Transcripts For CSPAN3 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution 20170514

He also discusses how some elements of the constitution were radical at the time, such as Voting Rights for all men who pay taxes. His class is about 15 minutes 50 minutes. Today we want to discuss the 1776 pennsylvania constitution. Whats we have been doing the last couple of days, we have been setting you up for this discussion. We did a lot of historical background of the history of pennsylvania politics leading up to the constitution of 1776. Today we want to think a little , bit about the constitution, and in some ways, the lecture is going to set us up for the rest of the week. Thats as we close out the revolutionary era. We are trying to think about pennsylvania history in its early period in these kinds of blocks. We talked about ideals of william penn, his values, what kind of colony he wanted to create, the holy experiment the , peaceable kingdom, or whatever we call it. What was the next block that we discussed . This should all be review. Ryan. The time between the colonial era and between penns ideals. What are the dates we put on that . 1701 up to 1763. Why is 1701 important . Yes, the charter privileges, and then we ended in 1763 because that was the end of the french and indian war. What did we say about that free. The charter history of 1701 and the end of the range and indian war . This should all be review at this point. This is a period characterized by what . It was about penns vision failing. I always forget about that war essay. The destruction of the peaceable kingdom. Peaceable kingdom destroyed. We talked about the political divisions emerging and the racial tensions within the colony, we talked about the violence on the frontier, and then of course, the penultimate moment of this age of decline was the paxton boys riots or the conestoga massacre of 1764. What we try to suggest, in the years between 1763 or the paxton riots, and 1776, a group of politicians came together, we described them as wigs, and were able to over a series of events, through a series of events overthrow the , pennsylvania proprietorship under who . Which family . The penn family. And also overthrow the power of the Quaker Assembly. And thus, seize control of the pennsylvania government. And at this point, this is leading up to where we are today, they establish a new constitution. All of that is background. None of that should surprise you. Remember the parallel track that we are working on. The parallel track meeting the meaning the pennsylvania story running alongside of the National Story if you will. The colonial wide story. What is fascinating is the colonial wide story and the pennsylvania story are happening literally where . In the same building. In the in the state house of pennsylvania. On one side of the state house, you have a group of radicals, a group of wigs, radical whigs if you will, because not all wigs are going to buy into this constitution. You have this group of radical whigs on one side of the statehouse, they have overthrow the assembly, overthrown the penn family, and they are sitting on one side of the statehouse crafting a constitution for the state of pennsylvania while, on the other side, the Continental Congress is going on. As we know, there are some people this is where i did that dance in class, where i was running backandforth. As we know, there are some people who are in both groups. Ben franklin being the most prominent who is running back and forth between the two buildings. That is the setup. Today, we want to focus entirely upon the constitution that the radical whigs, if you will, are going to put into place. It is going to be a very controversial constitution as we will see here in the second. Before we get into the details, i think this quote by carl becker, who is a journey a turn of the 20th century historian is best illustrating , what is happening here in this constitution. The tension or the differences between what becker calls home rule and the question of who would rule at home. What do you think of the difference between these two words . What does he mean when he talks about home rule . Anyone want to venture a guess . What did the connell what did the colonists ultimately want out of the british . Remember the phrase no taxation without representation . That,ly when you think of you think of what the colonists want. You would think they would want representation where . In parliament. That is far from the truth in what they really want. They dont want to send some an over to parliament. If they sent a representative, that person is going to get voted down most of the time, it is not going to be very effective for them. They want home rule. They want to make their political decisions through their own governments, their own assemblies. They dont want when they say no taxation without representation, theyre not necessarily talking about representation of parliament. Theyre talking about the right to make decisions based on their own representative bodies. That, ultimately, is what they get. Including pennsylvania. That is what they get in 1776, july 4. They get home rule. They will no rule themselves. Now, that leads to the second part of the quote. Who would rule at home . Before we unpack what that means, we need to think about this in terms of a much larger question about the American Revolution, and some of you were in my class last fall asking and you remember me asking this question over and over again. How revolutionary what . Was the American Revolution . Was this just a revolution about taking away from england . The most liberty loving country in the world and just doing it better . Pretty much putting the same kind of government in place and being more consistent. Is that what the revolution was a revolution that permeated every single dimension of society. Was it a revolution that set the slaves free . Was it a revolution that would give women the right to vote . Was it a revolution that