Thank you for being with us. This is the future. Dr. Cheney has focused most of her life on teaching children American History. So that the next generation can learn from the past. Before i introduced her we had a surprise guest from wyoming last night. I would like dr. Cheneys husband of 52 years to please stand up. Vice president cheney. [applause] thank you so much for coming. It means a lot to me. Well, i am honored to introduce this morning the distinguished speaker. When i called her last year to invite her she said am i the only speaker who has not won a Pulitzer Prize . I said, yes. But you are the only speaker who is chairman of the National Endowment of the humanities for seven years and you are the only speaker who was second lady of United States of america for eight years. [applause] if you google her you will be blown away by all of her awards and accomplishments. As always i am not going to list all of those. While she was head of neh she published american memory a report that warned about the failures of institutions of learning to track a accurate knowledge of the past for future generations. She said quote the system of education that fails to nurture memories of the past deny students a great deal. One of the most successful theories she founded when she was there was the civil war series by 10 burns. Ken burns. She said some credit for good and some were not. Dr. Cheney has authored 16 books. Her most recent book about James Madison is a masterful insight into one of the physically smallest of the founding fathers, but the one with the most towering intellect. Surgically the one with the most fun wife. I asked her what she liked most about madison and she said he she is fascinated by people who work hard. She compares him to mozart, both were geniuses with their gracious works changed forever how people think. She is currently working on a book about the virginian dynasty, washington, jefferson, madison and munro that will be out in about two years. What fascinates her is the first 36 years of our republic with the exception of four short years of john adams the virginia dynasty was in power. Of the 15 books she has written five of them are history books for children and we have bucked him for all of our grandchildren. I have read them over and over with the grandchildren who love them. I will just mention a few because you may want to purchase them. One of my favorites is a for abigail of course, the one i love the most is when washington crossed the delaware it talks about the general leading his army across the river on christmas night and his surprise attack on the enemy in trenton. It teaches children about courage, heroism, and dedication to your dream. She was also a pathan thrower baton thrower she required hours of practice and she was known as flamboyant as her baton were sometimes set aflame on both ends. In 1954 she was the junior champion in wyoming and in 1956 she won the state senior championship medal. I asked if she would be willing to show us a few of her tricks. She said you could not pay me enough. I have heard she still might do it for a big charity that is willing to give money to the charity. Lynn vincent met Young Dick Cheney high school and the Vice President told me that his other was choosing between two jobs. One in casper, wyoming and one in great falls, montana. He said if we had gone to great falls, i never would have met lynn. She would have met another fellow, fall in love and married him. He would have become the Vice President. That the highte school was most beautiful building in wyoming. The second most beautiful building was the Carnegie Library which opened in 1910. She said by the time i started going there some 40 winters of hot water heating had worked to combine the scent of varnished wood with a slightly acidic odor of aging books. It created a wonderful smell. One that was unique for my experience. In the 1950s it was a haven for kids who love the books. This was a different time back in the 1940s and 1950s. The audience can relate to this. I remember it, kids were free to run around and come and go. Their parents did not know where they were or worry. There was no persuasive pervasive fear of telephones or computers blaring something ugly around the world. There was a feeling of optimism. When i was the regent at mount vernon, i invited dr. Cheney to come as the second lady to talk to 350 students on constitution day. As you know it is a day we celebrate the adoption of the american constitution and her talk captivated the students. She and turn invited the entire board to come to the mansion, as you note that resides on the naval observatory grounds. She deeply appreciated the talk, she gave us a twoour. i said what is something we may not know. Every day i do that daily merriamwebster vocabulary quiz. I did not know they exist great every sense ever since i have done it too. People in their 60s and 70s score higher than people in the 30s. As our second lady of the United States dr. Cheney lived at the highest level of National Life read she remained what she grew up to be in wyoming. A serious, hardworking scholar. Down to earth and great fun, a beautiful and brilliant woman. They say she is the really indispensable cheney. