I wake up why wake up the other reporters and photographers. So what do you think i did . I had my 45 minutes with the president and nobody woke up the whole time. Bill clinton told the actual curiosity and saw his interest in policy and people in his engagement with people. He talked about the leaders he met on the trip and he talks about snorkeling the Great Barrier reef. The president is going to talk to the media on air force one. Clinton did at the father bush did. Theres a lot of difficulty in the relationship they have in the media. But you can see the president with their guard down and again i have a lot of stories in the book but for now i think that its a good one you can learn about president s on the plane. Anyone else . My next book topic i actually have a contract for a book for white house photographers is the ultimate insiders. These are the photographers of the white house pays to take pictures of the president and they are in the events that the beatles hits to go to. Sometimes they are alone with the president and if they do their jobs as well the president forgets that they are there and they have wonderful stories about what theyve learned about president s and the historical moment and so on and that book will lend itself to a lot of using a photography. So, its not news photographers but staff photographers comes about will come out in about two years. Anyway did you have something . I was hoping you could enlighten me a little bit about why theres usually something of substance that the leaders have to say why does the media take up so much from the lack of substance of some of the most outrageous things isnt just sensationalism [inaudible] i think you heard the question why does the media focus on the superficial or the inflammatory things rather than the substantial things and i think part of it is like anybody else, reporters being human beings sometimes the superficial stuff is more interesting. Sometimes it is not calculated and the feeling is maybe the superficial stuff will get more views or ratings or whatever, which in many cases is true. So why would journalists a lot of time its how gray obamas hair is getting instead of dealing with vladimir putin. One thing is more accessible and one thing is easier to cover frankly. You just sort of come up with a story and give your own opinion about it, which is a problem on its own but its basically a lot of it is driven by a what interests people and the dichotomy between the entertaining people and as a journalist educating them and also the entertainment part went out and i think that is what happens. Anyone else . Weve run out of time. We have some books to sell you in the corner. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible] president of the institute on religion and democracy talks about his book the piece that almost was to get it from this years fall for the book festival in fairfax virginia. Our guest tonight is the historian president of the institute on religion and democracy in washington, d. C. His writing has appeared in the wall street journal, the washington post, National Review online, the washington examiner, Chicago Tribune and christianity today. He also writes regularly for the American Spectator and Weekly Standard and outside of northern virginia. His new book the piece that almost was forgotten story of the 1861 washington peace conference and final attempt to avert a civil war was published in july of this year. The book brings the readers to the final day when the most important thing came together to try to prevent a disaster and failed. Please join me in welcoming mark. [applause] its great to be here with you all and have cspan in the room, so if you want to do an appearance and get their attention for something outrageous ask provocative commercial question and they will will enjoy that. My book as mentioned is about a relatively forgotten part of the history of the civil war and a typical book about the war to get a few give a few paragraphs but usually even the most wellinformed history buffs and civil war buffs dont know very much if anything about the washington peace conference of 1861. I met my publisher about a year and a half ago. I gave him about a dozen and i mentioned the washington peace conference. It is a plaque by the front door mentioning thats where they met there seems to be mysterious and often overlooked and my interest was further piqued by the debates iindia miss you this summer about what were the underlining causes. Their conversations will indicate what was the cause thats the topic he wanted me to write about and i noted there had been no book on the topic. It seemed timely although i was not able to finish the book in time before the end. The story takes place in february of 1861. Its a very intense time and statement to say Abraham Lincoln had been elected in november which led to the secession of the deep south state from the union after the election and in february during the peace conference in texas the other Southern States like virginia have been called the successor convention on this issue of whether or not to withdraw from the union and so union and so the whole country is now facing the question do we as a nation even have a future and if we do to solve as a country, will there be a turtle civil war and nobody had any particular remedy to avoid either unsavory possibility. Until the president stepped forward in late january and john tyler had been retired for 16 years on his wonderful plantation called Sherwood Forest which still exists today and still advertises itself as the longest in north america and you can visit it, a great place to take a look at. And he wrote an editorial for the richmond newspaper suggesting that in pursuit of preserving the union that would be the last attempt at the convention of at least the upper south and the