Counterpart. Polk besides he has to accept the treaty because there is no longer congressional support. He writes in his diary about it saying the probability that congress would not grant man or money to prosecute the war and i might lose new mexico and california. To conclude here, did the Antiwar Movement achieve its goals . Certainly not. Henry clay wanted the United States out of mexico without taking territory. I do not know if it was an extremely realistic position but it was clays session. Did the antiway position. Did the Antiwar Movement and the war . I think it forced him so i think you can say it ended the war. It did limit the territorial acquisition. Had polk been allowed to continue fighting mexico would have been forced to give up more land will stop mobilized to the public land. It mobilized to the public in support of bringing a war to the close for the first time. It is important to recognize that Antiwar Movements existed in the past, they can work, and limit the loss of life. The Antiwar Movement did all of these things. Thank you very much. [applause] you are watching American History tv, all weekend every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook at cspanhistory. Recently, American History tv was that the organization of American History in st. Louis, missouri. We spoke with students about research. This interview is about 15 minutes. You are a lecturer in history in american studies at the university of tennessee in knoxville. Your panel at the organization of american historians meeting was on Capital Punishment in the 19th century south. How common were executions . Bob hutton executions nationwide were common. In certain rural areas, they were relatively seldom because people did not like to convict their friends and neighbors. Juries were often afraid to convict someone who had been convicted of a violent crime. Also, even after people were convicted, if they were sentenced to the Death Penalty it would not always be carried out. They could get clemency. So the particular execution i covered in my paper was such a rare event that 5000 people gathered to see this man hanged in 1895. It was a familiar occurrence in the 19th century, but perhaps not a common one. What was the cultural thinking at the time about executions . Were they considered a moral type of punishment . Bob hutton in the 1890s, the Death Penalty had been around for a long time in human history. Of course. It is right around that more and more americans are starting to wonder if this is how justice should be carried out. For killers, rapists, what have you. As early as the 1700s, you do see people in europe and the United States begin to question whether or not the Death Penalty is truly moral or just. Nevertheless, it remains very popular in the United States up until the present. As early as the 1880s, many european countries, countries as traditional and conservative as portugal, are doing away with the Death Penalty around 1900. It is one of the biggest controversies in the western world as to whether or not this is a viable form of justice. I think the 1890s, the end of the 19th century, americans found themselves sort of right in the middle of that question. Is that the period your Research Deals with, the late 19th century . Bob hutton it sure is. The civil wars in the 50 years that follow and the 50 follow is a particularly violent time in American History. Why did you choose that . Bob hutton because of the disorder. The civil war remains a popular subject for historians and the public. I have tried to get people thinking about what happens after the civil war. As the sesquicentennial continues, i would like to help start publicizing what goes on immediately after the war is over, after reconstruction is over, and how long it takes for Many Americans to find themselves back in conditions where they can forget the war. I suggest it takes more than a generation. What kind of disorder are you talking about . How did that relate to executions . Bob hutton the book i published in 2013 deals with a variety of different sorts of violence. Most of them extralegal. Carried out by vigilantes, by criminals, by crooked politicians, or by militia members. The Death Penalty happened to be one i included ordained by the states and mandated by legal authorities. But my question is, isnt it also a form of violence . And if i am looking at this one violent space of america, why shouldnt also be included . Did religion play a role . Bob hutton the United States was a very religious country. But i was somewhat struck by how little the subject of religion comes up in most of the discourse on violence in appalachia. There was a certain amount of religious homogeneity. Most people went to very similar churches. Protestant, white, anglosaxon americans are most of who is involved here. And although you can see religion based on religious persecution in the 19th century, it was mostly in the cities. What forms of execution were practiced . Bob hutton almost exclusively hanging in the 19th century. American states dont start to diversify technologically until the 20th century. Very soon after 1900, of course, you have the use of the electric chair. Later on in the 20th century states like udall like utah would start to use firing squads. More recently, lethal injection has become the standard. Was there any particular reason hanging was popular at the time you are studying . Bob hutton for my purposes, it was popular because it could be used as a public pageant. And it became a sort of ritual. That lots of people could take part in, at least as bystanders, and see for themselves this person meet their maker or perhaps think for themselves witnessing it whether or not this was a just form of punishment. It was considered almost like a Community Activity . Bob hutton absolutely. What roles did members of the Community Play in the pageantry . Bob hutton in the hanging i of bad tom smith, which i wrote about, they are participants in his personal performance of asking for forgiveness on the gallows. At one point, he asks the boys and girls in the audience he actually uses the phrase boys and girls he says please promise me you will obey your mothers. He said all of the men in the audience, please promise you will refrain from whiskey and not do like i did. Supposedly all the men raised their hands. So it was a ritual that did have a certain religious element to it, but it was not technically speaking carried out for religious reasons. But it gave him an opportunity to express himself in terms of his beliefs about the afterlife. And it gave the rest of the audience an opportunity to