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome dr. Cheney. [applause] show less text lynne you are taller than i am. Thank you for that nice welcome. Let me thank gay for that terrific introduction, i will have to get a printed introduction. For all of the hard work she has done and for her creative thinking for the series of and thankthank you all of you for being here today and for loving the idea of listening to stories about the past. It took me five years to write the book about madison. That has that that is not an excessively long amount of time. When you tell someone who is not a writer of 55 years they are stunned. After being stunned about how long i spent on the book they are stunned that i spent five years on that. I completely love the time i spent working on it. I explained that i like madison. He was not a flamboyant character. He was reserved, he got things done without making a whole lot of fuss. I think that is an achievement to these values. For the ones who are quietly moving ahead and getting things done. He got things done. One of the things you will read often if you read about madison is that he was reserved. He was not a man who pats people on the back. He was so reserved that sometimes he intimidated people on first meeting. There was a young man who described his first meeting with madison this way. The impression made on me was of sternness rather than the mildness and suavity that i later characterized him with. He was resisting james monroe which he encountered him. It is possible that he and monroe are discussing something serious and that accounted for it. It was also possible that madison, reserved is turned look for strangers. Tucker said he never received madison that way again. He was not the only one to note how stern he could be on first meeting. He gave away nothing. It can also be aware that he was very different in public and private. In private he was witty, appreciate jokes that were not fit for the drawing room. Once it is said that his humor led the British Ambassador he was not a tall man. He was five foot six inches, that may have been exaggerated. 54 inches may be closer to the mark. He was a nicelooking gentleman. He had a receding hairline that he may have warned in a stylish way. He comes his hair forward into a point. Is there anybody in this audience who watches blue bloods . I knew i had dick for sure. On that show there is a player named detective danny regan. He is the one who jumps over a car at least once an episode. He is played by donny wh ahlburg. He combs his hair exactly like James Madison. If i ever get the opportunity to do casting for someone writing about the founders i will suggest him. He was not physically impressive and a sixfoot man like Thomas Jefferson or monroe or washington in particular. I am struck time and again when i read about how important his physique was to his accomplishments. When Abigail Adams first met him and john had told her about washington she scolded him, first she said for not preparing her for the phenomena. I thought the one half was not dr. Benjamin rush describes washington this way. There is not a king in europe that would not look like a valet by his side. What madison lacked in stature he more then made up for in brains. His presence as jefferson described it it came out of a habit of self possession. It placed at ready command the rich resources of his luminous and discriminating mind. In my book as she mentioned i call him a genius. This caused some murmur around critics. I am happy to stand my ground on that. Madison not only saw the world that he was born into. He also saw how it could be different. At age 36 he arrived in the Philadelphia Convention later known as the Constitutional Convention full of ideas and intent on creating a nation from the 13 states that had never been seen before. Just four years before they had thrown out the rule of great written and went through a rocking a rocky time with the articles of confederation. This totallyo make new kind of nation. He imagined a vast republic where people were sovereign and their fundamental rights respected as nowhere else on earth. At that time, anyone who was inking about such matters believed that a vast republic was impossible. Where all thelic citizens were homogenous, a little republic might make it. As the 13y as large states was sure to be pulled apart by all the interests and ambition of its any inhabitant. That was the idea. Idea machiavellis montesquieus idea. People believe that for a very long time. Madisons insight was to see that those ideas were crucial for a republics survival. Clashing viewpoints would keep any one viewpoint, even that of a majority, from becoming tyrannical. Stunning to read about someone who changed the way furtherhink and to read about how important his insight was, how transformative it was. Brought theuse it idea of a republic down to earth. Ofdid not require a citizen selfeffacing angels. It would not be a place where anyone had to stifle their ideas and aspirations. Ordinary people could live there and pursue their dreams. Because of madison the republic was no longer a distant idea but something in which people around the world could inspire. Bringing the idea of the extended republic to bear at the time with a great nation was created was his first act. By no means