north to look out of some kind of a possible concorde that might bring the country back together. The legislature in virginia quickly latched onto that idea endorsed by the governor and so essentially virginia at least as the most important Southern State invited sort of ignoring the suggestion that would be limited just to the border states. Virginia invited all of the states in the union to come together to work out a possible compromise over avoiding the catastrophe to come. Of course the six States Associated that were not good to come and neither was texas and arkansas never really organizer decided. But the 21 states did come, california and oregon were too close together to get there in time. But after much debate almost all of the northern northern states came although they were concerned that this was a idea coming from virginia and it was some sort of a Southern Coast slavery or democratic plot to effectively overturn the results of the 1860 election in which the party came to power for the first time. The exceptions are the upper midwest, which were very republican wisconsin and minnesota and michigan declined for that reason. But even for republican in england decided by and large even if there was a plot to overturn the election we wanted to be there to try to stop it, this will send delegates as did the upper south and the states met at even by then the hotel is centrally located in Downtown Washington on pennsylvania avenue. And of course still there today although in a different building. And 131 delegates start arriving on this monday late morning in early february, 1861. Its cold, theres been a dusting of snow in washington and i speculate that washington could not handle snow very well just as it does now but that somehow many of the delegates wandered in and if you could picture that scene at the hotel is packed full of Office Seekers into stylish seekers in the lobby and lots of cigar smoke and multiple orders for the sort of official drink of the hotel. The delegates themselves back in the main part of the hotel on 14 and facing pennsylvania avenue. But in the back on the entrance to the garage but at that point there had been an Old Presbyterian Church that looked like a greek temple and just a year before the willard brothers had bought the Presbyterian Church and turned it into the concert hall and conference space for the hotel. It was outfitted for the delegates and George Washington was placed upfront and Washington Police were stationed outside to prevent the intruders from interrupting and so off they were to Police Monday morning. Trying to recall to use the major characters that were there as a delegate is a little bit difficult because they were big people in their day is date almost entirely had been forgotten in their legacy and memory that overshadowed what was to happen over the next four years but it was the former governors, former senators, former congressman, former judges and it was to delete of the leadership in america. But i will share a few of them to make connections so they are a little recognizable to you. But of course theres president john tyler himself, hes 71yearsold. Hed been the first president to take office upon the death of his predecessor and sometimes he even sarcastically called the accident scene. And he had been elected from the whig party which he effectively disavowed as he became president he had any democrat who would run as a Vice President on the wake of the party but then ended up betraying the party so he was without it he titled himself as a person with independent sort of like robin hood and schemas in Sherwood Forest on the james river and ultimately by the standards of the day still pretty robust and energized. The leading republican at the Washington Peace Convention is someone who should be recognizable to most of the civil war buffs and that is good in ohio, they had been governor of ohio, was an antisleeting slavery by msn and by ohio and he had been a candidate for president at the Republican Convention against Abraham Lincoln. And he would appoint him to be the treasury secretary and of course he played a leading role throughout most of the war and early on in the conference, the republican delegates decide they need to have their own caucus in the after hours at the hotel and so sam chase would host or convened the Republican Caucus gatherings late in the evening. Nelson was there as a characteristic of the old statesman who predominate the newspapers very early on begin labeling this gettogether is the old gentleman of the convention said disproportionately made up of literally old statesman who had been in power and in having a leadership generation who had succeeded the founding generation and have run the country essentially for the past 30 to 40 years and one of those old gentleman was a former u. S. Attorney general from ohio who made sure none of you have heard of except for his soninlaw who at west point graduate very soon to become famous as a general and then was William Sherman and thomas was there from the old virtually dissolved party. There is a character from virginia who was pronounced as being the most forceful orator of the conference named james a a. Former virginia congressman and a bigtime slaveowner and usually virginia is very refined how they address the issue is because he actually has a large land holding in louisiana and only issue very fiery but very dark fire ei is almost like a missionary. Theres another figure. The senator from new jersey who might well. And a stocked in interconnected john tyler during his presidency his wife had died and turning his widowhood, he was on board a u. S. War vessel for the pleasure excursion and a official washington overjoyed washington had been invited on a weekend afternoon and it is a new there was a new technologically advanced artillery piece on the