With union. For lincoln and most republicans the union was a sort of mystical perpetual indivisible eternal thing. Stephen dug zblas whoouglas the regular democratic candidate that year stated over and over that no matter what else happens the union had to be preserved. John c. Breckenridge says the constitution and equality of the states are symbols of everlasting union. And the fourth candidate old john bell, lo ran as candidate of the Constitutional Union party didnt talk about anything else. They didnt even have a platform. Their platform was in their title. It was union. And the constitution. Union comes up so often during this century which is not peters perfect century but it is his second favorite century after the late 18th century. Lincolns vision of union rested on free labor and a voice in selfgovernment for common citizens and the potential to rise economically. Not the guarantee but the potential. Jefferson davis also believed in the union as safeguarding selfgovernment a
Jorge, of course would always have to be one of them, and the other was benjamin franklin, and the confederacy put him on his 10 cent stamp. The only person who landed on a confederacy stamp was jefferson davis, interestingly enough. This afternoon peter and i are going to have our conversation about jeffersons thinking about union and how his ideas were available for use or misuse by many different people in the decades between 1800 and 1880 peter. So why dont you talk for a few minutes about jefferson and union. Just a few minutes . Take as long as you want. Its rainy outside. Nobody is going to play tennis. Well, im a radio star, so i want you all to close your eyes. And suspend disbelief. Peterson has on not only a jefferson tie but two jefferson pins. I would like to start with a quotation from jefferson, and its an interesting one. Its when he is talking about the declaration of independence as hes designing a reading list at university of virginia. Gary and i used to do this tog
Stay close, if you throw it, it will go farther away. It is completely autonomous. Next the communicators, monday at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. Up next on American History tv, university of virginia history professors gary gail ger and peter onuf discuss Thomas Jeffersons views on federalism and the union of the states. They debate jeffersons provocative belief in the separation of races. President lincolns preservation of the union during the civil war and how jefferson would view todays federal government. This session from the Miller Center at the university of virginia is about two hours. Anyone who hopes to understand the 19th century in the United States has to come to terms with the importance of union. As a deeply important concept and highly charged word in the political vocabulary. It is a word thats gone from our political vocabulary now. It literally means flog to most americans now. The word union. If it isnt associated with labor. Union in a sense was so important during the
[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] french nation for information on our schedule up next on American History tv, university of virginia history professors gary gail ger and peter onuf discuss Thomas Jeffersons views on federalism and the union of the states. They debate jeffersons provocative belief in the separation of races. President lincolns preservation of the union during the civil war and how jefferson would view todays federal government. This session from the Miller Center at the university of virginia is about two hours. Anyone who hopes to understand the 19th century in the United States has to come to terms with the importance of union. As a deeply important concept and highly charged word in the political vocabulary. It is a word thats gone from our political vocabulary now. It literally means flog to most americans now. The word union. If it isnt associated with labor. U
Union in a sense was so important during the 19thcentury is gone. There were contending understandings of the meaning of union. Almost always tied to ideas about liberty and opportunity and frequently enmeshed with beliefs about the place of the institution of slavery in the american republic. All of the individuals who have been the subjects of lectures in this series talked about union from madison and other framers of the constitution who drafted what they thought would lead to a more perfect union, to Andrew Jackson who very famously referred to union in making a toast while he looked right at john c. Calhoun during the nullification crisis on jeffersons birthday in 1832. He said our federal union must be preserved, to which, as many of you know, calhoun replied the union next to our liberty most dear. During the election of 1860 when four candidates ran for the presidency under four party standards, all of them talked about union. All of them wanted to be right with union. For lin