was that his last. He more than anybody else was responsible for the United States of america as we know it today. His time of great achievement came up after years of deep focus and concentration and a nearly obsessive effort to describe these lives as genius. Let me just give a few examples of how hard he worked in the runup to the convention in philadelphia and the convention itself. First of all knowing it was coming up he began a intense study of laws and constitution. He had been interested in the idea since his 20s, with the book that jefferson prepared. He began this intense study and a relative that was the same with him. Virginia is just one big cousin mary cousinry. He stepped back from this constant socializing and started working very hard. A relative who came to see him wrote in his diary that he came and eatate sparingly and would work until dinner. While everybody was riding horses, he was in his room working. Now he knew that washingtons presence at the convention could make all of the difference. Washington was so admired and so loved by the American People at this time that if he were there the convention would have a greater chance of success than if he was not. He wrote letter after letter to the general to attend. He also traveled through a snowstorm to the Confederation Congress in new york to ensure that the Congress People were on board. While he was twisting arms there in his own subtle way he spent hours in a boarding house setting issues that were bound to come up. He was working very hard. He also left philadelphia early, he was the first outofstate delegates agreed that means he could read the other delicates meet the other delicates as they arrive. In altogether they produced the virginia plan. As you all know that set the agenda for the Constitutional Convention area. During the convention he was one delegate who spoke most often. He may crucial interventions when the convention was about to enter into the constitution. Congress had the power to make war, madison stood up and successfully changed it to declare war. Thus making the president commander in chief. If you think about it we would not ever have done so well, i am sorry to mention it, if the congressman were in charge of war it would not have been successful. This was a very important intervention. While he is speaking and understanding how important it is to get the words just right he was also taking notes read he sat up at the front of the room and wrote out who said what and then back to his room at night and would transcribe them. I could go on and i can talk about this central role in getting the constitution ratified, he is working at break neck speed with hamilton to put out the federalist. Madison describes his effort as having to get the paper while the printer is still working on the last one. I think he wrote 40 essays in 23 days read i may have those numbers wrong. It was a amazing accomplishment. I can also cite his work as a leader who had the bill of rights added to the constitution. I have made the point that his genius like many genius was the product of hard work. 10 inspiration and 90 perspiration to quote thomas edison. Like mozart, newton and edison, James Madison changed the world. His hard work makes another point as well. He was often ill, many historians have called him sickly. He was even a hypochondriac. When he was well he was very well. Traveling 1000 miles through new york, traveling through that blizzard, indeed in the beginning traveling from my failure to philadelphia was quite a challenge. He often traveled in the rain, i am struck by how often it was on the roads. Ddy he was forced to dismantle his carriage, taken apart and make three trips with it which involved Something Like a poet over a pond. Then he had to get his horses across. This is an extraordinary amount of energy to expand if he is sickly. It is true that he had gastrointestinal problems that plagued everyone in the 18th century. Many people believe illness was caused by bad air and doctors did not wash their hands. He also suffered from what he called sudden attacks which he describes as somewhat resembling epilepsy and suspending the intellectual function. His most influential biographer describe these attacks as epileptic hysteria. He was writing in a time when Sigmund Freud was very influential. Madisons description fits todays understanding of epilepsy. His attacks may well have been complex partial seizures which leave the affected person conscious but without comprehension and ability to communicate. Such attacks passed in minutes and may leave the person tired and confused for a short time after. They are not necessarily disabling nor do the prevent exertion. He was lucky enough when terrible things were described prescribed that he was lucky enough to encounter doctors who did not put him on those. It is often recommended today, he wrote and walked over the hills of the virginia piedmont, he became bitter. Ready to hold high office. I find Research Like this fascinating. I could happily spend days reading 18thcentury medical annuals. They may be lucky that we are not describing those same remedies today. When you are writing a book you have to ask yourself is what you are doing important. Does it offer insights into the person you are writing