ship by the uss princeton. The artillery piece was called peacemaker and he was fired off several times as he delights to the crowd and before the ship returned to members of the crowds plead crowd plead for one more fighting at the peacemaker and to which it backfires the shrapnel exploded across the surface of the ship and several prominent washingtonians are killed, including the new york congressman whose a twentysomething year old daughter and gets word that her father had been killed supposedly feinted into the arms and who then carried her off the ship and married her some months later. He had a half dozen children and a half dozen more with his second wife was 30 years older and in fact he brings her to the peace conference and they Stay Together and not at the willard browns hotel back where the Canadian Embassy is now on pennsylvania avenue and she brings with her that her youngest child was still a baby, shes got 40 and he is of course almost 71. Another major figure of the peace conference is a man Roger Sherman baldwin who is a former senator from connecticut and his father was very famous. Roger sherman was the president at the Constitutional Convention that drafted the declaration of independence and he was president of the Constitutional Convention and one of the major figures in american founding. Baldwin himself is a was famous in his time as an expert lawyer and in fact is recruited along with the former president John Quincy Adams to represent the escaped slaves if you remember that about 20 years before the spanish slave ship that rebelled against the crew and the dictatorship. I went to the spin court and thanks to Roger Sherman baldwin and John Quincy Adams they were free persons. He sold a movie on a sob, Roger Sherman is played by matthew mcconaghy, just picture that when i mention his name. The younger men tended to be republicans. He is important because the convention we want to run a little bit to speak candidly this was a hugely important advance on the Constitutional Convention that he compared himself to james madison. Individual maker of this event so to his credit. But john tyler who was presiding and who was always very concerned about propriety had no control or authority over what the members demand a say. Finally mentioned another figure from virginia. This very august forgotten figure who was a big deal at his day senator william reed who was a wealthy member of afterwards charlottesville also suffering financially a little bit and just a year before have sold over 100 of his slaves as another virginia delegate and the reason that the senator and diplomat to france during one of its revolutions in the 1830s and an idea of the kind of company that he ran and learned that his daughter once boasted his parents are very particular to be the god of children of their parents and for example her one brothers called father was robert e. Lee and the other brothers called father was lafayette and the queen of france. A very lofty assembly. Well, my book doesnt just focus on the proceedings of the Police Conference but it also talks a lot about whats going on outside of the holes of the word hotel and how they affect whats going on inside and some of the major characters i talk about of course are the president of the United States himself coaching is buchanan whose leaving the office shortly at the month of march and desperate at the peace conference succeed and of course dissolving the union he begins facing the states that have no right to secede but also proclaims that he has no right to stop them so hes kind of in a bond and his last chance to succeed and he is come join them behind the scenes to meet sure that happens. The first lady at the white house is his niece and she is hosting social events at which the delegates are coming at the white house and shes distinguished and important and matching short of should have held washington together when they were together politically. General Winfield Scott the American History buff recognized as one of the great figures at that age and having been a general from 1812, so over 45 years. If theyve been down to the floor and feathers would sweep the floor. They were still there crossing the white house and they were very concerned about securing and general scott who was an elderly man but he pulls himself up to his full height to greet the young delegate from vermont and he pronounces that although from virginia he would rather that the hills in virginia or newer than the blood of her sons and they should be dissolved and they tend to speak and dramatic tones but he was committed to keep maintaining security during the peace conference and during lincolns arrival and his inauguration and beyond. There is other characters played about as i mentioned in the book. Stephen douglas, the farmer is still sitting senator from illinois who then defeated who has a house with his wife over the new square and hes with the delegates the delegates and William Seward the senator from new york. Lincoln had soon become the secretary of state and he has imaginations going on. Defeated by the election he will be presiding over what is presumably pro forma into the constitution because now a major events whether it will even take place and that the ratification of Abraham Lincolns Electoral College vote in the joint session of congress. And breckenridge himself defeated but presiding over the ratification of lincolns election and many whether or not he would carry through on that duty as he was called to do. And keep in mind that for a very short time comes he committee would soon become a general in the Confederate Army and in just three years. The congressman from massachusetts and was encouraging massachusetts. Again if you are a civil war buff, general at gettysburg. But you can still do today not sure for the hospital is. He was