And now, from alexandria virginia, the closing session from the emerging revolutionary war symposium. A panel of historians summarize their thoughts from the day and discuss the causes of the American Revolution. All right, cool, thank you all for coming out today. Thank you to alexandria for hosting and for the happy hour after this. We are trying to keep it as close to 4 00 as possible so we cannot get our beer we are looking forward to afterwards. You know, this is the first inaugural emerging revolutionary war symposium so we also thank cspan for coming out here to film this and, you know, its going to be an annual event so keep your eye out for next years symposium. To keep up with a movie emerging revolutionary war and everything we are doing, please check out our blog and you can also follow us on facebook and twitter to find out everything we are up to. You can also check out our books, rob and phil wrote a book about battles, in concord and i myself wrote a book and we got a c
That is the lack of conservation ethic and the culture of our society. All parts of it are important. I received a germination of this kind of ethic in this country. Ive been talking for almost 35 years around the country, every up manyd somebody comes of them are teachers. They have a strong ethical concept. High school kids coming up whose parents are more sensitive teaching them. I see the germination of an ethic that will say that if we intruding someplace, what are the consequences . Had any ordinary commonsense in the politics of would not have practically destroyed the everglades by diverting the water and so forth. Destroyed halfve the wetlands of the country, areidizing crops that already in surplus to the wetlands and drain grow more. We would not have polluted the rivers and so forth. A society outelop thehe young folks here, society that demands to know and asks the question, what are the consequences of our actions and if they are negative, we just will not do it. Compared
Drew gruber as the executive director of civil war trails, lives in williamsburg with his wife kate, their two cats, he enjoys reading, oysters, brown liquor and peace and quiet. Drew gruber. [applause] [laughter] [applause] i am going to introduce my coauthor, doug crenshaw, who is going to lecture about williamsburg today. [laughter] i sat down last night to review notes, and i couldnt think couldnt help but think about how ryan ended his presentation yesterday. It caused me to rewrite the whole thing. Thanks, ryan. Forgotten battles is a cool thing and i was going to open with a quote and then i thought about it, we have a morbid fascination with body count, only big, bloody battles are important. Then Richard Lewis said last night, the guy who falls from dysentery, that is his forgotten battle and certainly his familys forgotten battle. At the one guy on picket one night by himself on a cold day who is shut down, that is probably his most important battle. So i am going to open wit
York. His honors include the National Humanities medal presented by president george w. Bush. Before we begin, i ask that you please turn off your cell phones and other electronic devices, and now please join me in welcoming our guest. Thank you. [applause] mr. Holzer good evening. Happy lincolns birthday. I am so proud and grateful to be asked to do another lincolns birthday talk here at the New York Historical society. Two years ago, it was snowing. Last year it was sleeting with ice. I think lincoln might have been another president who was not too unhappy about global warming. Just a guess. [laughter] tonight, i want to give a speech about a speech. And here is a spoiler alert. Only masterpieces qualify for that kind of analysis, so let me call your attention to the fact that lincolns sin second inaugural address, if you had any doubt, is indeed a masterpiece. I think most of you already know the speech, at least the most familiar part of it, with malice toward none and charity for
First president being sworn in at federal hall in new york city. That would have been in 1789, in april. How well where the duties and office that he was about to step into, how well where they defined at this moment when he was sworn in . They werent defined at all. There was a brandnew institution, certainly in america and really in the world, its a new experiment of an elected magistrate that would have at one point been the head of state, like a king, but also be the chief executioner of the laws, the chief executive in this case, the chief policy maker. And it wasnt exactly clear where the powers of the of the legislature and where thedefine. Powers of the president would be defined. And so washington really created that office. Reallmany of the precedents, mf the things that we come to think of as president ial really come downwn from his example in the office. He took the oath, what were his views at the time about expanding or restricting the power of the office that he was ste