would give poor opportunities that they didnt have . Was it a revolution that was truly democratic . The infamous d word that many of the Founding Fathers were not big fans of. It wasnt a question of when we will ourselves, but how are we going to rule ourselves . Who is going to rule at home . Is it going to be the educated, the elite, the gentile members of society, those in the proprietary party in pennsylvania, those who dominated in the Quaker Assembly like the galloway family, or the pembertons, are they going to be the ones . Or is it going to be the people . Those who argue that the constitution should be based on the people, are the ones who are actually going to gain control and help shape this constitution. They are going to take the revolution seriously. The ideals and the values of the revolution seriously. In other words, when Thomas Jefferson writes in the declaration of independence that all men are created equal, these guys, who crafted the constitution of 1776 are actually going to take that seriously. Theyre going to say, ok, if all men are created equal, and all men have rights, lets build the government around that. This also would be the philosophy of many of the members who wrote the Constitutional Convention are very influenced by another man running around philadelphia who just recently showed up . In english quaker named who . Thomas payne. We will get to him in a second, because even though he is not one of the people that wrote the constitution of he is probably 1776, the most influential thinker who influenced those who did write it. First thing i want to do, i want to think about who is in the room. Who are the kind of people that are crafting this constitution . Who are the people that are saying how should we rule at home . We should rule democratically at home because we take the revolution very seriously. Some of the background here, the pennsylvania Constitutional Convention meets from july 15 to september 28. Here is a 1778 sketch of the statehouse. For our cspan viewers. This is today known as what . Independence hall. It wasnt called that event so that then, so that is why we are calling it the statehouse. This is where both the congress the constant of congress is meeting the Constitutional Congress and the pennsylvania Constitutional Convention meets. They convene because the Continental Congress have instructed after the july 4 declaration, instructed all of the colonies, now states, to form new government. The members are taking the members of the pennsylvania Constitutional Convention are taking this instruction seriously. Again, what is fascinating about pennsylvania is that its all happening in the same building. In boston, they are doing it too, but they are not running around with all the delegates of the Continental Congress. Who are some of these people . Most of these people, im guessing, with the exception of one, you have never heard of, before today or before you took this class because that is because this is very much a constitution shaped by the people. These people, we dont normally think about. Somebody like timothy matlack. Im guessing none of you have ever heard of him. He was the clerk and scribe for the convention. He was a brewer, who sold beer for a living in philadelphia. He was best known for having the best handwriting in philadelphia. In other words, he served with the Continental Congress, as their clerk for couple of years. The declaration of independence as we see it, we tend to think it was jefferson that wrote it. Jefferson wrote it but it is in matlacks hands. He is not part of the other side he definitely knows those guys on the other side of the building will stop of the building. He is not part of the other side of the building, but he is one of these figures crafting the pennsylvania constitution. Then we have robert whitehill, i think he was a lawyer, politician, and im picking random people that you might be interested in. There were dozens of people from all over the state who were involved in this. I picked whitehall, because if youd drive down to harrisburg, you will pass this historic marker on the side of the road. Whitehall moved out to the area and settled in camp hill. He was in philadelphia, representing cumberland county. He is one of them. Are you getting the trend here . Like, who are these guys . I never heard about them but they were crafting the convention. David rittenhouse, he is one of the more educated members of the convention. He is a graduate of the college of new jersey of princeton. Do you know what he is famous for . You can figure it out by this picture. Im guessing astronomy . He was an astronomer, yeah. One of the great astronomers in early america. He developed these things, which was the best model for teaching science in early america, and colonial america. It was at this point that the college of new jersey at princeton takes it and uses it to teach about the solar system. He is one of the intellectuals. He doesnt have political experience but he is a scientist. Dr. Thomas young he is one of my , favorites. This is a guy who made his bones in boston. He was part of the Boston Committee of correspondents. One of the primary organizers of the boston tea party. When things get really tough up in boston, he is the loyalist the loyalists are persecuting him so he comes down to philadelphia. He is a boston radical coming to philadelphia, joins the revolutionary cause and finds himself in the committee. Also a very devout religious man. George bryan, probably the most important person on the committee. He is a philadelphian presbyterian. He is a businessman. The people who dont like the fact that all these unknown people, Business People with no experience in government are writing the 1776 constitution, they criticize george bryan because he does not own a chariot. Meaning that he literally has to walk places or ride his horse. You see the kind of people. This guy doesnt even own a there, and he is in crafting the constitution . Do