Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. The author recounts the president s thoughts on the war and their criticisms of their successor Abraham Lincoln. This is a little over an hour. [applause] thanks to all of you for being here tonight. This is the tim time further reg on the president were six american president s into the civil war that divided them. If you are here for water harvesting the desert you need to come back on tuesday. First thanks to changing hands this is the third event weve done together over the last three years. By official book launch for both of my books were both here. Thanks to cspan book tv i think its amazing that you can turn on the tv on the weekend and watch tv with authors talking about books. Thats fantastic. If they manage to get through without saying anything say anything inappropriate they will broadcast me which is exciting. This is my third book the president s were six american president s and the civil war that divided the. As a history lover and a junkie which is what i was before i became an author this is the ultimate story that has never been told. We have a Record Number during the civil war. Martin van buren, john tyler, James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore of the Franklin Pierce a Record Number to witness Americas National tragedy and to harass the aid and oppose and advise Abraham Lincoln. He mentioned something about Martin Van Buren got somebody that ordinarily associate with the civil war and he said yeah he was still alive. And then he had the idea for the next book. It was hard to figure out where to start and so i honed in on what i was given early on in the administration. You veto or with the law but it disagreed. In this case we talk about the terrace of the tax but are a prt of the good that come into the country. It relied on the terrace and free trade in order to be successful so South Carolina was threatening to nullify the terrace into some. They elected Andrew Jackson did so much to celebrate the country was prosperous but it was dividing them between protocol the organizers of the event would give their toast and then following the organizers people would give in order of their station. The organizers of the events gave toasts cheering the nullification and the idea that the states could ignore federal law. Finally it came to Andrew Jackson and so as a southerner from tennessee has a strong supporter of the states right to know wha what fires expected hio give up and give a favorable post. The union must be preserved. John calhoun of South Carolina and the doctrine of the nullification he gave the next post and he said that the union was jeered to the hearts of southerners but only next to their liberty the remarkable statements and the union next to the heart and liberty is less important. The secretary of state of the United States who got up and said lets remember this country was founded on compromise. Let us always remember that is compromise that has kept us together in the crisis in the past so that is the Perfect Place to start. These are the philosophies that come back and compete and wouldnt it be resolved in the conflict that claims 2 of the United States of americas population. The Jackson Administration came in with big hopes but it also had a defect. Jacksothe jackson brought some s with him to dc from tennessee and one of them he placed in the cabinet. A woman too closely following the death of her husband for the likes of John Calhouns wife. This woman and her husband worked through it in the various parties in the social functions of the national capital. Martin van buren at this point is a young widower since he had no one to limited dispute in one way or another so it is easy for him to support the president and the family. This ends up dividing them so badly that he ends up offering his resignation of the state in order to allow jackson to pick a new cabinet. They were a minister to england, very prominent post at the time, so Martin Van Buren goes over there to england an and finds ot that senator rejected the nomination and the two senators, henry clay and Daniel Webster had conspired to create a vote so that john calhoun as the Vice President could actually fix up and john calhoun was happy to do it to defeat them during the nomination. Now this didnt go precisely as they had planned. In the words of senator thomas who heard how good about the boat immediately after the fact that you have broken an ambassador. And that is exactly what happened. He dropped from the National Ticket, van buren is added to the National Ticket as the running mate and he becomes the presidency. So its not a great one. Stop me if youve heard this one before. The availability of credit had led to speculation which overheated Housing Market and caused the economic collapse. Fortunately we have learned from these mistakes. [laughter] so in the early hours of his presidency is plagued by the economic crisis and trying to figure out what to do and then he gets far too much credit and blame when the times are good and bad. They are defeated by a famous ticket. They didnt even bother to adopt the platform. They are going to win the race as long as they can stick together. As we have come to the party over states rights because Andrew Jackson had ultimately stared down to South Carolina and the nullification crisis and got them to capitulate with the threat of the use of force. Some of them have been angry over the policy regarding the National Bank and the veto to the bank charter. Before the reason they came together is the party William Harrison had the battle of tippecanoe and john tyler the senator virginia but sparred with jackson over the issue of his removal at the deposits of the bank. It was a brilliant campaign. As the 19th century book length of the barack obama campaign. All kind of new innovation. Now we saw Party Newspapers and letters and rallies and pulled raisings and events and barbecues so the pigs were