Transcripts For CSPAN3 First Ladies Influence Image - Anna Harrison Letitia Tyler Julia Tyler 20240712

Test captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2008 thank you for telling us about your scholarship and we look forward to learning more about this period of American History through the writings of julia tyler. Thanks for your time. Thank you very much. We have a few minutes left. I want to get a couple more calls in. Next one is a call from bill in fishers, indiana. Hi. Caller enjoying your show very much and your two guests as well very much. I was wondering was julia a religious person and i was wondering about her conversion to catholicism and how that influenced her later life. Do you know. I will leave julia to talk about her. Was she religious . Not really, but she does join the Catholic Church later in life and im not sure why she actually does that. Perhaps the church gains more by that than she does because theres always been that tension between protestants and catholics in this country, even though we dont have an official religion, most people think of america as being a protestant place. The fact that you did have a former First Lady Joining the Catholic Church in such a public way, sort of elevated the status of catholicism a little bit. When in her life did she do this . Much later in life. A few years before she died, i believe. John tyler is not an especially religious guy, even by, you know, sort of by the standards. Letitia was a very strong episcopalen, his first wife and he really admired the strength of her faith in her. John tyler was more of a jeffersonen than anything else. Youre on now, fred. Caller hi, thank you. The three most powerful men in washington at the time were, of course, clay webster and calhoun. I was wondering if there were any even letitia, but julia more importantly, what was her attitude towards those three men . Thank you. She certainly would have been very comfortable with calhoun. Not so much clay. Even though tyler had supported clay at one point, but as tyler became more separated from the party than she would have gone in that direction as well. Webster, im not so sure. Certainly calhoun would have been the person she would have been closest to at least politically. Webster had stuck within tylers cabinet longer than any of the other original members of the harrison cabinet. I think youre right. It does come done to where really they in terms of john tylers politics, as to exactly how she felt about it. Margaret is watching us in port river, new jersey. Youre on the air. Hello. Im enjoying this very much. I was wondering what president tyler died from . I read that he was elected a virginia representative to the Confederate Congress and that when he was attending the session he died a few minutes after midnight in 1862 and he was 71 years old. How old was he when he fathered his last child . All right. Are those questions that you know the answer to . Well, i mean he was 71. He did not he was never sworn in as a member of the Confederate Congress. It was just about to be. He was in richmond for that session and since it was early in 62, from what we know he had caught a cold and died at that age. The last child that they had i think he was 68. She was 2 years old when he died. Next is a question from darla in austin, texas. We have a texan after this big History Lesson in your states annexation. Whats your question for us . Caller my question is, was the controversy over the annexation of texas only about slavery or were there any other considerations such as considerations about the location and geography of texas being so close to mexico . Thank you so much. It was all about slavery in the 1840s and 1850s. You cant really separate the whole struggle over the expansion of slavery into the west. Its about texas. Its about kansas later on. Its slavery front and center. Now we have about three or four minutes left and as we close out our discussion here, we had learned that julia tyler as a very young woman was very adept at publicity and creating an image for herself. Had she become private and largely forgotten by then . Did she call upon the Public Relation skills to ensure her legacy . Not really by the end of her life. Probably in 1889. Obviously there are a lot of other things going on in the country by then. She had been largely focusing on her family and focusing on her focusing on maybe a personal legacy in that sense and maintaining what the family could hold on to for Something Like Sherwood Forest to pass that on. In terms of the broader kind of working on that image later on in her life, so much of her energy was devoted to the pension fight, was devoted to other things. It was far from her mind by then. As we close out here weve talked about a few things they did to advance the role of first lady in this country. How should we remember her historically . As the vivacious person she was. Quite a bit ambitious. And i think that her story conveys a possibility for first ladies. Not all of them pursued her path, but she was able to do some things that were significant. What would you say about that question . Whats her legacy . I say the jury is still out. I think one of the great things about this particular series is helping us reevaluate what we mean by the first lady, by the institution of the first lady as a part of the presidency itself. So you can see again the possibilities of a woman in that position, but on the other hand you can also see perhaps some of the limitations as with letitia and a number of the women weve talked about throughout this program and so i think maybe by the end of the series we can get back together again and talk ate well, what have we learned about what is a first lady and therefore see what julia tylers legacy really is. What should we think about john tylers presidency . What was his contribution . Oh, my gosh. You know, i cant change my opinion of him. Hes a person who turned his back on his own party, okay. Thats one thing. He supported a cause that actually was creating serious issues for a whole group of people, a whole race of people. He was more than willing to perpetuate slavery forever if possible and so i cant separate his legacy from that. And next week we will learn about the life of his successor in the white house james k. Polk and we look forward for you being involved with that. Thank you to our two guests on the harrison and tyler presidencies. Anna medford from Howard University and taylor sterner from colonial williamsburg. This is produced with the White House Historical association and we thank them for their help. Thanks for being with us. If you enjoyed watching first ladies, pick up a copy of the book first ladies influence and image featuring profiles of the nations first ladies through interviews with top historians now available in paperback, hard cover or as an ebook. First ladies, influence and image on American History tv. Through interviews with top historians. Tonight we look at sara polk, margaret taylor, abigail fillmore, jane pearce and hair yet lane. Watch first ladies influence and image tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan 3. The Senate Foreign Relation Committee meets today to discuss Coronavirus Response efforts and pandemic preparedness for future outbreaks schedule to start at 9 30 a. M. Eastern. Watch it live on cspan 3, online at cspan. Org or listen life on the free cspan radio app. Each week american arfy tacts takes viewers into archives, museums and Historic Sites around the country. Up next we visit the rise up exhibit at the