we want to these kinds of people in charge . We cant ignore the fact that a ferry owner, a guy that makes his money ferrying people across the river, john harris junior, is actually on the committee. This is the house that he actually built. You can still visit this place on front street in harrisburg and he found the city, as well. He is representing cumberland county. Then, we have ben franklin. There is a lot of debate about the role that ben franklin played in the 1776 convention. Like is immediately elected as president of the convention, but most historians suggest he played a very little role in the crafting of the documents. Why might that be the case . Why would he have such little time to get involved in the actual crafting, brooke . He was writing the declaration of independence . He is on the other side of the building for most of the time, crafting that and being involved in the writing of the declaration of independence and he is also on the committee. Franklin is much more interested in the kind of colonial wide issues that he is necessarily in pennsylvania, but nevertheless, he is the president of the convention. To summarize, here are some themes. As we have suggested, they are not well known. They are not well known to us in the 21st century, but they werent particularly well known in the context of the 18th century either. They have a long history of opposition and resistance to the pennsylvania colonial governments. They have opposed the proprietorship of the penn family. They proposed the wealth, remember a lot of the party were wealthy quaker merchants who controlled the quicker assembly, so they have a long history of opposing entrenched authority. Traditional authority. Thats in philadelphia and pennsylvania broadly. You can imagine, a lot of them will be coming from what ethnic group . The scots irish. Yeah. A lot of them are either scots irish and have connections of people on the frontier, or, they or they are sympathetic to the cause of the scots irish on the frontier. The kind of people that we have seen, and again, we dont know who the paxton boys were and who was involved, that it might of been people who were sympathetic to what these presbyterian scots irish did during the conestoga massacre. They might be sympathetic to a lot of the problems that of the scots irish, the ordinary settlers on the frontier are facing. Connect that with the democratic nature of this document. They have a long history of underrepresentation in the assembly. They feel like that because theyre organized the communities are not as structured and organized, they have not been given enough representation during the colonial period. As a result, they have this long beef with the established authority. They are very progressive, they dont like tradition, they dont like the way pennsylvania has always been. They are the ones who have suffered the most during that 1701 up to 1763. We have met these people before. Yes . We have seen them and know who they are. As i mentioned earlier in the lecture, they are deeply influenced by the ideas of thomas payne. Remember, the dates, july 15 to september 28. Does anyone remember when payne wrote common sense . When he publishes it . Connor . January of 1776. What did we say about the influence of common sense in pennsylvania and the colonies as a whole . It was influential. Very influential. Everyone is reading it in a common language. Payne lays forth two ideas in common sense. Some of you have studied it with me or with professor snider. Two main ideas, one is the arguments that we should do, what as the colonists . What is the primary purpose of common sense . To convince the colonies to . Not a trick question. Rebel. Not just rebel or be revolutionary, but what . Declare what . Independence. Independence, to separate from britain. We think today, of course, whats in there were other many people that payne was writing to that were not yet convinced of the idea. In common sense, pain not only is talking about why we should break away from england, but he also sets out, in what most people focus on too much who read common sense, he puts forth a frame of government. What do we know about Thomas Paynes view of government. What do we know of his philosophy of politics . He is a level revolutionary of the time. He promotes democracy and one of the first people to promote freedom of slaves and women and the right to vote. Yeah. He is way off the charts in terms of his social views. This guy thinks women should vote. This guy wants to defend the right of people to vote to dont even own land. This guy wants to free the slaves. Because he believes all human beings are created with what . The title of his pamphlet. Common sense. Based on that alone, regardless of your social status, race, gender, who you are as a human being, you have common sense and, that is enough. Enough for you to not only participating governments, but to also serve in it. You dont need an education. You dont need to be part of an informed citizenry. You just need common sense. You have common sense, you can vote and make decisions. You can see the relationship between this kind of common sense philosophy and the dword the d word. Democracy. If you have this philosophy of common sense which is dominant , in scotland during this. Youre going to create a government that is democratic. The success of common sense, the way it proliferates route the throughout the entire colonial seaboard, especially in pennsylvania, is going to have profound influence upon ordinary people. Common people. Especially among those in the statehouse in the late summer of 1776, crafting the constitution. Payne is not there physically but he is there in spirit. His ghost lingers over the entire event. Those are the members of the convention. That is the summary in terms of their characteristics. Lets talk about what others think about the people who are there. We have laid out who they are, and now criticism of the members. This is my favorite part. You