quite excited they were able to defeat Martin Van Buren. John tyler how he finds out sort of embodies the role of the Vice President in this area playing marbles with his Young Children hes not even in dc. Hes in virginia. What do you need a Vice President for when the senate isnt in session. And they arrive at his house to tell him hes become the president of the United States. He was attracted to the labour party because its opposition to jackson over the National Bank. Tyler himself was actually an opponent of the bank that he objected to the way that they had withdrawn the banks deposited before the charter had expired. He saw it as a tranquil movie as he put it in his pocket in a different deposit location. And so, tyler disagrees with his party on quite a few important issue is one oissues one of thee constitutionality of the National Bank. So he isnt eager for a fight with his party. Its a fight with him but within the party is a gentleman by the name of henry clay who at this point in his life already accomplished more than most president s ever could we dream of. When william henr henry years as the oldest president elected he said for years and its my term. Well, harrison dies and tyler becomes the youngest president in history and now hes stuck waiting in line behind taylor who certainly wants to run aga again. Rather than find a sort of compromise tyler is forced to veto the bill establishing the National Bank and bennett expels from the wig part way the partye could see himself as probably the first president to do so but maybe not the last. You could hear people firing outside and chanting. So he finds himself as a man without a party. So he starts thinking about how he can get reelected is that he starts working for the democratic nomination for president and he even offers Martin Van Buren a front runner to get the job back a job on the Supreme Court. Then van buren of course very close to arriving back at his job at the presidency. So he sets his sights on texas and looks for an issue to capture the imagination of the american people. This independent republic of texas all of this land, the hungry Young Country for expansion, westward movement in the country so he sets his sights maniacally on acquiring texas and bringing texas into that union. Van buren is defeated in the nation. In the most important part 1844. One of the most important rules that affected so much of the history is something called the two thirds rule the Democratic Convention. Democrats in those states required two thirds of the delegates of the convention to approve a nominee and this gave them the toe power over the choice of the nominee. Van buren was reluctant to acquire. Mexico was still considered part of the territory and was also a new sleeve area that would be brought into the. The politics of the time dictated any time america was in the position to acquire more territory came the contentious issue of whether it would be free or a hybrid who would cause a major problem and threaten to drive the country apart and ultimately would lead to civil war. So van buren and clay was against it and he considered running forunning the thirdpary candidate could win the Democratic Party in 1844 nominated james k. Polk as president , a firm supporter of texas annexation feels that he withdrew from the race at the behest of Andrew Jackson to leave the field clear for one supporter who is pro texas and he narrowly defeated clay and he also opposes the annexation of texas so tyler spent his administration bringing texas into the union. Tyler whose wife had died while he was in office ended up marrying a 24yearold when he was 54. Not too bad, right click perco he ends up getting married into setting aside from his wife after the presidency so he buys a home in virginia which he nicknamed Sherwood Forest after the robin hood. Speaking of a group of people that thought they had a sense of humor, his neighbors thought they would play a joke on him and they would vote him in as the supervisor of roads. If you were president of the United States you dont want to be the roadmaster in virginia and you have to pay a fine if you dont accept the job. But he shocked them by accepting. He had one job and that was to requisition people. He could put them to work on the road whenever he needed to so he waited until the harvest was ready. Sso they show up at his house ad they say thank you for the work that youve done. We think its time for you to help us. He said no i have some responsibility to fulfill my duties and thats what i intend to do from now. So they got the last laugh. President pulled would have somebody to be the secretary of state to decide. Van buren had served as the jackson ambassador to russia in the congress of the United States as a legislator in pennsylvania and a soldier in the war of 1812. Together they would navigate the annexation of texas so ultimately it means the war with mexico and qc a large number of past, present and future president s working on different issues coming together in an interesting way so you have someone by the name of Abraham Lincoln elected in congress as an opponent of the mexicanamerican war and gave a speech questioning the motives for initiating the war in the nearly cost him his political career and his reelection but though he does not run for the second term it might have cost him his reelection. It certainly cost in the former district. You have Franklin Pierce is a former congressman and senator from New Hampshire who has been on the fast track as a member of the senate when he was younger than i was. His wife hated washington and politics and convinced him to give up two of his sacred things which were drinking and holding elected office. So they have an opportunity to get back in a big way and he becomes a general and actually serves until the conclusion of the war with the army general Winfield Scott he was defeated in a landslide for the presidency. He came into congress with Franklin Pierce