scandalous for many reasons. They had the forethought to hire a lawyer Edwin Stanton who would actually be the u. S. Attorney general at the peace conference and later the war secretary for president lincoln and he got an equal edit for temporary insanity and that was the first time temporary insanity was successfully employed. They remain in the public eye. They have to adjourn and have a Memorial Service and they shipped his body back to ohio and amazingly he does die during the peace conference. But after that, essentially they appoint a committee of the delegates to the purpose of having states. But hopefully they will save the union and the war. So while they are waiting for the committee to meet and both countries are speculating about whats going on behind these closed doors. And there are multiples going on with him and of course with the country i will mention just a few as i described them in the book that the white house themselves, Dave Buchanan compromise which basically means compromising with the south that went back as loyalty, and they invite all of the delegates over to the first week to be received and the re seated in the reception line and according to one of the delegates, from the north and a little bit sarcastic, buchanan is weeping and literally is hugging the delegates that come to the reception line and they are pleading with him to come to some come to some sort of a concorde to try to manipulate the events in favor of the southern democrats. Is also the drama involving fort sumter and they put it under siege and so it should be resupplied and rearmed and in fact john tyler is now in town and leaving with president buchanan in virginia and not to be resupplied otherwise he would provoke virginia and other states themselves from succeeding and so buchanan is trying to balance the pressure. Another drama going on the first day the peace conference convened the new confederate government convened at the governor on alabama and the statehouse and in fact the other two confederate flags which the battle flag i believe which is less recognizable is pulled up a little bit of the statehouse by none other than the teenage granddaughter of john tyler back in washington so little bit of division in his family. Theres Abraham Lincoln who joined the peace conference of course and will lead to believe springfield illinois in the Farewell Speech and where he tells his lifelong friends he knows when or whether he will ever return to be among them and then goes on a long journey to a number of the northern cities of try to avoid sending anything that potentially controversial and in a sense to avoid any major comments about the washington peace conference that has been formed by the republicans that were at the peace conference. I mentioned the Electoral College vote again typically a non event that takes place the second week of the peace conference in all of the delegates are given a free pass if they come to the house of Representatives Chamber to watch whether or not that those will actually take place come and washington has rumors that the political strategies described the ratification of the election maybe even physical violence. So, general Winfield Scott doesnt have an Effective Police force or civilian force that would come to the army and general scott has pulled in all of the army units that he can which are minimal into the city and that hes promised a delegate i mentioned before to visit with him in his office that gave him his personal assurance is assurances in the Electoral College but will take place in fact we even told him that hes personally spoken of by president breckenridge and he promised that the law would be upheld and general scott said breckenridge was a man of honor so he had no doubt. Well, the crowd assembled in the house of Representatives Chamber including the peace delegates and the capitalists surrounded by the troops. Anybody could walk into the capital but we have to have a path to get in and all kinds of stories about armed men supposedly prepared to intervene on either side during the vote and the senate and breckenridge setting up for the day received the official tally for the various states and lincoln was elected into virginia congressman attempt to protest. Hes got pulled out of order by breckenridge and all the members of congress. The one delegate was president describes a president describes a little bit of a riot with the military dictator and they were not going to abide by the course of control for the city etc. Etc. And particularly the delegates claims he couldnt even make his way up pennsylvania avenue to make the way back up to get there and there was commotion for the rest of the night as he recalls. There is also plans for the inauguration going on which i will share a little bit more a little bit later. But theres another event going on during the peace conference that began and wouldnt have typically been noteworthy. Everything was fraught with meaning and that that his George Washingtons birthday which takes place the second or third week of february and so this general congressman whom i mentioned to you is a very prounion democrat. With a big military display in pennsylvania avenue. So the army and navy and marines the newspapers advertise this event and the night before, president john tyler has a suite at the browns hotel to find out about this big military demonstration in the realizes and sees it for what it is as an intimidation at the south and in particular the southern delicate peace conference, so he sends an urgent note to president buchanan at the white house that it must be canceled otherwise it will disrupt the peace conference and buchanan being in very many ways even a nervous person to imply that thread and at night or Early Morning tries to cancel the parade even after the crowds are settling so the army and the