He reads passages from his book and discusses the leading men the earlysed republic. Mount vernongtons hosted this hour and 20 minute event. In 1789. S new york we are standing approximately in front of federal hall looking toward the east river of new york. Even though the buildings are high,our or five stories they have some of the bustle it has had for the last 200 years. Federal hall, even though the image i will show you in a minute looks very austere and classical, it is here. This is another image of new york. It may be somebody in this audience, i would bet a buck probably not, knows that this house standing at the manhattan into the holland tunnel it is not there anymore. This was the house Vice President john adams rented for the two sessions the First Congress met in new york. Why am i showing it to you . To convey some sense of how rural manhattan was in 1789. The city ended about where New York City Hall is today. If you went beyond city hall, you were going out of town. ,
Of the action is taking place. It is on wall street. The coffeehouse, the scene that. Showed first, is behind us we are looking in the direction of the hudson river. Congress, despite the significance, the First Congress has generally been treated as an convention. R the the government the constitution outlines, thats what it was, and outline, spurring fullgrown from the document. It did not. It took two years of creative and sometimes twofisted down and dirty politics to accomplish the job. That job was creating the institutions of government, henry, whoat patrick may have been referred to once or twice later on, referred to as the crazy machine of government. That is what these men are doing in federal hall. In the First Congress gathered in new york, march and april of 1789, two months . It took more than one month to get a quorum. Everyone who showed up on time, in looting James Madison, was in a blind panic that not enough people would show up to make a congress. In their letters
Thank you so much. I wish my parents could have heard that. It would have made my father very proud and my mother actually would have believed you. There you go. [laughter] for me as you suggested, this lecture concludes an amazing year. As it began just a year ago when the library, fred w. Smith library for George Washington and i was able to take a seat. During that year, i learned what a treasure all of you have in mount vernon. Led by the staff, they are extraordinarily dedicated and extraordinarily loyal. For 150 years, the Mount Vernon Ladies Association has kept this place special. And with a new library, the orientation and education center, no crop of those women have done a better job. Among those were remarkable women. Well, let me begin tonight with a question. Retirement. Today we think of retirement as golf, bridge, a condo in florida with no grass to mow, but what would it mean to George Washington . He used the word often in 1783 as the revolutionary war was winding dow
I wish my parents could have heard that. It would have made my father very proud and my mother actually would have believed you. So there you go. For me as you suggested, this lecture concludes an amazing year that began just a year ago when the library the fred w. Smith library for the study of George Washington opened and i was able to take a seat as one of the inaugural fellows. During that year, i learned what a treasure always of you have in mount vernon led by kurt brands and with library led by Doug Bradburn the staff here is simply extraordinary. They are extraordinaryily loyal. For 150 years, the mount vernon ladys association has kept this place special. With the new library the orientation and education center, no crop of those women have done a better job than the current one, at least since martha did it alone. Among those remarkable women, of course let me thank gay gains and ann petri. Well let me begin tonight with a question. Retirement. Today we think of retirement as
For that introduction, thank you so much. I wish my parents could have heard that. It would have made my father very proud and my mother actually would have believed you. So there you go. Well, for me as you suggested, this lecture concludes an amazing year that began just a year ago when the library, the fred w. Smith library for the study of George Washington opened and i was able to take a seat as one of the inaugural library fellows. During that year, i learned what a treasure all of you have in mt. Vernon. Led by kurt v. Brands and with the library led by doug bradburn, the staff here is simply extraordinary. Theyre extraordinarily dedicated, theyre extraordinarily loyal and theyre extraordinarily collegial. For 150 years the mt. Vernon Ladies Association has kept this place special. And with the new library, the orientation and education center, no crop of those women have done a better job than the current one, at least since martha did it alone. Among those remarkable women, of