take part in it as well. So it was a form of penance for him perhaps . Bob hutton it absolutely was. Which is why so many reporters reported on this because his performance lasted longer than most condemned peoples did supposedly. And he was given a chance to sing to the audience. Hymns. He was given the chance to be baptized in front of everybody. He tried to put off the execution as much as possible by continuing to exhort them and pacing around. Apparently in many cases becoming hysterical for understandable reasons. How did you find his story . Bob hutton my research used a case study in kentucky. And even though tom smith was not a native of that particular county, he was from eastern kentucky. It just happened to be that place where he was convicted and sentenced. More importantly though, the county itself had a general civic reputation for violence leading back to just after the civil war. And even though he was not a native of the county, his execution was looked at as a sort of some sources think of it as if it was a sort of blood sacrifice for the good, the morality, of the community that was killing him. So i found it somewhat accidentally. How did you go about your research . What kinds of documents did you find, where did you find them . Bob hutton well, i found his records, in criminal court records. Perhaps like two dozen newspapers, mostly in kentucky but as far away as missouri that reported on his death. Were these newspapers on microfiche . What state were they in . Bob hutton somewhere. Most were but some have been put in digital form, which is very handy. Have these resources been used by other historians . Were there new discoveries you made along the way . Bob hutton i dont believe any other historians, at least not within the academy has written about this particular man. He has been the subject of pop culture. There is a microbrewery in Cincinnati Ohio named after bad tom smith today. Tell us a little bit more about the book you wrote. What was the idea behind it and what kinds of questions did your research raise . Bob hutton wow well, there were a lot of questions to be included. For instance, when you say a place is violent, we often discuss places being violent. For instance, ferguson, missouri, just north of here, is talked about as a violent place. What does that mean . It happens to contain violent actions. The county in kentucky was called violent, but it contained a series of violent actions over the course of the 1860s through the 19teens that were very much analogous to things happening elsewhere in the country. When there was guerrilla warfare there, there was guerrilla warfare elsewhere. When there was lynching there, after reconstruction, there was lynching elsewhere. When there was assassination at the turnofthecentury, that was going on globally as well. Im trying to ask the question is it fair to say a place is violent . And how does that sort of disguise the actual human events as opposed to the geographical ones . How is it you became interested in this topic in the first place . Bob hutton oh man, it has been so many years it is hard to remember. I am an historian of appalachia and was interested in some of these questions of white male violence that have been stirred up by things like the miniseries on the hatfields and mccoys in the way americans decide to take certain forms of violence seriously while thinking that others are basically a matter of humor. And i was curious as to why things that happened in a county in kentucky are not taken seriously by americans or the historical record. Can you give us examples . Bob hutton we could use the entire pop culture industry surrounding the socalled mountain feudists and all the images that conjures. That would be the hatfields and mccoys . Bob hutton that, yes, and also it has been referenced in everything from sitcoms to bugs bunny cartoons as well. Most of the violence in the 1880s in america would not have been material for a bugs bunny cartoon. However, this becomes that. And my question is, how do we look at this differently . What kind of violence are you talking about . Bob hutton typically, deadly violence between males, mostly white although not exclusively. This particular part of the country was overwhelmingly caucasian. A variety. What would be the instigators of violence . Both Hutton Carlin Bob hutton pardon . What would be the instigators of violence . Bob hutton very often political elites who would be able to take certain people under their thumb based on pay or reputation and find out their own private wars. Bad tom smith was a hired mercenary for a wealthy man and possibly killed up to half a dozen people under his direction. It just happened that the person he was sentenced for killing was a very personal matter and that he had no protection from his boss. Can you tell us about the particular details of that murder. Bob hutton bad tom smith, in the media, he is referred to as a feudist. But one could also say he was a guy who was down on his luck, very little education, very few prospects, probably illiterate who found himself in a love triangle with a physician named dr. John rader. The two of them are fighting over a woman who had supposedly colluded with smith to steal from rader and later kill him. And she was eventually given clemency, even though she was implicated in the same crime. But this seemed to be more or less a crime of passion. But if you asked tom smith, he would say it was a crime based on his own falling as a sinner. And he especially blamed it on as he put it whiskey and bad women. The term feudist is interesting. Was that the term that was used at the time . Bob hutton it was. Tom smith was commonly called a feudist because in the 1890s, the idea that reciprocal white on white blood feuds were common in appalachia, that was a popular idea. In fact, there was plenty of violence but very little could be construed as the montagues and capulets back and forth style blood feud. How do you see your research illuminating the larger history of Capital Punishment and the discussion today over Capital Punishment . Bob hutton i find a certain voices 10 years after smith was killed, they were questioning whether Capital Punishment was a viable form of punishment. And, for instance, there is a newspaper editor who asks, what about all the women who were pregnant in the audience and witnessing this . Has this caused the violence in the early 20th century . And of course that is the same question we see today. Many people who advocate for the Death Penalty say it is a deterrent to crime. Other people say well, it is violence trying to answer violence