professor rakove: the subtitle is myths about the elections and we will go into those. let s talk about the myths. madison s role as the agenda maker for the convention, and the particular point i want to make, as madison prepares himself for the convention and the weeks before they are supposed to meet, i think the key item he worked on in his agenda is the idea that a system of federalism based on the voluntary compliance of the state with the recommendations the resolutions, the requisitions came from the continental congress, was never going to work. when he reasons this, he does this in an empirical way. he looked at the lessons that americans like him had learned since 1776. then he takes a step back and then he thinks abstractly, and what we can see, i theoretic framework where he comes up with the idea there s always some incentive to run against washington. to run against national directives and policies. even where states have a common interest if you are mistrust
lincoln: i think that what i saw if i could just back up a little bit i do not consider myself a courageous man. if i were out on the battlefield with bullets whizzing past my head, i probably would develop a pair of cowardly legs quite quickly, and they would carry my noble head away. but nonetheless, what i saw was very grave. right after the close of the mexican war, if you divided this country into four parts, only the southeast was given to slavery. the territory from mexico and the northeast were free. in five years, that equation had reversed. 3/4 of our territory i am not speaking of states in number but our national geography had been given for slavery, in just five years. that is why the republican party was founded to stop the spread. and i came to be convinced that there was a conspiracy to make slavery universal. now when the threats of secession and war and so on began, i realized that like any soldier, i would have to consider that my life may end up
p.j.: first question i have is what is the most memorable thing about the building of the abraham lincoln hearse? what i learned and our family learned was that it s not about the hearse. it is about those building the hearse and it is about the veterans to whom were building the hearse for and that is abraham lincoln. is this your writing paris? [laughter] [indiscernible] p.j.: ok. i guess i can read it. i don t know what that one word means though. [indiscernible] p.j.: what does that say? how has this impacted our life? i m sorry. does a big word impact. that is a big word impact. one of them the things that has come out of this is that i have begin to heal. i am not a veteran, but you slowly begin to heal wounds that have surfaced over many years of working with that. death. it is different from ptsd. he call it cumulative stress syndrome. and with that comes the burden of trying to take people s grief away. and we can t do that. we can only walk through it with
programming on american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter for information on her schedule of upcoming programs and to keep up with the latest history news. you are watching american history tv on c-span3. you are looking at a live picture from oak ridge cemetery from revealed illinois, where the 150th anniversary of president aber cap president abraham we can pause euro. with us is richard hart, a springfield resident and author. your book is lincoln s springfield. tell us what we are going to see today and what s going to happen behind you this afternoon. this afternoon, you will see a reenactment of the funeral of abraham lincoln in springfield 150 years ago. it started on the square downtown and it will take probably half an hour for the procession to reach oak ridge cemetery, which is on the north side of springfield. that procession will be a reenactment of lincoln s actual funeral. there will be a number of divisions with reenactors in those d
the national constitution center is a very special place. it is the only institution in america that has a charter from congress to disseminate information about the u.s. constitution on a non-partisan basis. and that means that in these polarized times we are the only place in america that brings together all sides in the constitutional debates that transfixed the country to debate and discuss not political issues but constitutional issues so that you the people can make up your own minds. we do that in three ways. a museum of we the people on independence mall in philadelphia with the most beautiful constitutional views and america looking out on independence hall where the constitution was drafted. we are also america s town hall, a place where you can see at the center and also thanks to c-span often on tv, debates and symposia and panels debating the constitution. and we have got this phenomenal podcast series, which we are getting great downloads where every week we cal