union all head back to their barracks. President buchanan is very nervous and intimidated and you said yes i agree with you this is embarrassing the parade is back on. And so they have to bring the army navy units back to pennsylvania avenue and they were already back at the barrett in the southeast dc. So in effect there was a second parade today in washington in front of the Willard Hotel, down 17 and in the past the southport of the white house where president bush can in and others including probably very exasperated general scott of course the newspapers around the country understandably bought all of this confusion over George Washingtons birthday parade. Also in the midst of all of this going on, there was a social riot happening for the delegates and as i mentioned, Stephen Douglas and his wife put out one of the biggest parties during the peace conference and in fact it was the same night that president buchanan and here you claims reflection of the presidency, so the crowds were at the white house early in the evening and again they are headed over towards the judiciary squares of the Stephen Douglas house and a supposedly there were 400 people at this party. It must have been a very huge house and Stephen Douglas is on the same block with president breckenridge and at the same house that jefferson and davis had lived in me for the left washington a few weeks before after he resigned from the senate and was soon to become president of the confederacy. And so the delegates and other partiers are logged into the Douglas House and john tyler and his wife julia are there at the center of attention and she is writing letters back in new york describing these events and how all the country and all of washington to save the nation and she had been very stylish and prominent although very young even during her own white house reception had raised a platform in the east room sort of like royalty even the first lady that her photograph taken as first lady which was wellpublicized and was known for her clothing and in fact just writing a letter back to her mother in the peace conference saying mail me some dresses from new york so she can participate in washington and shes telling her mother but people are telling her about this party and she hasnt aged at all since she was the first lady which turns out to have been true evidently because later shes in richmond and comments back that julia tyler doesnt look a day over 20 comes evidently she didnt age and above photograph of her is in the book and she seems to be looking almost same even then in 1861. But all this excitement of the Stephen Douglas purdy there is a letter from henry adams that was also there. They take upon them all of these hopes in the nation which are bound to be disappointed, but he imagined the peace conference and its sort of pessimistic outlook on what was happening. We have got the older generation of the northerners who are basically in agreement with president buchanan declaring that they are personally against slavery but what with the south does is none of their concern and is a busybody to comment on the south policy towards slavery and there was a the delegate from new jersey to stockton making the comment that even though new jersey had voted for lincoln in 1861, they had the key is one of the few catholic delegate at the peace conference, he among with thomas ewing and general the fatherinlaw from ohio and he describes the election from the Republican Party as being derived of the puritans with england in the 16 hundreds as a theocratic movement and a zealous religious movement trying to impose the theology on the whole country and they ultimately reject them and even today we look back at the the civil war obviously has been north and south and at that particular time in history it wasnt necessarily that obvious that john tyler had already said if the peace conference failed they thought the new union could emerge from the ashes that was faithful to the constitution and that was that it would include virginia and maybe new york. So they insisted that new york city is with the south, so it wasnt us as early as originally divided or as clear as we imagined today. We will finally the Committee Comes back to the recommendations. They had coded it into the constitution in perpetuity. So, more enforcement on the fugitive slave laws requiring if they are not successfully returned by the northern states they would financially reimburse the cost of the eastgate slaves. But the most important part is the legislative package would allow slavery to spread to the southwest part of what is now the United States and was of course the territories, and it has been a platform at the Republican Party at which lincoln had been elected and was in complete opposition to the spread of slavery to the territory. They didnt have questions for the legal existence which already existed, but ill opposition had spread. How would the delegates and others handle this proposal to open up the west to spread slavery. Later in the night there were plots against him and they arrived at the Willard Hotel. They sent word to the delegates later in the day they would like to receive the parlor upstairs, and interestingly before that this is from lincoln himself is received by the delegates and its interesting which may or may not have happened but if you recall by one of the delegates it is too big not to believe that its true but its fiery james from virginia, his slave is within a peace conference and is the only slave mentioned and it is interesting and ironic given the slave comes in that saturday and has given to master this note saying that the northern delegate was looking over his shoulder to see what it says and says it says that lincoln is in the hotel and he says nothing and he passes it to another southern southern delegates to decide who had