who was back in buffalo and took some time off and is now serving a ten congress and opposed the mexicanamerican war. You have James Buchanan who is going to be set up pretty nicely to be the successor down the road so those are president s that were active in the war that were leading to the civil war itself. So he decides to serve one term in office and works hard in office and has the shortest postpresidency of anyone ever. He served a little less than three months before he died. The person elected in his place was general taylor was the popular general in the war. Abraham lincoln had been one of the first supporters. Now Zachary Taylor, what do we know about him . We didnt know his position on slavery. After the mexicanamerican war they have a vast New Territory in the west where we are standing right now in phoenix we have of this New Territory in a terrible fight over something called the proviso. It is an amendment that has been offered in the appropriations bill that seeks to prevent the expansion of slavery into territory. As a member of congress began actively supports this proviso. What was his position . We have no idea. He never voted in any election. Henry clay wanted the nomination. A lot of the purest legs wanted him to be nominated but we tried running on the principle long enough and now we need to find a way so he was one of the First Southern supporters. He goes out actively on behalf of Zachary Taylor so we need someone who is tried and true because taylor was a southern slaveholder and they lookeslaveo the former congressman from new york serving as the cultural cultural or. If taylor had actually been able to serve on his term they invited california to join as a free state and you had to give the south trade off from the slave states and he said you are free to come in the way you are and we are not going to support the expansion of slavery. He ended up supporting the proviso and so there was a convention to contemplate the issue. A number of compromised bills come to the floor and congress into was the finest hour. The territories would come in without addressing the issue isnt going to work in the desert anyway. They claim a spot of new mexicos land and threatened to invade new mexico and texas will also pay off some of their debt to satisfy texas. Most controversially in the economist packages it is a new slave law mechanism for returning slaves to their owners in the south. They are not very popular in the north and so the votes are coming through the single bill and taylor is threatening to veto. If i neede need to pass this legislation im going to do it. I believe the country needs this compromise in order to stay together. During the height of the crisis, henry clay is exhausted after getting so many speeches in the senate floor. Now that taylor is gonethey come up with a new mechanism for getting it passed. You have the element with the group of senators led by douglas and you have antislavery senators who would team up with the senators t senators to creaa majority for the bills so it is not a compromise but they hold together and pass the bills and send them individually to the president s desk doing that fillmore will find them. He will receive the criticism on a beach in contemporary criticism on but it prevents the civil war. They called it a final settlement. Its a bad idea to ever call something a final settlement. Youre asking for it to be undone in four years which is exactly what happened. So Millard Fillmore is nominated and they nominated Winfield Scott was destroyed in a landslide and they are incredibly divided over the issue divided north and south and so you start to see the coalescing of the parties along the regional wines which is of course a very dangerous thing that will cost of the civil war. So fillmore was replaced as the president by Franklin Pierce who served in congress for the first time in Franklin Pierce had gone back to New Hampshire, gone back to the practice of the mexicanamerican war consistent with his wishes and he was behind this seems to get the party nomination. Anyone that is a frontrunner for president in 1852 for the democrats it was James Buchanan and Stephen Douglas and of course they took so many shots at each other it was badly damaged the supporters were never going to come together. So they select Franklin Pierce who had been out of office and served as a general in the mexicanamerican war and when the messenger showed up to help pierce she actually think that the news. They are coming back to politics in the biggest way possible. In a way through his inauguration Franklin Pierce is involved in a train wreck. A literal train wreck not the kind that his presidency would later become. [laughter] he watches his son get killed, they fall on the rocks and everyone gets up so happy and then he realizes his son is gone in front of him. When abraha Abraham Lincoln wass son, Franklin Pierce despite the political differences would write a very heartfelt notes to Abraham Lincoln expressing his condolences. It wasnt credited during the territory so when the bill comes in introduced by Stephen Douglas to incorporate kansas as a territory he finds hes not going to be able to get it passed without the support of southerners into to get the southern support hes going to have to agree not to make it a free territory but to provide a vote. The senators come and approach this and pierce, someone that did the tests abolitionist dislike the issue despite being from the north. Hes a southerner in his heart and in his politics. He realizes what the compromise is going to mean. They do proceed and he leverages all of the power of the presidency. The idea to incorporate as a territory and to give kansas which was well above the missouri compromise a vote on whether to be free or slaves. He uses patronage and power of the political newspapers that he controlled. This could have been the end of the story but in kansas we see that the element immediately moves to try