have reverend Francis Allison who is pastor in philadelphia, well educated man, but also scots irish. That is interesting. He says who were the members of the Constitutional Convention in 1776 . They were mostly well meaning countrymen who are employed but entirely unacquainted with such high matters. They seem hardly equal to the task of creating a government. These guys are not equipped. I love peter grub from lancaster. They were a bunch of numbskulls. He says about the group. Why dont you tell us what you really think about them . Alexander gradin writes about his in his memoirs dr. Franklin , was implicated in the production of the constitution and either in his participation of it or approbation of it was as you lookinating back on that pennsylvania constitution, they all want to claim franklin. The defenders of the constitution say dr. Franklin was our president , he was in charge. He was on board with these ideals. But then the people who didnt like the constitution because they thought it was too democratic, said franklin was there, but he wasnt really on board with all this radical stuff that they were doing. Everybody wants to claim ben franklin in the 1790s and 1800s and especially after he died. I give you criticisms, to show you that there is an opposition voice out there. By the way, all of these people you see here, and i can list a lot more of these quotes, they were all for independence. They wouldve all supported Thomas Paynes first motivation for writing common sense. Where do they part ways with payne on his common sense democratic form of government . See that you can be a diehard supporter of independence from the crown, home rule, you want home rule. You dont like the fact that all these Democratic People who follow thomas payne are doing what . The other side of the quote. Ruling at home. Right . Ok. Take out your copy of the constitution. Lets talk about it. Try to break down what is so radical about this constitution. We dont have time to discuss the entire constitution, but i just want to point out the most controversial themes within the constitution and why this was such a discussed and debated topic. I just listed the first four sections, but that me ask you, where is power invested within this constitution . In the legislative branch. Totally invested in the assembly, the legislative branch. In fact, that is pretty much the only place where the is power. Where is the structure . Is there an executive socalled branch in the constitution of 1776 . Ead the text look at section three. Is there an executive branch . It basicallybut cannot do anything without the legislative branchs go ahead. It is not have any veto power. Is there a governor . Thehere a governor under pennsylvania constitution of 1776 . No. It has broken with the colonial path on that front. A pluralthere is executive. A certain number of men. If i remember correctly, it is andho will be in charge kind of the executive power, but they have no veto power over the assembly. They dont have the opportunity to create legislation for themselves. That is all done in the hands of the assembly. There are judicial courts, but the assembly controlled them as well. This is what i mean by unicameral is him unicameralism. One house. This is where you were kind of hesitant. Technically there are branches of government, but they dont have a whole lot of power. Power is invested in the people of the legislative branch. I will test her memories, your memories. Under the charter of privileges, the 1701 colonial government, thathere unicameralism in government . Remember the charter of privileges . Or one . Re two houses one house, the Quaker Assembly. This is not a change. They are not shifting years and changing what they already had in the colonial period. However, there is a profound change when it comes to, this is kind of what i just summarized. Supreme power invested in the house of representatives. No governor, no upper house to check the assembly. Under a system of checks and balances, not only do the three branches of government check each other, but the upper house always checks the lower house. The lower house is always the house of the people, the upper house is always the unelected house that make sure the people dont do anything stupid. Here, you just have one assembly. What is most controversial is the nature of that one assembly. Somebody read section six of the we are moving past the bill of rights and into the frame. Somebody read section six for me. Go ahead. Lets get back over here. Representatives and pays public taxes during that year shall enjoy the right of an elector. Stopper at their. Is there any stop right there. Is there anything that suggests you have to have wealth or land in order to vote . No. This section is radical for what it does not say. Pennsylvania, of all the 13 constitutions that are born declaration, pennsylvania is the only one that does not have a wealth or land hermit. You remember the charter of whenever the charter of privileges . Was there in land requirement, remember what it was . 50 acres or 50 pounds worth of an estate. That is wiped off the books. Now nothing. You do have to be male, right . But any male who pays taxes convoked. Can vote. There is no other constitution in the world at this point that allowed what was referred to later on as universal manhood suffrage. Right for everybody to vote. That is democracy, folks. We dont just want the wealthy. We dont want people who only only and own land and or people who have some semblance of power. Anybody, any male can vote. By the 21stcentury standards, it does not look very democratic. Women cant vote, slaves can vote, african you get actually africanamericans can vote under this. They dont need to own land, civic and vote. But by 21st century, it does not look democratic, but think of the context of the 18th century. Everybody can vote. Elections are held every year in the assembly. That means every year if you are a member of the assembly, what do you have to