about. I think in his case it does. A hypochondriac or someone who given to hysterical episodes is quite different than someone who has a identifiable understanding the ailment also explains certain things he did and did not do. He want to be a soldier as the revolution was coming on. He wanted to be a rifleman and he was a good shot. He told a friend that he could hit a eight inch target at the length of a football field. That was with the 18thcentury weapon. His military career came to a sudden and when during training he suffered one of his attacks. Madison had several chances to go to europe and always turned them down. Ive realized a day or two ago that of the first five president s he was the only one who never set foot outside of the United States. Medical manuals today recommending people with epilepsy avoid water. Presumably because a seizure could cause you to fall overboard and drowned. That is when jefferson invited him to france. He declined and said he had some reason to suspect that crossing the sea would be on friendly to my constitution. Madison was a lifelong defender of religious freedom and when we try to answer the question of this lecture series to propose how has the past influenced the present rate it is his addled for religious freedom that i always think of. It is absolutely essential, that is kind of the ground for. It was a part of his treatment of the baptists as he was young. He was charged with preaching without a license and thrown in jail for people subscribing to what he describes as that diabolical hell conceived principal of the first amendment. At age 22 in a note as angry as anything he had ever wrote he declared that religious bondage, and unfit sit for every enterprise. He spoke with the authority of the men who knew the misery of being bound to a received viewpoint. Probably because he had experienced it firsthand. The standard religious view of the time was that people with epilepsy were lunatics. They were unclean, sinful, being possessed by the devil. Its easy to understand medicine being indignant about such notion. He determined to free people from having to he worked with his longtime friend, lifelong friend, Thomas Jefferson. They worked together in this cause. One of their proudest achievements is the virginia statute for religious freedom. If you then to monticello, you know it is one of the three accomplishments that jefferson put on the chap over his grave. Jefferson was the author of the statute. He declared that either neither religious nor political leaders had any dominion over the faith of others. Punishing people for their religious beliefs or declaring them unworthy of Public Office was depriving them of advantages to which they had a natural right. Our civil rights, jefferson wrote, have no dutch attendant on our religious opinions, anymore than our opinions in physics or geometry. Again, madison and jefferson were on the front tier of thought here. It has long been believed that there should be an established church. In the case of virginia and religious conformity had to be imposed. But madison and jefferson saw it differently. The statute failed to pass when they first tried to get it through the virginia assembly. Then jefferson went off to paris for five years. Well he was gone, madison, who was the sharpest politician among the founders, saw an opportunity and got it passed. He wrote a letter to jefferson in which he declared, the statute had extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws of for the human mind. Madisons high regard for this statute has been shared by generations. Martin marty, a legend called the statute, i quote, and ethical shift in the western world approach approach to relations between the civil and religious fears. By dividing them with the state on one hand and the church on the other, the virginia statute is in his words, a hinge between the ages. I think sometimes when we are on this side of the change of the founders accomplished, it is hard to realize because they have become so much part of our lives. Well, madison made many decisions, but perhaps the wisest was too married dolley payne todd. He was out walking on a spring day in 1794 when he caught sight of her and was instantly smitten. This happened regular two men who saw her. She was nearly 58, a shapely figure, with black hair and otherwise blue eyes. A quaker family which had not for her been a good fit. The deitiesined for of the world one quaker woman wrote, and a quaker matron recalled that during an effort to convince sally of the seriousness of life, the young girl smiled, then afterwards, fell fast asleep. The 26yearold was recently widowed. Her husband john had died in a yellow fever epidemic the year before madison saw her. So had her threemonthold baby. This is leaving her with a son who was two years old. Madison, 43, dolly 26 turn to aaron burr. Thing even customary when youre not it related in the 18thcentury everyone knew everybody. He turned to aaron burr because they had gone to princeton together. He arranged an introduction. Dolly was thrilled at the prospects. She wrote to a friend, thou must come to see me. Aaron burr is bringing the great little madison. She wore mulberry satin and yellow glass beads to greet james in her parlor, and four months