to throw a combination of fraud, intimidation and violence to steal the election in the territories that despite being outnumbered by antislavery Residence Committee and appointing all of the elections for the statewide offices and the governor has been appointed by th the president for presidee legislative offices and representatives in congress territory so they will be marginalized to set up a major crisis that would lead to the civil war. This destroyed the Democratic Party in the north. A series of former waves, a smaller third party committed to the preventing slavery expansion in the last and others even former democrats would join together to form the Republican Party. They determined at that point he probably wasnt going to fulfill his dream of being president. Abraham lincoln dreamed of being president his entire life and always thought he could do it. He failed to get a job and turned across the state line in a relatively unhappy home life and we are going through a midlife crisis and he wondered if the things people wonder if i make the right decision, did i pick the right job, did i marry the right person, he probably knew the answer to that Abraham Lincoln said that the idea that you would open up to slavery and describe the compromise so blinking was animated and back and active in politics when he was contemplating a career apart from the government. So this isnt going to work out for the democrats. They had lots of promise and the first president ever to give his inaugural address and zip seeking the presidency destroy destroyed. We start to see the parties segregating along the regional wines in the Democratic Party. In 1856 in the irony of ironies franklin wants to run for reelection and no one had accomplished this since Andrew Jackson. They tried to get the biggest competitor out of the country and that is James Buchanan. The first objective was to convince him to take the job and they do a delicate diplomatic and finally packing them off to england you have a great shot at getting the second term. Buchanan comes back from engla england. He is nominated by the Democratic Party for president and the Republican Party nominates john fremont as the first nominee for president who is a general. You see the paradigm shift after that. Theyve completely screwed things up and have the possibility of the slavery in kansas and things are getting violent. They are murdering each other over the slavery issue and they are shocking and horrifying the country has become to life so why did they win in 1856 . Its the last vote for the status quo. The Business Community was happy, they nominated the Northern Party who were committed to preventing the expansion of slavery might trigger civil war. It is bad for business. Many of course would become the countrys first millionaire is during the war but at the time of course they were very concerned about this crisis so buchanan wings and his presidency isnt going to be a happy one. He spends his life in that office it finally gets is probably the second oldest president ever to get in. He lobbied the Supreme Court to reach the decision in dred sco scott. We will take the controversial issue out of the democratic process and have the court find one of the most extreme sides which is the decision tha that d one way to permit slavery anywhere in the country. They are turning all of the slaves into slave states. It would give a great vigor to the party and their fortune that revolves around what happened in kansas and what happens with dred scott and that is illinois. That would be the most interesting place in the union. The famous u. S. Senator theyve known each other for a long time in illinois politics lincoln considered douglas success compared to his relative failure to be the quote unquote standing offense. They have a more important position in the politics and lincoln had served in the legislature and had done one term in congress say hes going to run to the senate and the next time they are chosen by the state legislatures but the thought was campaigned throughout the state people could be persuaded to vote for one legislator or another piece of the party. They talk about the great issues of the day the expansion of slavery into popular the country is covered with his friends and political allies have long kno known. There were a number of holdover senators that had been elected in 1856 so he wins a majority of the votes. The douglas returns to the senate and hes serious that his experiment in the popular sovereignty that the people decide has been hijacked by the proslavery forces the government which has hijacked the state of kansas have submitted a constitution in the city. This constitution contrary to the wishes of the majority of the residents of kansas. Buchanan is determined to force the constitutions down the throats of congress and douglas in one of his finest hours decides to oppose the president on this and buchanan in the white house reminds him of the Different Party dissidents. He named some of the people and for jackson had driven out of the party. General jackson is dead and throws out the gauntlet. Ultimately the constitution is far from a compromise that is in the slavery element around the country. The douglas is a success. Fullstop in the constitution and the house of representatives and it leads to a schism in the Democratic Party we are not sure what is going to get done so you have buchanan where there is no hope of running again in winni winning. We have to reconvene once people have cooled off a bit. Some people wanted to nominate Franklin Pierce. How sad is that when you want to bring Franklin Pierce picked up residency. Ultimately the people that walked out of the convention in the first Democratic Convention or by the pro douglas supporters. They reconvene in the southern walkout and the southern democrats nominate Johnson Breckenridge of kentucky the Vice President of the United States to carry their banner so they are looking around