exclaimed that lincoln got to baltimore, so the application was that they had some inside knowledge against lincoln and baltimore as a place of great violence so i dont did you have to have any kind of inside knowledge. When lincoln invites the delegates there is some opposition to should come to him but the great propriety of course will go to visit the new president and a process up at 9 00 at night so it is a long day and to one account, they go in and they organize to buy to like the animals on the arc. According to another account is like an organized crowd of people wandering through the hallways to see lincoln and lincoln is described as receiving each delegates won by one being introduced by chase and his remarkable memory come as a lot of them they served with back in the 1840s and he remembers a lot about them. Those he never met before he has a lot about them when he hears their name. Lincoln says you are much smaller in stature than i had pictured you with no doubt three great and intellect. He responds not so great as your intellect, mr. Lincoln. He met people and at least then he would have been lined up backtoback and head to head so they could compare using a foot taller and the other man could make a joke about it, so if you had a sense of humor you might enjoy that as people were put off by that. But lincoln goes to the pleasantries and they get into it and lincoln is challenged not by the southern delegates and they push into the fort sumter issue into the expansion of slavery and if you dont like our ideas what is your idea and that is for the constitution it offers us to surpass forward. And apparently his critics eventually backed off as it is described by one delegate and they are a little bit intimidated and frustrated and a little bit and pressed that he is a more formidable figure than he had expected. He had a letter to his son saying that lincoln had been very gracious and clearly met meant well but doesnt appreciate the seriousness of the moment which more than anybody else they appreciated how serious that was that that wasnt how they dealt with people in the stories and jokes but the senator is described by some deals as saying at the time lincoln wasnt perhaps as joyous as Andrew Jackson that he was a strong individual who would set his own policy and people would have to deal with. So the expectations exceeded those expectations. The delegates vote on these proposals on monday in between meeting with lincoln at that morning at the Willard Hotel by William Seward who escorts them in Lafayette Square and st. Johns at his kabul church. I spent all chapter in my book talking about the clergy who participated in the conference for the opening prayers and the influence of washingtons searches and what was going on at the time for a great influenza and they were the prominent men of what sinn fein in that era. Seward and lincoln went to st. Johns Episcopal Church. Nobody noticed them. They sat in the third attack you because he isnt recognized to them as a cleanshaven man and how he has whiskers. But he introduces him to the priest as they go out and other people Start Talking about lincoln and one woman is quoted in the washington star the next morning the evening star and lincoln was a much more attractive than it had been led to believe that he asked lincoln over to his house at Lafayette Square for lunch and he would be nearly slashed to death for years later during the night of lincolns assassination. And as further evidence of how everything linked together, the reverend of the st. Johns Episcopal Church was actually a witness at the congressmans murder trial several years before because of course the killing had taken place outside of the church at Lafayette Square as i recall, he had testified that he had run into him shortly before the killing and he had in fact seemed quite the range to that would help the defense. I will further point out the man he killed was the son of Francis Scott key, the author of the starspangled banner. And he was prosecuting District Attorney but also was the nephew of chief justice of the United States roger tawny who would alter the dred scott decision which set up said that a whole chain of events that led to the washington peace conference, so again everything seemed to tie together. I will not tell you much more about the washington peace conference. I will gladly accept some of your questions. But my publisher when he commissioned the talks said what a wonderful topic. So much polarization in the country and washington may be the story can give us examples of how people can talk to each other and their compromise. In fact as you get into the story it is hardly an example in that it doesnt end very well. And as you know if you does in fact take place. Sort of the question is did the peace conference have any purpose at all but typically it is just dismissed as a failure, and i think that in fairness it did serve an important purpose of the famous senator at the time from kentucky, the wellknown advocate of the compromise that had commented at the conference and no it did serve a purpose. The whole country was a defeated state and pulled things down just a little bit. It slowed down the secession process that kept virginia just for the weeks and a couple more months and allowed the Union Opinion to coalesce more to the north and help to spread the border states from succeeding, and it helped to provide time and space for lincoln got it a ratified for his inauguration actually did take place peacefully and thanks to the security measures of general Winfield Scott. On that note i will share a few words about what happened to tyler after the war so they are the sort of sort of the essential figures of my story. John tyler within 72 years after the adjournment of the peace conference, which is his idea, as he was the brains behind the