for the pedestal. This takes a long time. One of the projects to raise money is an album of literary productions mark twain write something they may have some poetry and then one writes a sonnet about the statue that she identifies as the mother of exiles its called the new colossus from the ancient statue that everybody would have thought of at the time. That celebrated a triumph. She said this is different. This is not about that. This is welcoming people here as a refuge and this is what we should be proud of to have a free country of liberty we are willing to welcome people to it. It is put on the statue after she is dead. She tells her sister who is her executor make sure the new colossus is its put on page 404. [laughter] there were some family issues going on. [laughter] but she had a friend another blue stocking who was a descendent of Alexander Hamilton who lobbied on the pedestal where it is today. I think the problem is very effective piece of rhetoric it is important on that statue because that identifies the mother of exiles. She is the mother of liberty. Not just being oppressed as a stop but you come over here and it will stop for good because this is a country for liberty you dont have to worry about that happening again. Line of the exciting things about this and i have some Great Questions talking about filling gaps of liberty and responding to inclusion of slaves or blacks or women early on because you were a journalist during the contemporary era and a great scholar of the founding and the founders. And i nudged you forward in time all the way to lincoln with your great book but i dont remember a lot of Brooke Kaiser host lincoln or pre reagan and with the colossus you have that. But for the first time that i can recall you really talk about that man the new yorker who isnt always beloved by the National Review. Or maybe he is, franklin roosevelt. So to skip across the speech. I will not let you talk about reagan but the arsenal. There are three chapters in the book dealing with america and the world. That may seem paradoxical talking about liberty in america but there are instances where we have seen that our interests and our preservation of our own liberty elsewhere. This is certainly what roosevelt thought in the 1930s he was not elected president of Foreign Policy but dealing with the depression and always mindful of Foreign Affairs with a lifelong interest and he saw the coming of the fascist dictatorships of the military regime in japan and he took steps to prepare to deal with that. One was to put young officers in charge of the army and the navy with general George Marshall they were planners who developed a plan to how we would fight a war if it came to that against germany and italy and japan. And military code dog stands for d there were four options like the good memo writer and then you hold the line in the pacific but that remain focused to defeat germany. And then norway the low countries of france and to tell roosevelt if we win if britain survives we can win everywhere print goes down we might not lose everywhere but we cannot win. With the means of communication the precedence speech makers roosevelt uses the radio and gives the fireside chats probably radiator chats. But i was way to intimately connect in december 1942 tell america he wants us to be the arsenal of democracy. And say the oceans are still there because transportation is quicker and better to explain from senegal from germany to brazil it is shorter than washington dc to denver that the oceans are smaller than they were and we have to be mindful of that. To see the irishamericans would it be possible that i wish liberty could survive if every other country went under cracks and then says with hitler but you may find that embrace so trying to address these voting blocs in his corner. So he knows there has to be many months build up of resources before we could take the access on. Hes not saying we will go to war but the arsenal of democracy because arsenal is not a food pantry. It is weapons if you are supplying weapons to one side you are taking sides. Hitler is very mindful of what is going on and he tries not to provoke us for the longest time he gives orders do not fire on american ships. But planned dog is followed we prioritize the war in europe. That the arsenal of democracy is a crucial step in that process. What about fdr before quick. I dont think so. Great questions. One detail when he was doing the arsenal he was in the white house over 500 radio stations but he had his political inner circle and his mother. [laughter] maybe thats the connection to Ronald Reagans remake he had a great imitation. Obviously the missing link. Obviously you thought about this a lot so what other documents did you consider to quite make the cut if you are trying to pick something since what would you have picked quick. I address this in the epilogue and my model is a wonderful book about the constitution called the grand convention for guys still say if you read one book about the constitution thats the one. It is terrific. You know how to hurt a guy. [laughter] i am teasing to make you have written many books. But that book is outstanding. , there has been quick said they had not come to philadelphia would we have found another set he comes up with the same number from each state with washington and franklin that are unique and similarly with the documents and then Frederick Douglass was a fourth of july meant to the slave. And that is a characteristic of a free society these philosophies to be rest assured its not self perpetuating our fate is in her hands that something that has to be done and keep being done and this will only be obvious to us in the future could you pick something since reagan quick. I could but im not going to say i dont want to turn anybody off the story im also not writing a book of policy prescriptions. This isnt to hold your hand and whats most important with american exceptionalism. Since roosevelts triumph had begun to emulate in certain ways so are we less exceptional today because we have liberty and democracy and in particular how canada and holland differ at times and the closest for canadian politics. And to be a canadian thats why he was aware of it. And then to say he ran it because he was a canadian. Like the canadians. But they are different. There is no First Amendment for one. It doesnt happen a lot because canadians are nice. There are protections that we have. With this canadian constitution very interesting. And with the statue of Queen Victoria that we have permission from our parents to declare independence. Because of our hero lincoln and britain begins to give up the new world ambitions. So they owe their independence to us. And then those that defend the American Revolution or in vietnam and eve and their independence is more of a product. Certainly there is unity. But his job is the Canadian Pacific railway in response to the american civil war. The american civil war. Im going to have to take, there was a great question about religious liberty in particular public it just cant resist this because they paid me so much because it pains me so much to not get to ask you about the gettysburg address that one of you did. So what is their new to say about the gettysburg address . [laughing] and go for it. One thing, its not entirely new. I think iha was inspired by wonderful book called forge of empires by michael max baron, an old friend of mine. But a littleknown aspect of it is that this wasnt just about americans and for americans. Whole world was watching us and lincoln is mindful of this and is reflected here and there, shallle not perish from the ear. This is the biggest republican world and if it falls apart and fails, thats going to send a lesson to the world. Its going to send a lessened england which has begun parliamentary reform but working men still do not have the right to vote. It will be an argument on the site of lets not give it to them because look at what happened in america. It will be a lesson to france which is had a napoleonic restoration and which has also said that prints onbu the throne of mexico. The fate of republican experiment is being watched not just by us. All the reforms of the 1840s that have failed and if we have a regime in which people lose elections are allowed to overturn that by force of arms, world willl have lost the last best hope on earth. Yes, i think that is interesting. Whether thats new or not i think its a good note for us, for us to end on. Okay. Thank you. O [applause] coming up on cspan2 clyde ford author of think black because the challenges his father faced as the first africanamerican Software Engineer at ibm. You are watching special edition of booktv now airing during the week by members of congress are in their districts due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tonight the supreme court. Enjoy booktv now and over the weekend on cspan2. Television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago but our Mission Continues to provide an unfilled review of the government. Already this year we brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process, and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programs on television, online or listen on our free radio app in the part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feed. Cspan, greeted by private industry, americas Cable Television company, as a public service, and brought to you today by your television provider. Good evening. My name is leslie kavasch and a to introduce our guest clyde ford. Clyde is the former Systems Engineer with ibm. He graduated from university of Western State here in portland as a doctor of chiropractic and hes a trained psychotherapist. He is also the awardwinning author of 12 works of fiction and nonfiction. He is the recipient of the award in African American literature as well as numerous other awards for his books. Hes been a guest on the oprah show on