and saying who are we going to get behind. So the former House Speaker runs the only candidate in the Constitution Union party which is basically the former legs and people that said lets not talk about slavery that would be the easiest thing he just pretended that wasnt an issue. The republicans would have a surprise of their own in their convention. Abraham lincoln not thought to be a major factor but of course his debates with douglas and the publication in a nationally bestselling book make him a huge celebrity he will travel thousands of miles in the years leading up to 1862 bring himself in front of different audiences throughout the country and impressing many people in the process said he becomes the leading advocate of the hopes of people that oppose William Seward the former governor of new york, senator of new york that thought he was too antislavery to win. So blinking as the surprise nominee of the convention in the city of chicago. All of the former president s that were alive at the time including buchanan would oppose. Even though | whom he had campaigned in 1848 because they were concerned it was opposing the expansion of slavery that would trigger the civil war. The word that would destroy the institution itself. He said despite the differences president of the presidency as the person that sent him the way hostile to the union that threaten to drive the union apart so regardless of the party persuasion paper going to make confessions to be interesting to try to prevent a civil war. They saw the possibility of the civil war so he would get behind the constitution of the union party and buchanan would support John Breckenridge as what Franklin Pierce and john tyler. He wanted to be elected and actually authorized his friends to put his name forward in the convention if the opportunity arose. He ran the delegate and pledged to John Breckenridge. I dont know who had the job in virginia to talk about this task and potentially dangerous task of course lincoln received no votes in the south and very few in the border states. So Abraham Lincoln obviously the winner this was the first election of a branded new america where they know more. The expansion of slavery, no more capitulating to the interest every time they threatened to leave the union. Of course lincoln embodied in that policy like the tremendous pressure to compromise in the runup to the civil war with the multiple states considering secession the most popular compromise is named after the sponsoring kentucky and its a Pretty Simple measure that looks at the pacific go from places le arizona and new mexico. They thought i would buy them time. They said we give the southerners of this and they are going to come back for more. They will want to reopen which had been closed for half a century. They will want to acquire or territory to increase the number of the states that this is where we are standing. I ran on the issue of preventing the trickery. Its better now than any other time and so this secession crisis South Carolina leaving the union, James Buchanan who had assembled one of the most experienced cabinet in history y had a member that supported the idea. Just give up the country is finished. We dont need to have a civil war about this. So this lawyer that last held Political Office is going to say goodbye to springfield in february 1861 into telling his friends and family gathered to see him off i leave not knowing when or whether ever i may return at the task before me greater the amount that rested upon washington. Somebody that knew a lot about his predecessors in the office knowing that he had the biggest task ahead of him. So as we know, he becomes president of the United States and hes sworn in as president despite the fascination and they headed to the capital for him to be sworn in and where he tells of the inaugural address and i have the solid secret over to defend against. Throughout his presidency, link and of course will not enjoy the benefit of his successor has had. They knew they filed washingtons policies out of the politics you dont get involved you left your predecessor address the issues. The former president of course see the issue of the day as too important to stay on the sidelines. The president s were not even supposed to return to the city of washington in the postpresidency. Franklin pierce said what is there to do but drink. [laughter] when the shots were fired and of itself initiates against the United States miller at fillmore who supported the compromise encourages people to join the union armies which doesnt matter who started this. We need to get behind the president. Martin van buren says despite being in ill health they need to do the troops throughout the world for the development of a where then unfolding and he encouraged young men to join and enlist in the cause and even james p. Cannon who had watched the southern slave to beat code states Southern States succeed on his watch. Buchanan was the ultimate vindication with lincolns success and triumph thinking that we would vindicate his own course of action that we noticed with all be the case. James buchanan would write an important oped talking about those that had resigned to join the south. Franklin pierce southerner opposes the war and gives a speech on the balcony of the hotel in concorde saying if the south cant be convinced to stay on their own we cannot pursue them militarily. So he disagreed and he will give speeches denouncing lincoln on habeas corpus and the suspension of Civil Liberties and he will campaign throughout the war even those that are going to oppose lincoln. So he will remain a foreign enemy administration throughout the war. So they will give a speech on a very important day, july 41863 talking about how the war is futile and that policy needs to be discontinued. On july 4, robert e. Lee is retreating from the battlefield where the army has all kind of defensive capabilities heading back to virginia and we are in the city of