and creating a constant reciprocity between nonstate and statemandated violence. There are a lot of similar debates. Very recently, states have attempted to make and keep secret what sort of drugs are used in lethal injection. That mirrors the decision a lot of states were making during the progressive era to put the Death Penalty behind closed doors. How does the history of executions in the south in the period you are studying differ or like that in the north at the same time . Bob hutton a lot of states retained the Death Penalty up until the present. A lot of states that decide to do away with execution circa 1900 are mostly states in the northern great plains and new england. Vermont and south dakota come to mind. Most of the former confederacy keeps the Death Penalty up until the present. There are a few exceptions. Are you continuing to research this topic now . Bob hutton i am beginning to move on to other things. What are you working on now . Bob hutton right now im looking at the usage of private detectives during the gilded age and progressive era and how that related to both labor issues as well as jim crow. What led you to this topic . Bob hutton sheer happenstance. Could you tell us about it . Bob hutton frankly, it is something that has been percolating for more than 10 years. I could not tell you precisely the moment i became interested in the history of American Private detectives, except to say it is not something that has been written about much in the context of the gilded age. Although that was sort of a golden era for that particular profession. Why was that . Bob hutton because there were a lot of wealthy men who needed surveillance or enforcement in their workplace or their household or what have you. There was a lot of cheap labor available for people willing to carry a gun and tin badge for a paycheck. Bob hutton, thank you very much. Problem thank you. All weekend, American History tv is featuring the city of lincoln, nebraska. The city of lincoln is named after the president and became the state capital in 1867. The staff recently visited many sites showcasing city history. Learn more about lincoln all weekend. Before lincoln became the capital of the state of nebraska in 1867 it was a village if you can even call it a village of lancaster. About the time of statehood the population would have been somewhere between 13 30. Very, very small. There were no businesses to speak of, the houses were crude, so when it was built, nothing to attract the capital. The capital came here was for an entirely Different Reasons there was no water navigable water, no trees, no minerals with the exception of salt. They thought the salt flats, which were to the north west of lincoln, would make a good industry which would support the capital. But the primary interest was not moving it to lancaster, the primary interest was to move it out of omaha. For several reasons, the people in bellevue and other cities in missouri were unhappy that they had not gotten the capital. When territory hood began. One of the other features they were looking for was someplace closer to the center population. The Capital Commission, the requirements for the Capital Commission were drawn by Thomas Perkins kinard, the first secretary of state of the state of nebraska. He drew it so that he was on the Capital Commission along with the first governor of nebraska david butler and the first auditor, john gillespie. They made up the official Capital Commission. And they are the ones that made the decision to move in here. The legislature had stipulated that they wanted to move the capital if they would move it, once and for all, roughly as far west as anybody lived or would live in nebraska. Spanish and french mapmakers and historians and travelers and explorers going through earlier had designated the better part of the northwest portion of nebraska as the Great American desert. And one of them had written that west of this line, current lancaster county, west of this line no man will ever live and nothing will ever grow. That was the Great American desert. So legislature reasoned that if they moved the capital up to the edge of that line, even know it would be in the southeast corner of the state of nebraska, Southeast Quadrant of the state of nebraska, it would put the capital close to the center population. Thomas perkins kennard, came up with the government that came with the republicans. Nebraska became a state. He was interested in getting the capital out of omaha. In many stores, he is considered the father of lincoln. Because not only did he vote with the Capital Commission to move it to lincoln but he was instrumental in bringing about the original city of lincoln. Well, of course, the three members were making a statement, because they had to rationalize their moving the capital of nebraska from omaha, a city of several thousand, to a village of 1330. One thing they did to show their confidence in what obviously was a harebrained scheme was they agreed to go against the legislature in buying lots in lincoln and building houses of substance so they could show their confidence in the scheme. This house we are standing in, would roughly fit the term italianate. It has interesting architectural features. The door and windowsills were made of an experimental stone. They were afraid it was not going to work. Being experimental in nature. So they capped them with metal. Today a house that does not contain this would be an exception because it is known now as concrete block. We have some features that are experimental. Folks will now see the house the same as it was in the exterior by mr. Kennard. The furniture, lighting, with the exception of a picture and a boot jack, were not the possessions of mr. Kennards. They are over the period. Of the period. We have the parlor, dining room, kitchen, and office on the first floor, there was a wing which extended to the south which was a kitchen wing. That has been torn off and at some point the consideration is we might put it back, because we know exactly where it sat. It is a simple floor plan. We realize that lincoln is very young. 1867, the state is very young. If you do not have a feedback a few things that are original, you have nothing to say this was here to start with. From the point of view of children who find it hard to conceive anything older than say maybe 1900 or 1950, to have a few things left, something to learn from. And the house certainly is that. Throughout the weekend, American History tv is featuring lincoln, nebraska. The staff recently traveled to learn about the rich history. Learn more about lincoln cspan history tour