later, they were married. Now i am of the conviction that political spouses cant really do much to help their husbands or wives careers. Its a good thing as a political spouse behaves herself or himself and stays out of trouble. Himself and stays out of trouble. But as a general rule, unless they are rich, political spouses do not do much to forward their spouses ambitions. Now of course, for every rule there is an exception. In this case, it was dolly. She had an artless way of entertaining. James was chatting genially with one or two guests, she was talking to everyone. She was asked she was exceedingly pleasant and sheible in conversation particularly liked to serve ham surrounded by cabbage. Now she could entertain this way today, or some spouses is the be glad to tell you come ive not mastered the art of cooking. He likes to say that during the first couple years of our marriage, i pretended as though i knew how to cook. And he pretended as though he liked it. But entertaining fellow officeholders, which is basically what dolly was doing is not an effective thing to do today. Its not important in the way it used to be. In madisons day, republican officeholders decided through who the republican nominee for president would need. Generally speaking the life of a congressman in the 18th century in washington was miserable. There was nothing to do besides go to your boarding house for the other congressmen lived. While there were a few things. There was one place i puzzled over this for a long time, where you could go and watch rope dancers. Now i wondered what that could be. I think i have concluded it was people on a tightrope. Thats my best thought. But the congressman as i say eight and slept in boarding houses on capitol hill. One member described it as living like bears. Brutalized and stupefied from hearing nothing but politics morning test night to all of this made an evening at the Madison House particularly welcome. It shined a light on madison warm and personable side. He became the nominee for president in 1808, was sworn into office in 1809, and moved into the white house with the remarkable dolly. She had open house every wednesday. Anybody could come. She seemed to understand that she was part of the entertainment. Her choice of dramatic clothes never failed to impress. One outfit time particularly struck by was a robe of pink satin trimmed with herman ermine, a white and velvet satin turban with ostrich and a crescent in front, gold chains around the waist and wrist. She was probably maybe three inches taller than james without a turban, but this outfit probably made her foot taller. She didnt seem to mind, neither did he. But the idyllic time did not last. The british were at war with france. They decided it would help them if they shut down u. S. Trade with france. They needed more sailors. So they started stopping american ships and taking off board, putting into their navy, anybody they suspected of not being an american. Now because many people in the United States had come from england, there were often taking american citizen. I heard i read someplace that one of the devices for deciding whether you are an american or not was to ask you to say the word peas. If they pronounce it differently they took them. The idea of our citizens being seized was of course and very objectionable very objectionable. In june of 1812, Congress Declared war. Madison became the first president to carry the nation into war under the constitution. Now we often hear about the glorious victories at sea in that war such as the victory of the uss constitution. The 18 pound ball that the british ship fired at the constitution seemed to bounce off the sides, which would lead to the ship being called old ironsides. Within 30 minutes of trying to take down the constitution, the british surrendered. But there were humiliating losses on land. Then the biggest humiliation of all the british marched on , washington and burned it. You can still see the burn marks in the capital of the United States as well as in the white house. I happen to be in the capital with Queen Elizabeth come when she was visiting the United States. And we were being toured around by excellent guides. This guide pointed out, right here you can see the evidence of the british having burned the white house. There was some big pieces of wood. Queen elizabeth said you did the same thing to york. York is toronto today. Set some fires in york so the british have not quite gotten over it. Is john here . [laughter] so there were these humiliating losses on land. But thats not where the war ended. Madison sent a Peace Mission and it succeeded in bringing the war to a close. Then Andrew Jackson one a great victory over the british at the battle of new orleans. It is sometimes been said that jacksons victory didnt mean anything since the treaty had already been signed. But to the contrary, it shows that the United States could be as powerful on land as well as at sea. The war also showed that free speech could survive in wartime. Despite being tried by americans who condemned the war and even talked of secession, madison never wavered in his commitment to free speech. He proved that a republic could extend itself and remain a republican still. Perhaps the highest praise madison received