Things that you thought were impossible suddenly become very possible. Can you imagine whats happening , you know theres going to be an uprising of the former slavery and they are going to kill everybody so they can get a hold of their lands, they are going to butcher women and children. Can can you imagine we are we were believing that. If you start you get rid of everything they have, you clamp down on them and what you do a little killing. Was there any reality to the fear that black people at the end of the war were going to go raping their masters wives or their children,. The only blood that there was in the south, white folks killing black folks. Well they were slaves. They had no respect for property but now they are not property. Back in louisiana with a course of 2500 black hundred black people were getting killed by white people,. [inaudible] back in 2004 it was blood it was ugly, this was going on it was a scary time. You couldnt imagine that once the war was over the president asked if he was killed by an assistant and then. You wouldnt imagine that anybody as a assassin would believe that Abraham Lincoln he was a threat to the republic. You could believe that maybe Andrew Johnson was part of the conspiracy to try to finish off, you can believe the can spears he was part of a longstanding conspiracy by the Democratic Party to kill any president who wasnt like them. You can say oh thats crazy but since the Democratic Party was founded under under jackson who is the president of the opposite party . And then zachary taylor, and he got in the way of the south and he died, then it was Abraham Lincoln and you are following the democrats you should let democrats because you can guarantee they wouldnt run for office. What kind of message did that sent. Youre beginning to sense that there might be a broader conspiracy out there, you could believe it, they thought it was fair. If you got a president of the United States who believes that members of congress are out to kill him he compares himself and thinks members of the Congress Plan to kill, kill 8 million americans lets talk about a level of irrationality thats incredible. Supposing the president of the United States said today, well. [inaudible] you would say this guy needs to be taken out of the cookie factory he belongs in the rubble room. What im doing is entered johnson thats exactly what hes doing. Now you may think this is rational, i dont think this is rational i think this is very dangerous and the guy that thinks that way youre beginning to ask if hes calling it the alleged or a body hanging on the edge of government that the clears itself you might ask what is he doing . Is he going to do something to get the congress he wants, it could happen and thats when you begin to really get into a cold sweat, as americans. Brave, patriotic, talented politicians they became a military governor during the war, he became president because Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, democratic president was Andrew Johnson believes that the constitution. [inaudible] Andrew Johnson wanted to bring the country together, in a way to make sure that the bitterness of the war, so in 1855 he used the president ial authority to start the process going and they would dominate the south and where in fact something is close to slavery as possible would be imposed on black people. Congress tried to not give wax the boat the right to vote but give them some same rights. [inaudible] they are making arguments at this congress had no right to pass this bill because the sentence states were not represented it and so therefore it might not even be illegal. This is a man who would reject, in 1866 people would declare that the Congress Plans to do claire 8 million, he will declare that there is a conspiracy against his life that leading members to the congress and he will charge that the congress may not be a legal document. The result is the members of congress increasingly see him as a person who may have designs to over throw, in the meantime johnson really believes the congress is filled with people who want to create, not the free america we know but a dangerously different radical america. You have two groups and by 1857 this fear of it was so great that people in the congress were terrified of what would happen, if Andrew Johnson, as lise he was in charge of the army you are okay. These people will never sell you out to the enemy, they will never after Andrew Johnson use that to overthrow the republican undo the good. When the president fired the secretary of war he violated the law immediately your thought is this is step one. And he says didnt i warn you, what good did your leniency do . If you dont kill it, it kills you. [inaudible] thats one reason might Andrew Johnson by one vote because johnson gives the guarantee of the wavering senate that the person put in charge of the army will be a person and the general grant, what hes not going to do them moment the wavering senator decides they are going to vote which is why he escapes conviction by one vote. Thirtyfive votes to convict, 19 to acquit. He needed two thirds vote and without the republican. [inaudible] have it gone too far . Of course they have even with reconstruction the advance that happened after the civil war, you could go to a black family and say in 1900 say well you cant vote in the south but your discriminated against, that women are afraid of any white man that wants to go after them and no jury convicts them, they would say what are you talking about . I own myself, people cant sell up my wife, my kids, my husband, any longer. I can, any longer. I can seek other jobs if i want to. Course they werent as good as they were but i can read and write now and i have a chance to go to school and i didnt have that before. Yes but is that different if you didnt own yourself, you could be being for any reason your master wanted to. Reconstruction made a lasting perm nativity permanent tip difference. We have to celebrate reconstruction in that sense. If i have anybody walking away with anything from my book there be two things, number one human beings are in many ways are irrational and their feelings, their fears, their hopes can shape what they do. And the second to keep in mind is what we often forget is that reconstruction is not just a Second Chance for a new birth of freedom to get back but its a chance to find this nation together and unite and in many peoples lives thats a done deal. Its also a done deal, they didnt know how the story would turn out, they had no idea in 1865 that blacks would be given the right to vote, they had no idea of what the outcome was. This seems to me that looking back we have to remember that. Is their Nonfiction Author book youd like to see featured on book tv, send us an email at book tv at cspan. Org. Posted on our wall at facebook. Com book tv. Next up, kathleen duval