do . Get reelected. What does that mean . You need to go back and convince people, the people, that you are worthy. You dont get to sit there like the u. S. Senate today for six years before you have to go back to the people. This is even lower than house of representatives where it is what . Two years. This is every year. You have to check in with the people. Am i doing a good job . If i am, i will get reelected. If not, i am out. Someone read section 13 for me. Who wants to read . Raise your hand so we can get a mike. Over here. The doors of the house which a representative to the people of the state shall sit in general assembly, shall be for all persons who behave decently, except when the welfare of the state may require the doors be shut shot. What was just read . What did logan just read . Summarize it in english, or 21st century english. People have the right to know what their government is up to. John fea literally, people can walk in. The doors are opened, the people can watch the proceedings. This is a new idea as well. The people need to constantly be in the loop. As we read sections 14 and 15, i will not have someone read it for time, but what does it summarize . Section 14 to 15, how might this be corrected with democratic ideals . It is the right to information or the right to know what people are doing. It is basically freedom of information, nothing gets withheld. John fea for they are decided upon. Again, this sounds like standard stuff the 21st century, but there are no governments. We will tell the people what we are talking about and have a say before we make a final decision. This is democracy at work. Thomas paine is probably loving all of this. They took my ideas. I think paine would try to push this even further, but nevertheless the peoples assembly, richard religious freedom. Here, the declaration of rights in section two, i will put this powerpoint on the canvas. Total religious freedom, so this is similar to William Penns charter of privileges. This is a thing we often see in pennsylvania, but here is an interesting one, section 10. And each member before he takes his seat shall make and subscribe to the following declarations. And here is the oath you have to say in order to serve in the assembly, the Unicameral Legislature. I believe in one god, the creator and governor of the universe, the reporter and punisher of the wicked. No further other religious test shall ever be required for any civil office were registered in the state. Lets look at this middle paragraph here. Who does this paragraph keep out . And please dont say anybody who doesnt believe in but what kind of people does this leave out . It leaves out jews, because jews cant uphold what . The division of the new testament, and anyone from any religion other than distant christianity. This is the irony of it all. A lot of my colleagues write about the constitution of pennsylvania and say the pennsylvania constitution was the most democratic constitution on earth. And it was. However, they come to the religious test, it is pretty limited into who can participate. They just want christians. And i think a lot of this has to do with recent research. A lot of this has to do with how many presbyterians, scots irish, were on the committee, but a lot of scholars are questioning that out. The constitution is passed, then the criticism takes place. I will read through some of these, but benjamin rush, benjamin rush, signer of the declaration of independence, a good whig, but he parts ways with the painites, with the radicals on the constitution. One take away from this lecture, you can support independent and still reject the democratic nature of the constitution. Everybody with me . Here is rush. The pennsylvania constitution substituted a mob government toward the happiest governments of the world. It is mobocracy. Do we really want these people running the show, this Unicameral Legislature . We find the uncontrolled power of the whole state is in the hands of one body of men, no checks. One body. By the way, these people are just Common People. They dont even only and. Own land. It was dangerous to the safety of the community. If you put the power in the hands of the people according to rush, it is more dangerous than if you have a king. That is how much a lot of these guys fear the dword, they fear democracy. Here is one more, and the idea of making the people at large judges of the qualification necessary for magistrates were judges of law, the checks and assemblies proceed that mankind is all alike, and have equal leisure. This government that they created, rush says, it assumes everybody has common sense. It proves everybody is equal. That is not true. We dont want to give people the right to govern themselves because they have common sense. We want wise people, just people, men of leisure. I love william hopper. I quoted him before. The pennsylvania constitution was annexed google an excremable democracy. It will shake the beast. A legislator without end, executive. John fea without any checks. A beast without a head. Then there is john adams. John adams, not from pennsylvania, but probably one of the strongest critics of the pennsylvania government. And two, one of the greatest defenders of mixed government. Massachusetts, when they write their constitution, adams is the primary author, it is governor, upper house, lower house, all checking one another. Adams is conservative in this sense. He is about order, structure. With adams in favor of independence, of course. The parts ways with pennsylvania. We live in the age of political experiments, many will fail, some will succeed. But pennsylvania will be divided and weekend weakened. No fan of democracy. No fan of giving the people so much power. We have got to love adams on the pennsylvania constitution. People cannot be free or happy whose government is one assembly. Totally right to the pennsylvania constitution, a single assembly is liable to all devices, follies and frailties of an individual. Subject