came from someone who had not always admired virginia. Madisons administration had acquired more glory and established more union than all three of his predecessors. Washington, adams, and jefferson put together. What a wonderful compliment. I was thinking, you might like to know a little bit about some of the people that i felt obliged to leave out of this speech, since it would have gone on forever. One of the people these are women for the most part who tend to get pushed aside in the history of the early republic. One of the women was madisons grandmother named francis madison. I first became interested in her because of the note she wrote when madison was a child and they were all living together. Her note looked like a shopping list. At the top of that it said for an epilepsy. The 18thcentury medical books that i so much enjoy taught me that some of the items on her list were thought to be good for breaking a favor, which suggests that madison may have had fever related seizures as a child. They are not regarded as epilepsy today, but can be part of the syndrome. Seizures as a child epileptic seizures as an adult. The more i learned about her, the more interesting i found her. She and her husband were the first to move the first of their family to move to virginia piedmont area not long after, it was the frontier. He died, poisoned by a slave, the records say. Running the plantation filled fell to her. She had to learn the details of growing tobacco, when to plant the seeds, when to move the plants, when to top them, cut the leaves, how long to cure them. And when the time came to pass that pack the tobacco, or transport to markets, francis carved her name on each one of the barrels. Notice this remarkable instance of a woman forwarding yourself. She made the tobacco in those barrels. Her orders from london merchant were what might be expected from a tobacco grower. She ordered axes, a hydrometer, a pair of boots. Well she did the work of a man on the virginia frontier, she also upheld her eras standards of womanhood. Fabric for dresses was on her order as were two good corsets. I may be more interested in grandmothers that i should be, but francis is quite a woman. Another woman not quite a woman but she was important to history, her name is kitty floyd. Kitty was 15 years old. A round faced young woman who lived with her family and the same boarding house that madison and jefferson did. Madison, 31 years old fell in , love. I shouldnt make too much of the age difference because in the 18th century, 15 or 16 as kitty was about to become a was considered a perfect age to marry. Madison, 31, fell in love with her. This was 1783 when 15 was considered a marriageable age. Madison wanted to marry her. Jefferson took up his cause i love the idea of these two friends interacting this way. He went to talk to kitty. To play up madisons case. He wrote to madison and said, i think ive got it fixed. It turned out not. Jefferson was always the optimist. Kitty had seemed amenable, then she and her family traveled to new jersey and madison waited to hear from her about the upcoming wedding. He didnt hear and didnt hear. Finally he got a dear john letter. He poured his hurt and heart out to jefferson, who gave him great advice. He told him, the world will present many other resources of happiness. You possess many within yourself. This is my favorite. Firmness of mind and an unintimidating occupation will not long leave you in pain. In other words, throw yourself into her work. Thats exactly what madison did. Kitty went on to marry a medical student named William Clark he later became a clergyman. She was a spendthrift. In a will, her father wrote that he had given kitty and husband considerable sums of money and a tract of land. Father complained, all is gone he ordered his son nicholas , having cut her out of his will, to give her 70 a month. Its quite possible that disappointed is madison was, how sturdy was better for the posterity was better for the breakup. He was about to enter the most consequential years of his life, lonelier without kitty. They were probably more productive. If you will pardon me i would also like to observe that had madison married kitty floyd, there wouldve been no dolly madison. So i have done my best to get the women into the story. They have fascinating stories as well. I just want to thank all of you for being here today. The president of montpelier is here with us today. I really appreciate all of the great things that have been done to montpelier. I would recommend that you visit it and see the evolution of marion scott duponts maybe its Marion Dupont scott and anyways, a wealthy woman married to Randolph Scott for a while. She bought montpelier and enlarged it and covered it with pink stucco. So the challenge of montpelier has been to get it back to what it might have looked like when the madisons were here. The effort has been remarkable. So thank you montpelier and thank you for being here. [applause] you are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan three. To join the conversation, like us on facebook at cspan history. Week, American History visitserican artifacts museums, archives and historical places. The National Museum of American History
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