vicksburg dividing east and west. After the conflict of the civil war where the union doesnt exactly shine there be a series of letters published because they are acting on false intelligence to the victory was shortlived. After his home in the fall of vicksburg he told them it couldd move peacefully without having a civil war on his hands and much to discredit of the president impact his best friend from college is the gentleman that we have heard of it when he dedicates his book it becomes controversy. Its compromise to setting up the dedication. Appears of course is a very unpopular figure. Millard fillmore who starts out as a strong supporter well end up opposing him after emancipation. No one was more willing to fight to construct as it had been. No one was willing to fight for the destruction of slavery. They were coming there in the fall of 1862 and formerly on january 11863 now broadened the effort from the reunification of the country to the destruction of slavery. You know that its focused on the effort to get it passed. They would turn him against him and john tyler has the most interesting course of the civil war. He would try to drive virginia out of the union and opposed by the poor president who uses his influence and persuasive ability to drive virginia out of the union. After the union defeat at the bull run. Of course eventually they would run the blockade and return to live as her mother reluctantly in the city of new york today after lincolns assassination from a crowd of people would show up at the residence an rese demand of the Confederate Flag that hangs over the mantle. It was ten years before the war by the sister so it wasnt only mistaken tha but attempts to tae the flag away from her. The other president s would face some challenges after the assassination for their opposition during the war. It was vandalized because it didnt display warning sign forr the president and there was the reason behind it. He was on vacation. Franklin pierce displayed no signs of mourning. He gives a speech and talks about how his sorrow matched pairs despite their political disagreement with lincoln that he joined them on sympathizing with the murder of the president on the eve of his triumph in the civil war as he appeared to be able to reunite the country to reconstruct the country to bring a ticket oit together may be thy person who could have done so was very quickly taken away in the president ial assassination. Now i should stop for ten minutes of questions. Can you tell us what looking at the modern trend of the former president and how they conduct themselves into the research youve done, talk about what you perceive to be the best way to conduct yourself in the presidency and anything that surprised you and how the former president s conducted themselves. I wrote an oped in the Washington Post about the nature of the postpresidency. Today for example think george h. W. Bush. Hes 90yearsold jumping out of airplanes whereas george w. Bush has been sent to the persian gulf in response to the possibility of another war in iraq. George w. Bush decides im not going to criticize my successor to the model is to always be available for advice. Theres a great deal of talk of the former president s coming together to have a meeting. We have a Record Number tha with getting together and they can come up with a solution to the crisis. Franklin pierce would try to initiate that meeting and as i described in my book he would end up undermining that meeting because he knew that appears was trying to subvert the war policy as a result of the meeting so being able to confidentially give advice they know enough to have been president and they served in the role they have the standing of the former president but they are out of politics and they seek no more Political Office for themselves and so they are in the best position to issue tended advice and confidential advice to the president of the country so i think with modest exceptions during election time thinking of bill clintons speech at the Democratic Convention of 2012 day go to the partisan corners and then they come back and fill out a politics largely for the successor if they need them. Other questions . Franklin pierce for his southern sympathies are the ideological in the interpretation of the constitution, are they all of these things i think that appears has zero homes about this. He doesnt care. He was upset when they passed a law thathe law that prevented te slaves from coming to New Hampshire. He didnt care about slavery and he writes hi this letter after e emancipation proclamations issue reflecting the view as the light suppresses the danger of having a biracial country he behaved it was the worst in history. I would like you to talk more. He was elected in november. Buchanan gets a lot of grief but not for the things he actually deserves to get it over. When you see him with the Southern States seceding, he has 16,000 troops under his command. Thats it. 34 of them are west of the mississippi in places like arizona. So even if you could get all 16,000 together in one place he cant even defeat South Carolina with that number much less the united south and is a huge rest to compromise his way out of it with the help of john tyler as i called him in the book the credentialed by the state virginia after serving as an emissary for the president and between the president and the Confederate States of america. If you think about it, he compromised 1820 of the compromise that ended first the secession standoff in 1833, the compromise of 1850, the final settlement. We have all these compromises. How are we going to compromise our way out of it this time . And i think legitimately so. It had always been a specter of the civil war ended just happened on his watch, so i think by sitting and waiting he did a Great Service in some ways and not in others. If he had issued a call for troops are one of the most important things lincoln did was to preserve the border states. I