to fits of humor, starts of passion, enthusiasm, partiality, prejudice. Focus on the word passion for a second. Adams knows that every human being has two faculties. It have a rational faculty, and they have their part, their passion. Heart, their passion. The purpose of education is to create what . The rational. One of the reasons you train the rational faculty is that when you make choices for the public good that will affect other people or even choices that affect your own life, your rational faculty, which you train through education and reading like a muscle will control the passion. When you are born, which faculty has the power . The passion. Someone in my class the other day said, think of a baby. Baby is screaming for her bottle, not making a rational decision, not knowing that mom has to run errands, so that is not why i will get my bottle now. We do not apply reason to the situation. Nobody baby has reason because their passionate faculty dominates, but as they grow and educate themselves, they educate the rational faculty to control the passion. With all that in mind, and enthusiasm is another thing. The passions lead to craziness, enthusiasm. You follow your passion in an irrational way, john adams has that as a critique. Connected to what he does not like this form of government. Someone other than ryan. Connor. It is too close to the people, like the emotions of the people and their prejudicesare going to lead the people. John fea we want to put the government in the hands of people that that their passion control there and not the uneducated people . Lets wrap it up here. Some conclusions. One, the battle between the framers meeting the framers of the constitution of 1770s, and its opponents we saw some of them already, beast without ahead, passion, the battle will rage. For the next 14 years. And create intense political factionalism. You thought it was bad in pennsylvania in the 1750s and 1760s, wait until the next two days of class and the defenders of order, defenders of balanced government go headtohead with defenders of the dword, right, democracy. The battle over the pennsylvania constitution, and i want you to see this bigger picture, the battle over the pennsylvania constitution of 1776 was ultimately a battle over the meaning of the American Revolution. It was a battle between overrule and who would rule at home. What is this revolution going to look like . Are we going to establish like john adams did, a balanced, mixed government like they havent england . They have in england . We will just break away, get home rule, set up the conservative kind of government that protects liberties, but nothing too radical, or is this revolution going to destroy everything in the past political life of pennsylvania . Will it be democratic . Is the revolution going to be revolutionary . Those are the big issues not only facing pennsylvania but facing the colonies as a whole. So will the radical vision win . Right now the radicals are in control. We would give them a positive spin. Those numbskulls or defenders of thomas paine, the painites, they are spending a lot of radical time. But will these Common People win the day . Will pennsylvania become a Democratic Society that takes the idea that all people are equal seriously, or will the conservatives, who are also gladly broke away from england, will the conservatives when the day . Win the day . Comeback on wednesday. We have two documents for next time, so we will continue the story on wednesday. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] interested in American History tv . Visit our website. You can view our tv schedule and preview upcoming programs and watch College Lectures and archival films and more. American history tv at cspan. Org history. The comparisons between donald trump and Andrew Jackson. Our guest is an author with a book Andrew Jackson seven or. I dont think he represents the positive aspects of jackson. He represent some of the negative values. I would tell President Trump that if he wants to be like Andrew Jackson, he has to put the nation in front of his own personhood, in front of his own family, in front of his own interests. Thats what jackson did for most of his residency. Cspans q a. Author lynne cheney discusses James Madisons personality, health problems, political career. She sits down to explain her writing process and madisons relationship with the other founders. Heres a preview. Decisions. Made many the wisest was marrying. He was out walking on a spring caught sighthen he of her and was instantly smitten. This happened regularly. She was nearly five feet eight inches. She had black hair and blue eyes and a startlingly pale complexion. She came from a quaker family which should not for her been a good fit. Inclined for the gaieties of the world. This is my favorite story. Anuaker matron recalled effort to convince dolly of the seriousness of life. She first smiled and then afterwards fell asleep during asleep. She was recently widowed. In ausband john had died yellow fever epidemic the year before madison saw her. So had her threemonthold baby. She had a son who was to. Madison was 43. I dont want you to miss that. He turned to ehrenberg. This is the one big cousin rethink. Even when you arent related in the 18th century, everybody knew everybody. He turned to aaron burr. He arranged an introduction. Dolly was thrilled the prospect. She wrote to her tend friend. Greatere is bringing the little madison to see me this evening. Satin and a mulberry yellow glass beads to greet james and her parlor. Four months later, they were married. Program ate entire 2 00 sunday. This is American History tv, only on cspan3. Servicearyland park recently opened the Harriet Tubman underground railroad visitor center. Up next, National Archives hosted a Panel Discussion on Harriet Tubmans legacy. This is about 90 minutes. During the civil war, escaped served the union side as a scout, cook, and spy. For all she endured, her life is legendary