whole initiative, went back to the virginia secession gathering and tyler with james sutton appeared in front of his hotel speaking to the crowd and denounced the failure that the northern abolitionists were in control in the state of resistance that a reasonable conversation compromise that there was absolutely no alternative in virginias secession. And the peace conference gets to congress and the house of representatives are not even given a vote. They say i stand with john tyler on this issue and everybody laughs because they renounce the peace conference. John tyler goes on to be elected in the confederate office all that he never takes office because a few days before his wife, julia come had a terrible dream back on the plantation that he died or is about to die so she registered rushes to richmond and he laughs and says i feel fine. He was taking these horrible medicines with mercury so im sure that it was killing him more than it was helping him. Everybody was taking horrible medicines. A few days after arrival he does die at the hotel and she is left a widow and goes back to the plantation and her mother wanted her to come to new york before the war began. And john tyler a short his brotherinlaw if you can see how virginia is committed is safer than Staten Island is for you. Well of course the plantation is overrun by the union troops and her mother gets the pass for the union lines for general john wolf and then she comes back to the plantation and the sleeves are leaving slaves are leaving and shes writing letters to the commanders. She wants her tresses back she wants her slaves back and you can print the date code imagined response to that. She goes back to new york and goes to the blockade runner and runs the dot width to the federal naval blockade of two bermuda and arranges to take some bagels with her which she sells for a small fortune. She spends most of the rest of the war in new york city with her mother and her very proud Union Brother which creates a great tension in the house and at the end link in was assassinated and there were rumors that there was a flag displayed as a people broke into her house but i dont think they found a flag. She was resilient and left washington, d. C. And the story that illustrates this which i just deleted to find in my research are in the peace conference she wrote her mother of course i have to get back to the plantation to be with the children. Four or five days later i found a paper article that she had been spotted in singly and in the night at browns hotel and no mention of her husband, but she comes back to washington and reestablishes herself as a former first lady. She befriends other first ladies and mrs. Hayes come her portrait is put in the white house and she gives a portrait and sends her daughter to the school at georgetown which impresses her and she converts to roman catholicism by the bishop of baltimore and she later before she dies and goes to richmond she dies there. So what happens to her and her husband is a vast transformation of the country went that the country went through before and after the peace conference and they are on their plantation but the scores of slaves and with the coachman and they had a river barge which is the bow and arrow painted on it and the owners of a special blue uniform so they lived like cleopatra going up and down the james river like cleopatra went up and down the nile quite legal in the world was over the washington peace conference. And im curious. Just leave washington,. I mentioned it is for example. Kentucky, they were there. What were some of the things oversight . Encourage the constitution in perpetuity. All these other proposals could not be revoked except by unanimous consent by the states so literally it would be impossible to change. Potentially could have resisted for a decade more and that gotten through. But the deep south is no longer interested in even that kind of compromise. Spoke during the convention, left the deus, president ial appointments to the territorial governments to have to have approval in the senate by the majority of the slave states in the knots they states. Divided into two different houses to ensure they would not be appointed territorial governor. You mentioned that john tyler had married a very young woman. Some years back i was talking to an author command he told me that the grandson, youngest grandson john tyler was still alive. Have you heard anything like that . My great hope would be that i would have an excuse to go see the grandson so owns Sherwood Forest. Still alive. He had a son had children in his 70s, two grandchildren in tennessee. Parttime in richmond. Shirley i could get a meeting with him. Seen him on cspan. Earlier this year the Associated Press found out he was to live in interviewed him and mentioned that people dismissed his grandfather. His health is declining and he was not available to be met. However, every time i called the local publicpublic library for information or answer the phone would say oh, yes. I just saw him at the restaurant last week. Evidentlyweek. Evidently i need to get to that restaurant and try to meet him. I have not succeeded at that yet. [inaudible question] that sounds correct. Yes . To any of the proposals get approved . Well, this whole package that came out of the washington piece conference was voted down overwhelmingly in the senate and did not come to a vote in the house. I think one of two state legislatures may have voted on them. Did they vote on it . Yes. I kind of skipped over that crucial part. I will leave you to read the book. A dramatic vote on tuesday, the last tuesday in february. Everyone assumed that the most contentious line was about allowing slavery and the territories. Ita voted not by individuals but by states command it failed by one vote. Everyone literally gasped what happened