would love to have god on my side but i need kentucky. If the states in kentucky and maryland and delaware by waiting for the south to initiate he was able to preserve and keep the border safe in the union and so i think buchanan didnt have much that he could do. It wasnt helpful obviously when he kept them in the cabinet instead of firing them were when he announced he had no authority to go for the state versus eating even though he called the secession a legal those were not helpful but by the end of the presidency they were demonstrating a backbone and they got people around him including Edwin Stanton the attorney general and he leads lincoln off as anybody. We got rid of lincoln and washingtons birthday to have president s day and i always hated that have at least two of the subjects of your book, you know, they were exclusive characters to me. Not just are we insultingly demand washington by taking away their separate holidays, but do these band deserve to even be respected by history or should we somehow come up with a way that they are not part of the president s day Franklin Pierces today, he jus day, he y doesnt deserve it. Do buchanan and pierce deserve a holiday even by reference. [laughter] even if they are known they tend to the revolt. But they have a part to play. I admired dillard fillmores willingness to stand up for compromise and assigned him a popular legislation in his political career to prevent a civil war from happening ten years earlier. If you happeif it happened in 1h was united at the south would probably wind. In 1858 et 68 was a population in the industrial advantage in the north increasing to the point that they are guaranteed in any civil war. Pierce i will come back to what he was a general in the mexicanamerican war and served with distinction. Buchanan served the country more or less capably. John tyler opened up the trade with china for the first time, pretty important issue today, important part of the economy. So they all have things the hadd right and wrong and they didnt stand the test of time. Questions . Can you discuss briefly, you mentioned tyler. His role was in the confederate government, how that may have differentiated from Franklin Pierces role outside advising david and being supportive. Franklin pierce and john tyler both approved Abraham Lincoln during his presidency. Pierce politically so. Everyone says war is a continuation of politics by other means that politics is a continuation of war by other means. Think about the objectives of the war, the length of the war, determined by politics. Is it a political question . Can they appropriate money for the war . Pierce worked hard to elect george mcclellan, lincolns opponent in 1864. Tyler as lincoln is struggling to compromise in virginia, even offers to give for sumter back to South Carolina in order to get va to stay in the union and the Secession Convention to go home. Tyler would hear none of this. Uses all his evidence in getting them to leave the union so both of them proved to be problematic for lincoln, one on the inside of the tent and one outside. Other questions . History and politics seems to repeat itself and the antics that precede it lincolns term it seems like there is a lot of similar activity going on nowadays especially how it relates to the economy and the budget and how much we spending on entitlements. With the introduction of the tea party, can you draw any more parallels . Is this a foreshadowing of another civil war . Know, thankfully. I was a history junkie, very active in politics before i had the opportunity to write myself. People watching cspan at home, it would be worth it because it is such a great story. One of the most Amazing Stories ever. Too good to be real. That is not good enough reason for me to write history. I write history because messages from the pass resonate today and are applicable today and we can learn today said no matter how vitriolic our politics could divisive and combative, there was the time our country went to war with each other and we lost 2 of our population in a war of 200 americans, lost a war that destroyed broad sections of the country, 10,000 armed battles fought throughout the United States, i love watching tv, this is the most divisive election ever, the most combat of negative campaign ever, their memory goes back about ten years. If you look at that, that is the good news. We have a host of Serious Problems in this country we need to address and you touch on one of them. 7 trillion in debt we are passing on to the next generation. The first generation in American History that will not be better off than their grandparents and parents were. Six serious issues but remember america always found a way out of these problems before. We see a series of lackluster president s or not equal to the task of some of them, they do not stand the test of time but from that period comes Abraham Lincoln who from my perspective is the most amazing person American Civilization has produced. America has been bereft of the leadership that was. Congress and the president are at alltime lows in popularity. Regardless of your party you see independence increasing as a share of the electorate. People are frustrated that congress and the president are addressing these problems, america has regularly been without the leadership that reflected the inherent wisdom, goodness, integrity of the american people. Whenever the republic was in danger, the hour of crisis, we turn to Abraham Lincoln. An optimistic note for the future as i write about a previous period of lackluster leadership. Other questions . That is time. Thank you for coming. [applause] thank you. Two things, first and foremost, i have a couple boxes under the table in case you run out. Please take them to the register, you can start lining up here. Last but not least if you could carefully hold the chair you are seated upon, and place them against the floor. That was historian chris derose who examined the civil